Using Imagery in Your Writing
Listener comment: suggestion to timestamp if the video is about a specific thing (Main Topic starts at 24:58)
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Author Update:
Erick:
writing and client work
list of short stories for the summer
Valerie:
back much better (still stiff) and knee improving, but slow (ultrasound tomorrow); seeing the need to focus on my health needs (physical and mental)
speaking Alaska Writers Guild conference in Anchorage in October and Write on the Sound in Gig Harbor, WA in November.
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I'm reading:
Thunder Song by Sasha taqŵšeblu LaPointe
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
The Manor House Governess by C.A. Castle
Erick:
Cold Victory by Karl Marlantes
You Like it Darker Stephen King
Anders Fager "Grandma's Journey" Swedish Cults (HP Lovecraft on acid)
Notes:
Imagery can be intimidating if you think it has to be beautiful, flowery, lurid, prose. Think more realistic expectations.
It's a tool. Imagery as tone setting. Character interacting with environment. Relevant to the action. More vivid images.
Use concrete sensory images to "explain" feelings.
Get unique with imagery. Use different senses besides visual.
Layer senses. Work in reverse in heightened scenes (tactile first?). Maximize effect. Cinematic thing. Sound cue, reaction cue, visual cue.
Cliches come from not having a grasp of a moment or character when use simile. Remember to use character's POV, not yours. Metaphor is more powerful than simile, often. Imagery progresses from simile to metaphor (personal style choice), character development. Using the old comparisons to make sense of the new thing, but as they continue exploring the new, it becomes more metaphor than simile.
The movie in my head will always be different than the reader's movie.
Set up imagery so the reader is allowed to watch their own movie.
Co-create with your reader.
Find the balance. Fresh but familiar.
Imagery can be (should be?) intentional. Happy accidents. ;-) What's new and unique? How can I riff on that?
Find Us:
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Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor