White Room Syndrome & How To Fix It 

I struggle with both "white room", and too much description. It's like my brain either goes one extreme or the other. Finding a balance has always been tough.

White room syndrome is definitely something i struggle with while drafting, i didn't know it had a name thank you for this video

During my degree I was taught to view location as another character. Give it back story. Think Jk Rowling and hogwarts. Hogwarts is a character in its own right. It has history. Think the impala in the tv show supernatural. Yes it’s a car, but it has history and meaning to the characters.

That wall is white with gold patterns

This is definitely something I do on the first draft. 90% of the second draft is just adding in where everyone is in relation to each other, and what the setting is. I have to constantly think about the five senses and making sure I'm putting in those details. At least I know there's hope for me to learn to insert fixes into my first draft!

Binging all your videos as I'm finally starting to take my novel writing more seriously!!

I love how Alexa's videos are little to not at all edited. It gives such authenticity to the attitude you display through the screen! 💓

I loved your point about avoiding repetitive scene descriptions. This can also apply to characters. I recently read a book where almost every chapter had a description of the mc’s eye color and petite build. It was exhausting.

I take a paragraph to describe surroundings. And I try to weave it into the narration.

This is definitely my Achilles heel, too. I've been noting all the places where it happens as I revise and am planning to do a special setting only pass to fix it. Thanks for the super helpful video!

I was an entertainment writer in the '80's and '90's. Novels are much more difficult to write. Thanks for the videos. You explain things well.

This was very helpful ^_^ I'm a newbie and I’ve been struggling to write a scene where a character feels humiliated. Coming off your ‘7 Common Mistakes New Writers Make’ video, I realize my struggle is likely from trying to create that sense of the world around you growing thick and oppressive… WITHOUT any world around you -_-

"Great!” I said. After some deep contemplation, while doing spinning on my bike, one handed. “I should be writing,” But, exercise is a rational excuse to procrastinate.

When you talk about we as the writers have things mapped out in our heads, I have a problem that is the opposite of what you describe. I want to perfectly lay out that scene that's in my head on the page which usually results in being long winded and spending too much time describing which just makes my writing feel cluttered. So something I've had to learn is being okay with not having everything I'm thinking be directly on the page and not micromanage what I want the readers to be imagining; in other words, I have to learn to let the readers have some sort of liberty in understanding things and not spoon feeding them every single detail.

I just about fell over when she said , “I like parties!” I totally had to have a party scene in my first book...until I it out. Hahaha.

Literally this helped me so much. I've been stuck on this one scene for months. I never knew that it was called white-room syndrom, so I had no clue on where to find help. Usuly I don't struggle with this at all, actually. I've never been stuck with a scene before, because I'm an action based writer. It's mostly focussed on events and solving problems, then finding out what's going on along the way. I don't often write dialogue-heavy scenes, because my characrers are usually on the go and will have conversations while they're doing other things. Yet I found myself having to write a scene in which I had to dump a lot of information on the readers before I could move forwards with the plot. Already looked over whatever I could skip in the information to NOT have it be an actual information dump. I got frustrated, because every time I wrote the scene (I've written it about 7, maybe 8 times by now, each with a different approach) I found myself hating the outcome because it looked so bland it could have blinded me. I knew what I had to do, knew I had to fill in the gaps between the dialogue with action, but they are literally seated across from each other, and I couldn't come up with anything they'd be doing any more than they already where without making it feel weird. Yet this video really made me see the light. Thank you so so much! I'm so happy I finally know what to do with this godforsaken scene 🙏🏼

She walked into the room *♪ WITH BLACK CURTAINS NEAR THE STATION! ♫* Uh-oh. White Room syndrome.

This lady does some very interesting and helpful videos.

I struggle so much with white room syndrome, this video is so helpful, I love it. I needed this so much, thank you!!

I've been enjoying your videos a lot, they're very helpful! This is actually the first time I've heard of white room syndrome, but perhaps that's because I've mostly focused on getting writing advice on style and editing... Anyway, it made me wonder if this is perhaps a pit fall of fanfiction writers? They often don't have to describe rooms/surroundings in great detail if they stick to canonical material, as those surroundings would have already been shown on TV/in the movie or described in the books. By saying the characters are in the classroom, gym, briefing room, meeting room, office, locker room, bedroom, living room etc readers will automatically visualize what they know from canon.

This is something my editor is always on me about. LOL Great video!

Thank you for this video. I feel like I've finally had a breakthrough in my writing. I never once in my stories considered the possibility of moving my characters throughout the setting, hence my struggle with action scenes. Thank you so much!

CreamFanGal 11 Oh my gosh thank you soooo much! This is EXTREMELY helpful because I hope to be a published author someday! I've been writing books for three years now, but haven't been able to finish any of the 9 I tried writing. I always find too many mistakes that I don't want to go back and fix... So lately I've been doing a BUNCH of research to keep my the new book i'm currently writing in line, and fixing my mistakes before I write to much to overwhelm myself with editing. This has helped SO SO much because I know for a fact I have this same white room syndrome. I can can get descriptive and make scenes very nice. But others I get too lazy. But the way you've explained everything inspires me not to be lazy when describing things. Because this also lets people see more of your character, and can open there imagination of where they're at.

I watched the harsh video and it's what brought me to this channel but i decided to watch the mistakes beginners do because, well, i likely did some big mistakes as a total amateur that never took it seriously. Then there's references to other videos and more... and it's midnight already yet I want to see more. Excellent content.

Love your videos! Have already put your advice into play. Keep them coming :)

This sounds like something easy to fix, a couple of sentences here and there, but only what's important to the story.

I came into this video not know what white room syndrome was but hearing you explain it made me think, “Lol I probably describe my character’s surroundings too much.”

