How the Use of Imagery Can Improve Your Writing

Don’t make your readers look at your world through a piece of glass, open the windows and let them in

There are many lessons that people can learn to improve their writing. But I believe that the writer’s first lesson should concern the use of words themselves. After all, a writer’s message can be great, but the words themselves act as a magnet, encouraging the reader to read long enough to actually absorb the message that the writer is trying to get across.

For example, I have recently been teaching my students about the use of figurative language and how devices such as simile, metaphor, and the like can be used to enhance their writing. They seem to grasp most of these techniques easily, but for some reason, the concept of imagery leaves them baffled. They can tell me that imagery involves the use of the five senses, but they believe that simply mentioning a color or saying there was a smell satisfies the requirements.

This is a paragraph that they would say is an example of imagery:

The night was dark, and it was hot. The man and woman sat next to each other on the park bench and the stars were out. The man could smell the woman’s perfume. It smelled so good that it made him want to move closer to her. He decided to grab her hand to see if she felt the way she did. When he did this, she smiled. He stared into her beautiful eyes and gently kissed her.

It is a paragraph, and it has descriptive adjectives, but true imagery is more magical.

For instance, let’s try a revised version.

The sultry night was a velvet blanket, sequined with stars. They sat together on the rusted iron park bench, and he could smell the sweetness of her perfume. It was an intoxicating mixture of marshmallow and vanilla, a scent so powerful it took all of his power not to edge himself closer. In an unbidden moment of courage, he grabbed the soft silkiness of her hand to see if his gesture would be met with resistance. At that moment, she smiled, looking up at him with creamy seafoam eyes. He was powerless to look away and tenderly pressed his lips against hers.

There’s a distinct difference, right? You’re not just seeing the scene in black and white, it’s full-on color. You can feel the heat. You can see the night and the ocean in her eyes. Smell her perfume.

And you can use the power of imagery to heighten the impact of many forms of writing. This is not a technique solely fit for fiction. You can use it to engage a reader more fully in a personal narrative or even use it when you create a personal anecdote to introduce a non-fiction piece.

How to use imagery to its max advantage

Getting better at the skill of creating imagery entails more than simply visualization and imagination. It requires stripping away some senses while expanding on others. It requires careful consideration of what words to use and what details to heighten or eliminate. It also requires determining how much description is engaging and how much is overwhelming. Here are some tips to get you started.

Become one with the character

In other words, put yourself in the scene and “live in it.” Let’s say your character is at a bonfire party on the beach. Become him or her and look around you. What things would catch your eye? What smells and sounds would surround you? What would you hear?

Now ask questions and go deeper

Now that you’ve fleshed out the basics, expand on them. Let’s say you look at the fire? What colors are the flames? Don't say red, orange, and yellow. What about amber? Saffron?Vermilion? What sound does the fire make? Is it popping, crackling, or sizzling? What about the smell? Marshmallow and melting chocolate from the smores you made? The dead fish that lie at the edge of the water? What do you taste? The acrid bitterness of the smoke on your tongue? The salty air near the surf? What do you feel? The scratchy sand on your legs? The comforting caress of the ocean breeze? The soft heat of the fire at your toes?

Try removing certain elements of the scene or certain senses to allow other elements to “take charge”

This is the advice of famous writer Margaret Atwood. She challenges the writer to do things such as “de-people” the scene and focus on the setting. She also recommends to “limit one sense” so that others may take the lead. By doing this, writers eliminate the distractions of competing images and allow themselves to be fully immersed in the sense of focus.

Be careful of “going overboard”

Think of these strategies as a brainstorming exercise, not elements that you should infuse all at one time. For example, my paragraph above may be a bit “imagery heavy” depending on the genre of writing you are doing. But once you have all the possibilities on paper, then you can begin pruning away the images that seem less imperative to the feelings you are trying to produce in your writing or the elements you are trying to emphasize.

The bottom line:

In his book On Teaching and Writing Fiction, Wallace Stegner says, “By his very profession, a serious fiction writer is a vendor of the sensuous particulars of life, a perceiver and handler of things. His most valuable tools are his sense and his memory; what happens in his mind is primarily pictures.”

And good writers recognize the powerful difference between letting readers see a space and letting them “live” in it, between being told what is in a character’s mind and allowing readers to take a visit inside their thoughts. If a writer can master the art of imagery, the scene he or she creates will not only allow a reader to peek in the windows of another’s world, it will open the front door and say, “Stay awhile. We have so much for you to see.”

And this invitation will be one only very few readers will turn down.