I'm starting the second chapter of my novel and i need help describing the city. It takes place after a massive fight in which this city high in the mountains is burned beyond recognition The chapter starts with a character waking up in the ashes and its snowing. The snow is mixing in with the ash and making it quite beautiful. My problem is that I don't have any Descriptions for the town itself. I am good on the nature aspect of it Just not the city. I was wondering if you guys could help?
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it seems like you're asking for specific words and phrases. It's typically not a good practice to ask the community for things like that. A- you need to be able to write well on your own, and B- anything that we would write wouldn't fit in with the flow of what your wrote around it. I advise you to read either an online or old-school (physical) dictionary and make notes of any words that sound like the mood you want to set and have appropriate definitions. Also, for inspiration, you could listen to ambient music online for free. Most importantly, just write something down. You can completely remove it or revise it at will. The great thing about a rough draft is that no one's there to judge you while you write it.
A) I am not asking for Specific phrases.I am asking for general help from people who have written about things like this. Its not my forte but I need it to fit an intricate part of my story into place. B) I do listen to music but not ambient. I prefer Classical like Vitamin String Quartet, Beethoven, Scott D. Davis and such. I dislike most other genres like Rap Hip hop and other nonsense like that.
Why not research ruins and abandoned cities? Even modern day ghost towns could provide a lot of inspiration. Google is your friend. I'm sure there's tons of photos out there that could help you get a handle on how to describe it.
I've only done one story and some chapter for fanfics; I've never wrote a ruined city (though I've though about ruined temples of original ideas I have), but I'll try and help. With what you wrote, about how the character wakes up in this ruin city, the first thing that comes to mind is describe the sky (is he/she looking at the sky?), how the snow is falling down and landing on them. Then have them sit up and describe what's in front of them - you could use words like blacked, carcol, level and corpses, romble. Or you could describe the place as if the narrator (you or even the reader) were walking through the destroyed town and then your character waking up. I think what would be most helpful is to look at some games/movies images (or images in general) after an apocolipse or a horrible fire has happened and think how you would describe the scene. You could even look at ruined cities for inspiration on how to describe you town.
Perhaps the "best" example of a city completely ruined by war is Warsaw in 1944. Google some images and search for eyewitness accounts, it may inspire you.
Pompei is famous a derelict city covered with frozen ash. It is eery because it is frozen in time a real time capsule still very visible today.
what would be 'quite beautiful' about snow mixing with ash? ... and if it's a city, wouldn't the buildings be made of stone and/or concrete and steel?... so how could it be 'burned beyond recognition'?... even the fire-bomb devastated cities in germany remained somewhat recognizable, since all of the buildings were not completely flattened or 'vaporized' as were hiroshima and nagasaki... ...so, you must start with what your 'city' looked like before the fires... then decide what would burn and what wouldn't... and go from there, with your description of the aftermath...
