cc-agentic-framework 1.14.1

package/framework/modules/writer/skills/writer/writing-prose/DESCRIPTION-TECHNIQUES.md

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+# Description Techniques: Sensory Details and Setting
+
+This document provides patterns for descriptive prose that creates vivid settings and characters without slowing narrative pace.
+
+## Core Description Principles
+
+### The Golden Rules
+
+1. **Filter Through POV** - Characters notice what matters to them
+2. **One Unique Detail > Three Generic** - Specificity creates reality
+3. **Movement Reveals Space** - Show layout through action
+4. **Sensory Hierarchy** - Visual dominant, other senses for accent
+5. **Description Serves Story** - Every detail earns its place
+
+### Economy of Description
+
+**Bad (Catalog Approach):**
+```
+The room was large, approximately thirty feet by forty feet,
+with high ceilings that reached up fifteen feet. The walls
+were painted a dark red color. There were three windows on
+the north wall, each about six feet tall and three feet wide.
+A chandelier hung from the ceiling. The floor was made of
+dark wood, possibly oak or mahogany.
+```
+
+**Good (Selective Detail):**
+```
+The room was too big for comfort. The kind of space that
+swallowed sound and made you conscious of every footstep.
+High windows let in cold northern light that didn't quite
+reach the corners.
+
+I stuck to the edges. Old habit.
+```
+
+**Why:** The second version reveals:
+- Size (too big, swallows sound)
+- Atmosphere (discomfort, cold light)
+- Character (stays near edges, has history)
+- All in fewer words, with personality
+
+## Sensory Hierarchy
+
+### Visual (Primary Sense)
+
+Most description is visual, but avoid generic sight words.
+
+**Generic:**
+```
+The castle was big and old.
+```
+
+**Specific:**
+```
+The castle's outer wall had slumped on the western side,
+pulling the gate tower with it. The crack ran from foundation
+to battlement like a lightning strike frozen in stone.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Specific architectural details
+- Evidence of history (slumping, cracks)
+- Metaphor grounded in physical world
+- Reader can visualize exact image
+
+### Sound (Atmosphere and Warning)
+
+Sound creates mood and provides information.
+
+**For Atmosphere:**
+```
+The forest had gone quiet. No birds. No insects. Just the
+wind moving through branches, and even that sounded wrong—
+hesitant, like the wind itself was nervous.
+```
+
+**For Action:**
+```
+Steel on stone. Three times, quick rhythm. Someone sharpening
+a blade, and they knew what they were doing.
+
+I changed direction.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Absence of sound notable (silence is information)
+- Sound identifies objects/actions (steel on stone)
+- Rhythm and pattern matter
+- POV interprets meaning
+
+### Touch (Intimacy and Danger)
+
+Touch creates immediacy and physical reality.
+
+**For Environment:**
+```
+The stone was cold enough to hurt. I pulled my hand back and
+blew on my fingers. The Pattern's chill—you could feel it
+through walls three feet thick.
+```
+
+**For Tension:**
+```
+The knife pressed against my ribs. Not breaking skin yet, but
+I could feel how sharp it was. A breath's worth of pressure
+from a very permanent problem.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Temperature and texture specific
+- Physical sensation as information
+- Reaction shows character
+- Danger concrete, not abstract
+
+### Smell (Memory and Recognition)
+
+Smell triggers memory and identifies places/people.
+
+**For Setting:**
+```
+The room smelled of old books and beeswax candles. Under that,
+something else—ozone, maybe. The scent that follows lightning.
+
+Magic, then. Recent magic.
+```
+
+**For Character:**
+```
+She smelled of horse and leather and something floral I couldn't
+place. Noble, definitely. Common folk didn't have time for
+perfume when they rode.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Multiple scent layers
+- POV identifies and interprets
+- Links to memory or knowledge
+- Reveals social class, recent activity
+
+### Taste (Rare but Memorable)
+
+Use taste sparingly for maximum impact.
+
+**For Extremity:**
+```
+Blood in my mouth. Copper and salt. I'd bitten my tongue in
+the fall.
+```
+
+**For Atmosphere:**
+```
+The air tasted of ash. Three days since the fires, and you
+could still taste the city burning.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Physical trauma or extreme environment
+- Taste as evidence of damage
+- Links to smell often
+- Use once per scene maximum
+
+## Setting Description
+
+### Enter Through Character Experience
+
+**Bad (Omniscient Overview):**
+```
+The throne room was a magnificent example of High Elven
+architecture, built in the Second Age according to the
+classical principles established by the master builders of
+Eregion. Its vaulted ceiling rose to a height of sixty feet,
+supported by twelve pillars carved to resemble the trees of
+the ancient forest.
