It means a writer must involve the reader at every level, and he or she can do that through the medium of description. Description creates a vivid picture for the reader, it allows them to open a gateway to your story and imagine themselves within your fictional world.
You as a writer can elicit emotions within your reader, you create tension and atmosphere, and you create a sense of immediacy — a sense of being right there with the character. Read more. May 12, Just how long should a chapter be?
And does a novel have to fit into a set amount of words? These are just two of the most common questions asked by writers. They assume they have to work to a strict template of X amount of words and X amount of chapters, usually because most novels have around 30 or 40 chapters and around 80, words. Again, the story will dictate how long the novel will be. Uncomplicated stories containing minimal characters tend to be short — usually around 20, to 60, words.
These are called novellas. Longer, more complex stories, which contain a handful of main characters and periphe. May 21, In creative writing, however, there is good repetition and bad repetition. Repetition can and does work. The above opening paragraph uses repetition effectively. It is there to reinforce the message and provide and subtle way of denotative resonance.
This is an example of good repetition. Bad repetition, on the other hand, occurs when the same descriptive words appear in the same sentence or paragraph several times without offering denotation or structure, for instance: He fumbled for the keys in the dark, finally managed to open the door. This is a powerful writing tool. Usually either happiness or jealousy. So depending on how you frame it and the tone, you can purposely make certain readers feel something you want them to feel.
If you can learn to use imagery realistically, relatably, and with strong language, you can pull your readers into your narrative almost immediately. Strengthen your writing by downloading your FREE strong verbs list with over verbs paired with common weak verbs that make your writing worse! Mastering the use of all five senses in prose takes a lot of practice.
Markus Zusak is known for using crisp and original imagery to illustrate both the mundane happenings of daily life, as well as extremely weird circumstances. Descriptions of things like colors, shapes, textures, and movement can all work with visual imagery. These examples also use subtext. In the first one, we have a description of how the woman is sitting—her physical position—but we get so much more than that.
Descriptions of things like flowers, chemicals, mold, and burning food can all work with olfactory imagery. The more he describes how gross the dog is, the more the reader can see that he clearly loves him. Gustatory and olfactory imagery can work together or cross over each other. Sometimes you can taste smells, and that image might be richer than if you described it with an olfactory image. This quote is taken from a scene where the main character spends time with a very old woman.
The subtext here is obvious. Leaves crunching under your feet, birds singing, and a stream trickling can work together to describe an early Autumn day much more effectively than visual imagery on its own.
A lot of new writers try to write with all senses and go hog wild, describing anything they can think to describe. You can see in all the examples so far that Zusak describes things that reflect how his character is feeling. I love the first example—he uses tactile imagery swollen and slippery to describe an auditory image. The easiest way to practice writing with imagery is to show instead of tell.
Telling is when you explain to the reader how to understand or feel something, instead of letting them experience it. Showing is using description to convey the same things but in a subtler and more impactful way. I keep scrubbing them, even though his blood is long gone and replaced by my own many times over. He stormed off, slamming three dozen red roses into the trash.
This has a lot of the same information, but it might be a little dry. Does it have the same resonance? Another thing to consider is how much imagery to use.
A reasonable description of regret, per the example above, instantly becomes overkill in an instance like this:. Regret gnawed at him like a tiger, lashing into him like a thrashing shark, dripping into his veins like acid.
He stormed off…. Picking multiple related images to try and evoke the same emotional response will actually be counterproductive. Struggling with voice, description, and imagery in description? Useful stuff, Mary. And I completely agree on the promposal! Save it for the actual proposal, kids. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
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