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I recently finished reading the classic book "Wrinkle in Time" with my eight-year-old. It begins with the famous—and much maligned—line, "It was a dark and stormy night ..."

Writers look down on this opening phrase as being "obvious" and "too moody." It has been the butt of jokes from "Throw Momma from the Train" to Peanuts comics. But I'd like to write a brief defense of Madelaine L'Engle's linguistic choice as well as take a look at what makes descriptions work ... or not work.

L'Engle's phrase, at its most basic, does, indeed, set a tone for the book. And it describes the intensity that the character Meg feels. It also foreshadows the "dark"/sinister beings the characters will encounter, as well as the darkness through which the characters travel during their cross-planetary adventure. So I think that mentioning a "dark night" is thematic and relevant to L'Engle's whole book; she writes it as a fight between love and "the dark."

So what about the complaint that to describe night as dark is too obvious? I would argue that there are all kinds of nights. There are nights that seem like a faint orange hue hangs between the greenness of piled snow and heavy-set clouds. There are purple nights. There are also cold bright nights when the sky is clear and the moon shines like a shadeless pendant bulb.

And yes, there are stormy nights when the darkness seems to swallow up every detail out of reach, as though a cocoon of black velvet envelopes you: a dark and stormy night.

But these days, readers want more than that. We expect writers to paint with words in a more extraordinary way.

On the other hand, overly long or beatific descriptions are considered passé: Flip to almost any page in the classic "Anne of Green Gables" series and you'll find paragraphs of detail like: "a veritable apple-bearing tree, here in the very midst of pines and beeches ... all white with blossom. It's loaded [with apples]—tawny as russets but with a dusky red cheek. Most wild seedlings are green and uninviting."

While most of us still appreciate (and even love) L.M. Montgomery's lengthy stylistic descriptions for its time, these days such florid language is considered "purple prose."

Needless to say, descriptions can make or break even the best concepts and plots. Writers need not only to be gifted storytellers, but word makers and image creators of a new bent.

One author who excels in this is Mark Zusack. Consider some of these images from "The Book Thief":

• a short grin was smiled in Papa's spoon
• one [book] was delivered by a soft, yellow-dressed afternoon
• empty hat-stand trees
• the gun clipped a hole in the night
• the summer of '39 was in a hurry
• the smell of friendship
• [the] crackling sound ... was kinetic humans, flowing, charging up

Sight is overrated. As writers we often have a "movie" playing in our head of what our novel looks like. So we simply describe it: what the people, places and things look like. Although that does great when we're swiftly moving through a first draft, if we simply leave it at that we're cheating our readers and cheating ourselves.

Because we can do better.

We all learned in our earliest school days that there are five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Too often as writers we rely, almost solely, on sight in our writing. It's time to delve into the other senses. They offer ways to tell readers more without resorting to descriptive cliches.

Smell

According to scientists, we attach an emotion to each scent we identify. As writers we can use "negative" and "positive" scents to reinforce the mood we're trying to create in a scene.

A musty dank smell teased Betty awake in the still dark room.

The fresh smell of sweet peas teased Betty awake in the still dark room.

Betty's waking up in two very different rooms, isn't she? And all because of an odor.

Hearing

What our characters see is often controlled by another character, but we can sneak in information they weren't meant to learn with hearing. Information perfect for someone tracking down a murderer or a foreshadowing of a future event.

As they sipped coffee from fine china in the sitting room, George heard muffled shouts coming from below.

As they sipped coffee from fine china in the sitting room, George could hear the sweet murmur of a lullaby just outside the French doors.

Each sound creates a different question for George. Who is shouting and why? Who in the family has the baby no one has mentioned?

Touch

The sense of touch often gives the reader information they could have just as easily gotten from sight, but isn't it nice to have a bit of variety in how we discover information?

Although his navy suit mirrored the uniform of every one else at the firm, he offered a brown calloused hand for Edward to shake.

Although his navy suit mirrored the uniform of every one else at the firm, when Edward shook his hand it felt like a used Brillo pad in his hand, scratching at his palm.

Using touch can turn a blah, predictable description into something more memorable.

Taste

Taste is a bit tougher to incorporate into your descriptive bag of tricks. How often can your sense of taste tell you something that your eyes can't? But the different tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter can be used to reinforce the mood of a scene.

As the room fell silent after her last remark, Susan sipped from her glass enjoying the sweet refreshment of the fruity punch.

As the room fell silent after her last remark, Susan sipped from her glass grimacing at the burn of the whiskey as it tumbled down her throat.

Did Susan enjoy the snarky remark that silenced the crowd or does she wish it had been left unsaid? Taste can give us a subtle hint.

Next time you're editing a draft use different colored highlighters to determine how much you use each sense. Chances are you're neglecting several and turning to that old favorite: sight. It's time to close your eyes and explore the world using your other senses.

Often it helps to literally close your eyes. How can we introduce hearing, smell, touch and taste to our readers if we aren't fully aware of them ourselves? Try sitting in your favorite spot fo