+```
+
+**Good (POV Entry):**
+```
+I'd never been in the throne room before. Wasn't supposed to
+be here now, technically. I stopped in the doorway and stared.
+
+The ceiling disappeared into shadow somewhere far above. Pillars
+rose like trees—no, they were carved like trees. Every branch,
+every leaf. Elven work. It would've taken human craftsmen a
+century.
+
+I touched one as I passed. Still cool from the night, smooth
+as water under my fingers.
+```
+
+**Why:**
+- POV perspective (first time seeing it)
+- Emotional reaction (stopped and stared)
+- Observation through movement (passed the pillar)
+- Touch adds physicality
+- Cultural knowledge emerges (Elven work, timeframe)
+
+### One Unique Detail > Three Generic
+
+**Generic:**
+```
+The inn was old, dark, and dirty.
+```
+
+**Specific:**
+```
+The inn leaned. Not metaphorically—the whole building tilted
+to the left like a drunk trying to stay upright. The doorframe
+was cut at an angle to compensate.
+```
+
+**Why:** One specific, unusual detail (the lean) does more work than three generic adjectives. Reader can infer age, maintenance level, character.
+
+### Movement Reveals Layout
+
+**Static Description:**
+```
+The library was circular, with shelves lining the walls from
+floor to ceiling. A spiral staircase in the center led to the
+upper levels. Reading desks were arranged around the perimeter.
+```
+
+**Dynamic Description:**
+```
+I took the spiral stairs two at a time, boots echoing off stone.
+The library rose around me—four levels of shelves, floor to
+ceiling, following the circular wall. I counted doorways as I
+climbed. Five on each level. Twenty total.
+
+The reading desks below looked like toys from this height.
+```
+
+**Why:**
+- Action reveals space (climbing stairs)
+- POV perspective changes (looking down)
+- Details noticed through movement
+- Character's priorities (counting exits)
+
+### Weather and Light Reflect Emotion
+
+**Direct Statement:**
+```
+The day was gloomy and sad.
+```
+
+**Subtle Reflection:**
+```
+Rain had been falling since dawn. Not the dramatic storm kind—
+just steady, cold, the sort of rain that soaked through
+everything and made you forget what dry felt like.
+
+I stood under the eaves and watched the road turn to mud.
+Nobody was coming. I'd known that yesterday.
+```
+
+**Why:**
+- Weather described physically (steady, cold)
+- Character action shows state (waiting)
+- Emotional conclusion implied (nobody coming)
+- Mood emerges from concrete details
+
+## Character Description
+
+### Action Reveals More Than Appearance
+
+**Bad (Catalog Approach):**
+```
+She was tall, about six feet, with long blonde hair pulled
+back in a braid. Her eyes were blue. She wore leather armor
+and carried a sword on her left hip. She had a scar on her
+right cheek.
+```
+
+**Good (Action Introduction):**
+```
+She moved like someone who expected combat. Weight on her toes,
+hands loose at her sides. The sword on her hip was worn where
+a hand had gripped it ten thousand times.
+
+When she turned, I saw the scar. Blade, not accident. It had
+missed her eye by an inch.
+
+She'd been that close to dead before. And here she was, still
+moving, still ready.
+```
+
+**Why:**
+- Movement shows competence
+- Equipment tells history
+- One physical detail (scar) with interpretation
+- Character revealed through evidence
+
+### One Distinctive Feature
+
+**Generic:**
+```
+He was an old man with gray hair, wrinkles, and a stooped posture.
+```
+
+**Distinctive:**
+```
+His hands shook. Not with age—I'd seen him grip a sword steady
+as stone. They shook when he wasn't holding something. Like
+his body didn't trust idle hands.
+```
+
+**Why:**
+- Specific, unusual detail (shaking only when idle)
+- Reveals character history (weapon familiarity)
+- Mystery implied (why doesn't he trust idle hands?)
+- Memorable and unique
+
+### Description Through POV Priorities
+
+Different POV characters notice different things.
+
+**Warrior POV:**
+```
+She was armed. Knife on each hip, another in her boot—I saw
+it when she shifted her weight. The way she stood left her
+right side open, but that was bait. She was left-handed.
