As above. It's important in the scene that the door does open, but all I can think of is stuff that makes my eyes roll out of my head. You know what I mean: "The door to the library swung/fell open...", etc. It's not exactly groundbreaking stuff, I admit. It's also not the worst out there, either, but the thing is that I've read this kind of sentence so many times that my eyes just skip over it if I come across it. I'm just trying to find if there's a new way of doing such things. Has anyone found an example by an author where they've used a more interesting, NOT mind-numbingly boring way of describing such mundane things (even like 'she boiled the kettle', she closed the door', etc.)? I've been trying to find examples in the books I've got, but they all seem to do it the same way. Perhaps the mundanity of it IS the right choice to make, after all, but I'd love a second or third opinion from you guys!
What's wrong with just saying the door opened? It's not a spectacular event that demands creative description.
New here, so take it with a grain of salt. I'd say the act of opening or closing a door is fairly mundane and just describing it (the sound, vibrations, etc.) should be enough IF it is just part of natural action. But, if opening it immediately (or even early in the ensuing scene) reveals something shocking or leads to something significant, perhaps describing it metaphorically to fit the scene MAY be something to consider.
Unless it's opening to another dimension or revealing a shadowy maniac or a long lost love I wouldn't put too much oomph into it. Some sentences are meant to be bricks and mortar.
Thanks everyone! Yeah, I think you might be right - sometimes it is better to just keep it simple, after all. If I'm still not happy with it, I can maybe mark it in red and come back to it. Thanks again!
Yep, this goes back to the conversation we had a while ago about Hemingway and his (apparent) disdain for fancy ways of describing things (though he was guilty of that sin himself in some early works). We sort of landed on the idea that, if it's important enough, go all out (within limits) otherwise just write it. No guarantees, but I'll see if I can dig it up.
Haven't found it yet, but here are 2 threads that came up in the search exploring very similar ideas: Smoothest Flow Possible How do I make my writing less wordy? Bingo! Here's the one I was thinking of: What are some examples of the "simple but vivid" description that Chekhov talks about below?
To use an example from that last thread (my 1st post on it): "The wind blew." Personally that feels really flat and lifeless to me. I prefer something like "The wind swept across the field of head-high grass, stirring it gently." But it all depends on why your door opens, and what it means, especially to the POV character (the one the story is being told through). What kind of mood are they in? What does the opening of the door mean to them in this moment? Are they expecting a jealous boyfriend to step in with a butcher knife? Or maybe Ed McMahon with a giant check? Or maybe he thought he was the last person left alive on Earth? The situation you've set up creates the meaning of the opening of the door. Should it creak ominously (hopefully in less stereotypical terms)? Should it open silently and smoothly? Is there light behind it, and darkness in the room? Or the other way around? Is it symbolic of something emotional, something powerful? If it's just another inhabitant of the house or apartment stepping in for no special reason, you probably don't even need to say the door opened. There's a thing in movies called coverage, where the director (usually an underpaid and overworked second unit director) shoots a lot of people walking down corridors, doors opening and closing, people getting in and out of cars, etc, just in case it's needed for the edit, though much of it lies unused. In a good movie anyway. In a bad movie it might all get used.
Thank you so much! Ironically enough, I have a similar disdain for minimalism (just the complete contemporary focus on it, mostly), but I still love Hemingway's work Ditto for Chekhov. Upon another read of my draft, I guess the real problem was that, although the idea of 'the door swung open' itself is not horrific at its core, it doesn't actually fit in the piece that I was writing. A bit like dancing down a hallway and getting your sleeve caught on a doorknob. It jarred completely. I was just going to say that I'd had a long look at the thread you'd recommended, when boom! Halfway down the page reading, the idea came to me entirely and the problem is now solved. Thank you all so much for your help, and for the recommendations. What happened was I realised that just having 'the door opened' on its own didn't cut it in terms of fitting into the rhythm of how I normally write: from editing my own work, I also notice that I tend to pick out pretty specific details, whereas the original sentence I had written - compared to everything else on the page, irrespective of sentence length - was (how do I put it without swearing) generic as *!@?. So what I did was I actually broke the sentence up, I guess? I'll just paraphrase the basic idea here, but basically instead of just 'the door opened, and blah blah blah', I turned it into something like 'the door opened - followed by two loud crashes - and blah blah blah'. For some reason, that worked and it all reads perfectly now. Writing is LITERALLY the weirdest thing I've ever done.
