creative writing ideas old man

Search for creative inspiration

20,096 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,968 themes

old man - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

a handsome man
a young man
father's advice
knobbly hands
old fisherman
rag and bone man
Rough hands

The old man had that look about him, the look of a life well lived, one where love took a front row seat in the challenging times and the good times.

Age and wisdom are quite separate things and each can arrive ahead of the other. This was never truer than with this combination of old man and boy.

He was an old man, but I could see the young boy in him still yearning to return to his train set. It was as if his soul sat down at one of those little platforms with the tiny trees, waiting at the miniature station for the steady sound of turning wheels and puffs of steam. Or maybe that inner boy waited for a time to put down the mask of sanguine resilience and be himself all over again, playful and silly. I could see the worry lines and how they made crosses with those of joy, the boy his parents welcomed and the man the world asked for, the one who'd love to rise and the one who'd love to rest.

The doctor wore that face he always did when the news wasn't good. "Burt, you're developing Alzheimer's like your father did." Burt's wrinkled face crumpled as he rubbed it with his spotted hand. "Pops got so violent. He wasn't himself anymore. Doc, I can't be like that..." His voice broke away as his chest heaved. The doctor shook his head with the tiniest of smiles. "A cup can only spill over if there's something in it. There's no anger in you. You're just not going to remember things so well, and it's slow, you've got a while."

A wizened face peered out from under a wedge of blue hat, which was the only thing on his otherwise bald and mottled scalp save a sparse fringe of white. His eyes were so heavily lidded and weighed down with wrinkled folds that it was almost like talking to someone asleep, yet he was quite alert. Not seeing Lacy beneath the level of the counter he said “One youth admission?” Sophie had been expecting the croak of old age but his voice was more like a sergeant major, strong and distinctly upper class.

The map of wrinkles on his face told of the most incredible journey. His eye lines told of laughter, of warm smiles and affection. His forehead told of worries past and worries present. But mostly they were so deeply engrained they told or a man who had travelled through eight decades to that moment; to stand here as an old man, beaten and forlorn. To be dismissed as "old" when he was so much more than the sum of his parts.

Age only brings wisdom if the heart remained vulnerable and pure in the most challenging of times. In this the old man had paid his fare in tears of every kind - he was one who had earned these listening ears.

Sign in or sign up for Descriptionar i

Keep track of your favorite writers on Descriptionari

We won't spam your account. Set your permissions during sign up or at any time afterward.

Writers in the Storm

A blog about writing.

Describing Old Age-The Traps And An Idea List

From Char's doll collection

By Sharla Rae

When writing, we have to describe all kinds of people/characters. I’d venture to say that older adults or seniors are one of the most difficult people groups to describe.

Because what you see is not always what you get. Okay, this might be true with any age group, but it’s doubly so with the older generation. There’s a world of experience and living under their belts and their faces don’t always tell the story.

Also, yesteryear’s elderly are now a cliché when compared to the modern seniors.

My grandparents had false teeth they’d take out at night and dunk in a glass of water on their bedside tables every night. Current grandmothers, if they have the funds, opt for veneers or dental implants that permanently screw into the jawbone.

Both of my grandmothers were old timey one-room schoolteachers who never worked outside the home once they married. Modern grandmothers prefer to stay active and often that means working until a ripe retirement age – maybe longer.

Fashion comes and goes but my grandmothers were never seen in anything but modest, below-the-knee dresses or slacks no matter the fashion. And if you had suggested an exercise program to her, they’d claim to got plenty of exercise cleaning house. Modern seniors exercise more than today’s youth and have bodies fit enough to wear the latest fashion, even if they choose to go for comfort instead.

On the list below you’ll see physical descriptions as well as actions and doings of old people. Some phrases are unflattering, some humorous, some are clichés but all serve as an idea springboard.

Terms For Growing Older -- All Clichés

Advancing years Autumn of life Declining years Long in the tooth Old as Methuselah Old as the hills Old fogey Old fossil Older than dirt One foot in the grave Twilight years Winter of life