+
+I adjusted my approach.
+```
+
+**Scholar POV:**
+```
+Her accent placed her from the north. Educated, but not court-
+trained—she dropped the formal case on the third declension.
+Merchant family, probably. Second generation wealth.
+
+Interesting.
+```
+
+**Con Artist POV:**
+```
+Expensive boots. New, but made to look worn—she'd rubbed dirt
+into the creases herself. The cloak was good wool, but common
+cut. She was trying to look poorer than she was.
+
+Someone was hunting for her.
+```
+
+**Why:** What POV notices reveals who they are. Same person, three different descriptions based on observer expertise.
+
+### Revisit Details as Relationship Deepens
+
+First meeting:
+```
+He was maybe forty, with the kind of stillness that meant
+either total calm or total control.
+```
+
+After working together:
+```
+The stillness was control, I'd learned. He moved when he
+needed to, precisely and without wasted motion. In between,
+he barely breathed.
+```
+
+After crisis shared:
+```
+The stillness broke when his daughter was mentioned. Just
+for a second—a flinch he couldn't quite control. Then it
+slammed back into place.
+
+I pretended not to notice.
+```
+
+**Why:** Description layers with relationship. Early: external. Middle: understanding. Late: vulnerability.
+
+## Description in Different Scene Types
+
+### Action Scenes (Minimal)
+
+During action, description is economy itself.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+[Movement]. [Result]. [Next movement].
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+The blade came high. I went low. My shoulder hit his knee,
+and he went over.
+
+The floor came up. I rolled. His sword sparked off stone
+where I'd been.
+
+On my feet. His back was turned. I didn't waste it.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Short sentences
+- One image per sentence
+- No adjectives unless crucial
+- Sound details sparse
+- Focus on sequence and outcome
+
+### Dialogue Scenes (Character-Filtered)
+
+Description comes between exchanges, filtered through POV's attention.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+"[Dialogue]"
+
+[POV observes detail related to emotional state or context]
+
+"[Response]"
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+"I don't believe you," she said.
+
+Her hand was near her knife. Not touching it. Just... near.
+The kind of near that could become touching very quickly.
+
+"Don't have to," I said. "Doesn't change what's true."
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Action beats as tags
+- Details show emotional state
+- POV notices what matters to tension
+- Description brief between exchanges
+
+### Introspection Scenes (Layered)
+
+Introspection allows richer description because POV is observing, not acting.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+[External detail]. [POV interpretation]. [Memory or association].
+[Return to present with new understanding].
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+The Pattern stretched before me, silver on black stone. From
+here, at the edge, it looked simple. Just a design, elegant
+but comprehensible.
+
+I knew better. The curves would fight you. Every step was a
+decision, and the wrong one killed you. My grandfather had
+walked it. My father had walked it. Half my cousins had tried.
+
+Not all of them made it out.
+
+I took the first step.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Visual detail establishes scene
+- Knowledge colors perception
+- History provides weight
+- Action emerges from reflection
+
+### Transition Scenes (Efficient)
+
+Transitions move between scenes/locations with minimal description.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+[Action verb indicating movement]. [One distinctive detail of
+new location]. [Time marker if needed].
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+I took the north stairs. The castle's old wing smelled of dust
+and disuse—no one came here anymore. By the time I reached
+the tower room, the sun was setting.
+```
+
+**Technique:**
+- Movement verb (took)
+- One sensory detail (smell)
+- Time marker (sun setting)
+- No lingering; get to next scene
+
+## Description Techniques by Type
+
+### Landscape (Tolkien-influenced)
+
+**Technique:** Wide to narrow, with emotional undertone.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+[Broad landscape]. [Specific feature]. [Historical/emotional
+context]. [Return to immediate with meaning].
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+The valley spread before us, green and golden in the late
+afternoon light. Once, this had been farmland—you could
+still see the old field boundaries if you knew where to look.
+
+Three ages had passed since anyone worked this soil. The war
+that had emptied these farms was legend now. The people who'd
+died here didn't even have names anymore.
+
+Just ghosts and grass.
+
+"We camp here tonight," she said.
+
+I didn't argue. The dead don't mind company.
+```
+
+### Architecture (Evidence of History)
+
+**Technique:** Specific construction details reveal age and culture.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+[Physical detail showing craft]. [Evidence of age or use].
+[Cultural attribution]. [Current state vs. original].