Omg it’s dangerous (in a good way) watching all your videos because I’m like - oooh that’s a good point! I need to weave that into my story more! I’ve already “done” my writing for the night, but it makes me want to pull out my laptop to click clack away some more.

This is so incredibly helpful! I'm currently writing my first book and I've discovered I definitely suffer from this! Great tips! Thankyou!

I love your videos. You made it so easy to understand. Thank you.

Thank you so much! I struggle with all the time, now I have some idea to help me get better.

I am definitely suffering from white room syndrome. As a more facts/action orriented person who tends to get on right with the task at hand, that slips into my writing as well. Thank you so much for this video it was very helpful and I will be coming back to it once I start revising. Great vid as always, thank you Alexa!

Thanks a million!

Not something I struggle to much with, but I really enjoy your videos!

Hi, Alexa, I have experienced the same thing in one of Harlan Coben's books. It feels like reading a film script

Thank you for giving me the term for my problem. I'm terrible at this.

My first book is done but this is the one complaint my beta readers have. 2 questions they ask what does the room look like and what do the characters look like.

thanks so much for this is totally me this helped so much

I suspected this was a thing, since my third chapter it's just dialogue.

Could I get your opinion (Or anyone's opinion that is) on what I have written, a lot of people had told me I need to be more descriptive but haven't explained how or in what sense so if you have time please could you review this piece of writing and let me know where I could improve? :) It was late at night, a large white science incorporation was in the middle of an Australian desert. Two suspicious-looking corrupt government agents slowly approached the factory’s grounds, cut the wired fence, and crept across the car park to a dumpster, that was at the back. They found a green metal doorless wardrobe-shaped teleportation pod that had been placed beside the dumpster. That was something the company was throwing away! The Agents didn’t know what it was and one of them pulled it down as the two used it as a step to climb up into a vent, therefore sneaking into the factory! They groaned and moaned as they army crawled through the vents. One of the agents moaned “Is it really going to be here?” The Second Agent grumbled “It should be, once we find it I’m going to activate it and get us out of here” The first one argued “You mean I’m going to activate it” The two argued about who would be the one to take the credit. Until suddenly, the vent they were in could no longer take their weight and the front part of it fell! CRASH it made as it struck the floor! As it fell the two idiotic agents cried “WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” as they slid face-first out of the vent and onto the black soft padded tiled floor! They quickly stood up and frantically looked around pointing their guns ready to shoot any security, but to everyone’s luck, the room was empty. The two agents saw that they had landed in a large testing room and to their surprise and luck what they were looking for was right here in this room, right in front of them, it was a large green metal ball! They looked at each other then raced for it, both pushing past each other trying to get into this big metal green ball first! The first agent got down and did a tiger tail kick, therefore, tripping the second agent on the floor! As the first agent dashed past, made it to the strange structure, and started typing in on the dashboard inside the green ball, it was making beeping noises as he mashed the buttons! The second agent got up lunged at the first agent grabbing him and pulled him down! The two started fighting and rolling around on the floor throwing punches, wedging each other and putting each other in locks until suddenly more and more noises were coming from the large Green Metal ball! The two Agents looked at each other in fear and cried “UH OH!” they released each other and ran towards the large green ball but as they did, it vanished in an incredible blast of blue light, instantly the blue light faded and revealed the that the device had vanished!? Suddenly, an alarm broke out! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Red lights were flashing everywhere! Large Metal Security Doors rapidly closed on every window and door. SLAM! They all made as they closed. The two agents looked at each other in fear and cried “RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!” they shot down to the collapsed vent and army crawled back up, quickly made it up through the vent that they fell down and quickly made it out of Richard Industries as fast as they could, their mission had failed! P.S Are we basically supposed to keep reminding the audience of the location and what it looks like? Because I thought as long as you describe the location and describe the characters then it's all good, but obviously I was wrong.

Please, make a video with tips and suggestions for writers who struggle to visualize the scene while writing. Sometimes I have a hard time with it myself, so it makess it a lot harder not to let the story "less white room" if that makes sense. Thank you.

I think I have ths opposite problem... I add way too much narrative and description. It's probably painful to read

So.. whats the oppositr of White Room Syndrome? Cause thats what i have.. i always describe a room or a place way too datiled, and ended up wasting way too many paragraph. BlackRoom Syndrome 😂😂

Took notes. :)

I have white room syndrome _as a reader_. All the detail is completely lost on me. As a writer, I first went with theater because there, white room syndrome is kinda ok because you can’t visually vary your locations too much anyway. They really have a different interpretation of show don’t tell there. With my next story, I feel it kinda has to be a novel because those have an easier time to be picked up for movie adaptations than theater plays and I want to maximize my chances to eventually see this one as a movie. I’d almost prefer writing the screenplay myself, but to me it seems that nobody would go and make a movie from a script that hasn’t already proven its market value. Meh.

Is waiting for godot or dystopish places writeroomy?

Busted!

My face the moment she mentioned show wrote fanfic.

I love party food so much

I don't struggle with this at all.

I think you mean Talking Heads syndrome.

These videos feel like personal attacks LOL :P

Not really related but is using ?! (an exclaimed question mark) just too improper? What about using italics in a 'subtle' way such that it isn't too opaque to see into what it means? What are the Goddamn rules"?!"

When your room's walls are actully white...

But... what if they really are in a white room!?

So I don't have white room syndrome

lol I was just thinking of titling a chapter "The White Room" because it literally opens with my MC waking up in a white room... then I see this video a problem I have is a lot of the time I actually don't have a picture in my head of what things look like, at most my idea of the environments are diffuse so when describing things I have to figure out what the characters' surroundings really are.