A GUIDE TO CREATING POWERFUL IMAGERY IN YOUR WRITING
First of all, what is imagery?
Imagery involves creating a mental picture of your world for your readers. They need to be able to sink into the environment of your characters. This means letting them feel, see, touch, and smell, everything your characters do. As an author, you don’t have the luxury of the visuals and sounds that movies provide. You have to bring every detail up to your readers and describe it all for them. Which can be a lot of work, but don’t worry! We’ll figure it out together.
Let’s talk about things that you have to include when thinking about imagery. What they are seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, and feeling. You have to hit each of the five senses to create a rich picture for your audience. Making sure you create a full experience for them will help them fall into your world more easily and bring your story to life.
Once you are sure you have each of the five senses represented in each scene, you need to focus on depth. You don’t want to say that a character was cold. That has no substance to it. But add some imagery, and it will change the whole scene. For example, don’t say she was cold. Talk about the stiffness of her frostbitten fingers, the dark shadows pulling her features down, her hollowed out cheeks, the way her blistered bottom lip sits purple and quivering. That pulls you in so much more than simply stating that she was cold.
Where most writers go wrong when it comes to imagery, is by neglecting to focus on the details. As you go throughout your day, try focusing more on the little details that are very telling about the overall circumstance. You know it’s getting late, but did you notice the way the streetlights started to slowly glow brighter as you walked home? How the rustling of the trees picked up with the breeze and your shadow grew longer as the sun faded into the horizon? When you took a shower this morning, did you take time to really feel the thickness of the warm air that clung to you as you stepped inside or notice your shoulders drop the tension they’d carried all day when the water hit your skin? How about the way you shivered when your hair left a water droplet sliding down your back between your skin and towel on your way back to your room?
Creating great imagery is really just a mindfulness practice. It is reminding yourself to slow down and focus on what each of your five senses is experiencing in any given moment. Get specific, pay attention to the details. Once you’ve taken the time to start experiencing your own life like an author, it will get easier to describe someone else’s.
Your readers want to understand what exactly your character is going through, and we experience life through our senses. Show, don’t tell. Dig deeper, take the time to explore each sensation, then describe it. Watch how your writing will improve with that one simple tweak.
