RH6: Forest vocabulary

We are going to bring the forest to life for our readers. What matters, in descriptive writing, is capturing the details and sensations of being in a place.  Presenting your reader with sights, sounds, smells and feelings that they have felt themselves so they can place themselves in the situation you are describing.

What we do not want to do is TELL the reader how they are feeling, instead GIVE THEM CLUES and make them interpret them, themselves!

For example:

You are in a dark, dank forest with huge, mossy trees. It is raining hard and only the fact that you are hidden amongst the trees is stopping you getting soaked.  (It’s not bad but you don’t feel as if you are there!

Instead, try:

As your eyes begin to adjust to the gloom, you begin to pick out some of the sounds and smells around you.  The deep, occasional creak of think, heavy branches.  The quick, sharp rattle of twigs clattering lazily together and the soft, rising & falling rustle of a million leaves in the trees above you.  The earth smells rich and mossy in contrast to the fresh scent of pine in the air.  You turn up your lincoln green collar and duck further back into the hollow in which you are hidden just in time to avoid the pitter-patter of raindrops falling all around you.    (These are all smells and sounds your reader will have experienced before so they will easily be able to picture the scene)

Your challenge:

Go and visit a wooded area.  You are soaking up the sounds and smells around you.  What can you hear, see and feel?  You could take photos and write notes around them.  You could record video or record your ideas on book creator.  What can you compare the sounds to? Get your family to join in, the more ideas, the better.  Do adults have clever vocabulary you can learn?  Do they know little sayings that help paint a picture?  What we want is for you to have a rich selection of vocabulary and ideas from which you can select from in your writing task tomorrow.

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