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+The walls were mortarless. Each stone fit so perfectly you
+couldn't slide a knife blade between them. Dwarf work, and
+old—Second Age at least.
+
+But the gate was new. Human carpentry, rough-cut timber
+and iron bands. It looked like a beggar's patch on a king's
+cloak.
+
+Whatever had happened to the original gate, it had happened
+hard enough they couldn't replace it properly.
+```
+
+### Clothing (Social Markers)
+
+**Technique:** Materials and wear patterns indicate status and activity.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+[Quality of materials]. [State of repair/wear]. [Functional
+details]. [Social interpretation].
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+His cloak was wool, good quality but years old. The hem was
+rewoven where it had frayed—careful work, done by someone
+who knew their craft. The boots were another story. New
+leather, expensive, barely broken in.
+
+Recent money, then. Not born to it, but he'd come into some.
+```
+
+### Objects (History in Things)
+
+**Technique:** Age, wear, and craftsmanship tell stories.
+
+**Pattern:**
+```
+[Current state]. [Signs of use]. [Original quality]. [History
+implied].
+```
+
+**Example:**
+```
+The sword was old. Not ancient—it didn't have that museum
+quality. Just old. Used. The blade had been resharpened so
+many times the fuller was almost gone. The hilt was wrapped
+in new leather, but under it you could see where the tang
+was worn thin.
+
+Someone's grandfather had carried this. And their grandfather
+before them. It had stayed sharp through generations because
+someone kept sharpening it.
+
+That mattered.
+```
+
+## Common Description Anti-Patterns
+
+### The Catalog
+
+**Problem:**
+```
+The room contained a bed, a desk, three chairs, two windows,
+a fireplace, a rug, a mirror, and a wardrobe.
+```
+
+**Solution:**
+```
+The room was spare. A bed, a desk, a cold fireplace. Nothing
+that mattered could fit in a room this small.
+```
+
+### The Mirror Trap
+
+**Problem:**
+```
+I looked in the mirror and saw my reflection. I was tall,
+with dark hair and green eyes. My face was angular, with
+high cheekbones and a strong jaw.
+```
+
+**Solution (Avoid):**
+Don't describe POV through mirrors. Let other characters' reactions and POV's capabilities show appearance.
+
+**If You Must:**
+```
+I looked like hell. Three days without sleep will do that.
+The eyes were bad—red-rimmed, with that thousand-yard stare
+that says you've seen things you can't unsee.
+
+I looked away.
+```
+
+### Purple Prose
+
+**Problem:**
+```
+The resplendent orb of incandescent solar glory descended
+majestically behind the far-distant, snow-capped peaks of
+the ancient, primordial mountains, painting the heavens in
+a kaleidoscope of breathtaking chromatic splendor.
+```
+
+**Solution:**
+```
+The sun set behind the mountains. Snow caught the last light
+and held it, turning the peaks to fire. For a moment,
+everything was gold.
+
+Then it was gone.
+```
+
+### Floating Body Parts
+
+**Problem:**
+```
+His eyes traveled across the room. Her hand flew to her mouth.
+His lips curved into a smile.
+```
+
+**Solution:**
+```
+He looked across the room. She covered her mouth. He smiled.
+```
+
+### The Weather Report
+
+**Problem:**
+```
+It was raining. The temperature was fifty-three degrees. The
+wind was blowing from the northeast at fifteen miles per hour.
+Visibility was poor due to fog.
+```
+
+**Solution:**
+```
+Rain and fog thick enough you couldn't see ten feet. The kind
+of weather that made you wish you were somewhere else.
+
+I kept walking.
+```
+
+## Description Checklist
+
+Before finalizing description:
+
+- [ ] Filtered through POV character's perception
+- [ ] Details selected for significance, not completeness
+- [ ] One unique detail preferred over multiple generic
+- [ ] Movement reveals space naturally
+- [ ] Sensory details beyond sight (sound, touch, smell)
+- [ ] Character description through action, not catalog
+- [ ] Setting serves story, not travelogue
+- [ ] Weather/light reflects or contrasts emotion appropriately
+- [ ] No mirror descriptions of POV character
+- [ ] Paragraph length under 5 sentences
+- [ ] No purple prose or overwrought language
+- [ ] Description pace matches scene type (minimal in action)
+- [ ] Every detail earns its place
+
+---
+
+**Next:** See [CHARACTER-VOICE.md](./CHARACTER-VOICE.md) for voice templates and character archetypes.