Word And Phrase Descriptions

A little too ripe to be job hunting Age-spotted pate An Anachronism – as in old fashion, something old that is out of place Ancient bones creaked Ankles swelled with gout Arthritic Banging his cane demandingly Battered shell of his youth Bending forward to keep his balance Beyond the first blush of youth Bingo night is her social life Blue-rinsed hair topped with a pillbox hat Bushy salt and pepper brows Cabinet of medicine, hot water bottles and Ben Gay Cackles of the old biddy Calcified grin Called the shop girls girlie Cemented in his ways Changes his underwear after a sneeze Cheated the undertaker once again Codger, geezer, graybeard, Contrary, and snappish Crabbed with age Crone, witch, hag Crotchety old man with his Damn young whippersnapper Dapper old chap Doddering along the park lane Double-dumpling figure, bent with age Dowager Queen Dowdy old maid Dried up Drooping eyelids he could barely see out of Dunked his false teeth into a water glass Eyes bright with age Face lined with experience and wisdom Face was road map to his glorious past Faded blue eyes Faded version of his son Feeble-minded, forgetful Feisty antique of a lady Forgot where she put her dentures Frail old woman slowly shuffled Fuddy-duddy Fusty and set in her ways Getting some action, he ate his fiber today Gnarled hands knitting Gramps zones out once in a while Grandma and grandpa-might used a derogatory for anyone old Gray dandelion hair Growing love comfortable shoes and clothes Grumped at the noisy children Grunted and creaked with every move Grunts when he sits, then sighs with relief only to grunt and rise Hair a crown of faded glory Hair billowed cobwebs in the draft His get-a-long got up and went Hoary, whiskered old fellow Humped over and leaning on her cane In his declining years In his dotage Infernal loud music Infirmities aside, she was in good shape Jowls flapped when he talked Laugh like crackling paper Laugh lines bracketing twinkling eyes Long nose hair Looked 45 but liver spots hands gave her away Loved the decadent indolence of retirement Matriarch who rules the roost Matron aunt Ol’ fart Old and decrepit Old duffer is deaf Once a rock and roller, now he rocks only the chair Patriarch of the family Prune juice a staple of her diet Rheumy eyes Rocked and rocked and stared within Room full of crooked backs, colorless hair and time-faded eyes Ruminating on when she was young Sagging skin Sat on the tenement steps and watched the world go by Senile and helpless She’s a classic Shriveled by half Skin as thin and white as parchment Skin like used tea leaves Skin of leather Skin stretched over knobby bones Smelled of Chantilly Lace and moth balls Sparse eyebrows with a chaotic growth pattern. Stale, moldy and far-sighted Stooped and bent frame Strains to hear Stroke left her expressions scary/endearing Tottering and unsteady Transparent blue-veined skin Trapped behind the walls of age Tufts of hair grow out of his ears Turkey neck Wattle neck Wise old eyes widened with a twinkle Withered skin Wizened and shrunken like a fading rose Wrinkled skin costumed a youthful heart Young mind trapped in an old body Youth was waning

Definitions

centenarian -- person 100 years old or older

glaucoma -- hardening of eyeball resulting in poor vision or blindness; associated with aging

leucoma -- disease of the eye in which the cornea becomes white and opaque

noachian -- old enough to date back to Noah

octogenarian -- person in their 80’s

preadamite -- dates back to before Adam

quinquagenarian -- person in their 50’s

septuagenarian -- person in their 70’s

sexagenarian -- person in their 60’s

Dementia -- loss of cognitive ability

Alzheimer’s disease -- type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.

Playing Dr. Frankinstein – 5 Questions To Ask Your Characters Before You Begin

Keep Characters True To Themselves

If you’ve read my list blogs before, you know I love descriptions in Poems.

Poems about old age

Humorous poems on old age

When she’s not writing and researching ways to bedevil her book characters, Sharla enjoys collecting authentically costumed dolls from all over the world, traveling (to seek more dolls!), and reading tons of books. You can find Sharla here at Writers In The Storm or on Twitter at @SharlaWrites .

31 comments on “Describing Old Age-The Traps And An Idea List”

What an incredible resource! Thanks for sharing this 🙂

Welcome Gene and thank you for visting today!

Great post, Sharla! It really made me think about how old changes with the audience. In my recent, her heroine is 49, the hero early fifties. Nowadays, this generation would be one step from the old folks home. Not true today, as you pointed out. The challenge for me in writing romance about this age group was getting readers over forty pulled into the story from a romantic angle. When a reader in her late thirties told me that she "fell" for the hero, I figured I'd done my job :-). Will save your phrase descriptions...a great list.

Sharon, this is so true! I'm often surprised at how fit and good looking people 40 and over really are. My grandmothers "expected" to look older and less fit and were content to accept their condition. Today's seniors don't accept it and it shows. They educate themselves on the best ways to stay fit mentally and physically.

Sharla, I'd venture to say that the new "chick-lit" is "geezer-lit" and that Boomers are more likely to describe their parents and grandparents using the cliched descriptionns above. It has been easy and fun for me since I grew up with multiple generations ... people who were born during the turn of the 19th Century and cousins who fought in Korea. The concept of old didn't hit me until mom moved into an independent living apartment and I asked her why she wanted to live with a bunch of old people 🙂

But how do Gen-X kids see Boomer Granny's? That would be my kids who have kids who are plugged into eletronic gadgets 24/7. My kids who are looking at me the way I looked at my mother and thinking ... Hey, who are you and what have you done with my mom?

I love, love your extraordinary "lists" and this one has got to be one of the best.

Thanks. I laughed at when you mentioned how you're kids look at you. Mine are often the same way. There is no way my mother would tweet, blog, etc. 🙂 She never went to an exercise class in her life. Sometimes my kids look at me like -- but mom aren't you too old to do that? Ha! I think they kind of got over that though went I went zip lining over the rain forest. 🙂 I participate in activities that my mother would not have thought of doing even when she was in her 20s!

Good point about how the elderly aren't so "old" and out of the mainstream any more. Great info and list of phrases! Thanks!

Glad you like the list, Betty. Thanks for stopping by.

Bookmarking this—thanks!

Absolutely love this. Thanks so much! Now I have to get this old gal to the gym, put on my wig, and then go to work:)

Hey, it make us a more effort to "stay" young, but we know the payoffs are great. 🙂

Another great list, Sharla! Today's "old folks" are texting and on FB and Twitter. I still remember my grandmother yelling into the telephone because she couldn't figure out how someone in a different country could hear her without a little extra help. 🙂

Oh, Lord, I'd forgotten about that! So funny.

Thought-provoking list. As one of the old geezers, I'm constantly annoyed when people (and TV) portray 60-year-olds as "old." On the other hand, the 60-year-olds in my novel set in 1913 are old. Gout was a real problem. And their teeth didn't hold up. But even then, some lived into their 90s. As I say - thought provoking.

Unfortunately, few of the problems of old age have gone away. I think the difference is better medicines, education about benefits of staying fit, etc. And yes, if you writing about years ago, all those infirmities were a reality to deal with. Lets face it, if a woman in the early 1900s or 1800s dressed for exercise and then performed it the way we currently do, she would have been considered a loose woman!

Better healthcare, exercise, staying out of the sun. We can be young forever! Or think we are. It's true, Sharla, if we showed up in 1900 wearing what we do now, I imagine we'd have been committed to an asylum, That is what they did to women who didn't conform.

Hey! I resemble all those remarks! lol

LOL Jo. Sometimes I think we all do. It's hard work staying young.

Great blog, Sharla, and oh so true. I do all that my kids 19 and 14, do as far as tweet, FB, blog, text and all that. Plus I'm in love with my iPhone. My son jokes about me being "old" and then says he's just kidding. However when my daughter and I were talking about me getting the tattoo I've always wanted he asked me why I'd want to do something like that when I'm so "up in years". I asked him why he would think that way. I mean, was I ready to pick out my gravestone? Is it too late to do some things? In my mind, it's NEVER too late to do anything. He quickly shut up.

One thing I've learned Pat, is that kids today think they are indestructible. They think in terms of the here and now. They can do anything but their parents as far as they are concerned are beyond having any concept or even wanting an understanding of the latest and greatest. They seem to think we are too old to enjoy anything new. Ha! My son has said things like, mom, you don't have to worry about that, or you have no need of that or why would you want to even do that mom? In which case, I pretty much say the say things you did. 🙂

Theses are wonderful terms and words. Tweeted.

Thanks so much Ella.

Great post! I actually feel much healthier than I did over a decade ago, because now that my children are grown, I can focus on myself instead of burning myself out to meet their needs. I workout every day with hand weights an exercise bike, and dance exercises, as well as take the dog out twice a day. I feel better and have lost more than a few pounds I'd put on in my thirties and forties. I can't imagine my mother having done the type of workouts I do at my age.

Exactly Susan. And I'm with you. I put on pounds like crazy when the kids were in junior high and high school. I look and feel so much better now. It's like I said in the blog, todays seniors just don't fit into the old mold of . . . Old. 🙂

Great post. Very thought provoking. I know I'm sixty and can run rings around some of the young ones I work with, although I will admit that at my age "Pulling an all-nighter means not having to get up to go to the bathroom." Dory

LOL Dory. I sometimes wonder if it's that I have more energy than younger people, or they just don't care to expend theirs. 🙂

Thanks, Sharla, brilliant as always. You're so right about the changes in these times too.

Thanks stopping in today Yvette. 🙂

OK, I'm gonna confess it, I saw "sexagenarian" as "sexy vegetarian." That shall be forever imprinted on my brain from now on. 🙂

Haha...our choir director in college announced on like day one of my first year that he'd just turned 60 and his wife had dubbed him a "sexy-genarian." As awkward 18-22 year olds we all found it very funny and gross.

LOL Jen. I like that! Could be sexy genarian too!