3.VIVID DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE
Picture This Post Review Writers’ Guidelines
More than any other quality, your Picture This Post story “works” when it gives the reader an electrifying mental picture of the work that you’re reviewing.
DO — make the reader feel like they are in the room with you, experiencing what you are experiencing.
DO — identify specific moments that you think are key to conveying the work’s unique qualities, and describe them in detail.
DON’T — include unnecessary details and descriptions. Every sentence you write and detail you include should be in service of your chosen frame. As you draft your review you might come up with sentences that are beautifully written — poetic, even — but if they don’t serve to convey your larger point, leave them out. Your review should be vivid and detail-rich, but the focus should remain on the work and on your framing of it — not the writing itself.
TIPS:
- “Try writing in first person plural—WE.” – Amy Munice, Editor in Chief
- “Readers are drawn to a review by its image, and to keep them your words should create a movie in their minds. Readers should be more conscious of what you’re saying/describing than the fact that they are reading.” — Jamal Goodwin Jr., Writer
- "The words are the picture…[the reader sees] it without needing to actually see it." – Alicia Kobasic, Writer and Assistant Editor for Album Reviews
- “In some ways, you’re like a fly on the wall, passively observing a scene and then trying to relay what you’ve observed to your reader. You want to do justice to a work by describing it in the most accurate and vivid way possible, without inserting your own analysis or opinion. However, the descriptions you offer and how you frame them should ultimately serve as evidence and support for why you’ve made your particular recommendation when you finally deliver it in the matchmaking paragraph.” — Lily LeaVesseur, Writer
