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odd_buttonsThe following is an excerpt from Part III of the book Making Shapely Fiction, by Jerome Stern. The first two parts are very much worth reading as well. The book is available in paperback.
Imagery
Imagery, in writing, is the technique of using language, particularly figures of speech such as similes and metaphors, to create emotions and sensations. For example, Stephen Crane starts The Red Badge of Courage by saying that the army "awakened" and "cast its eyes upon the road" and that a stream runs "at the army's feet." His imagery turns the army into a single animal.
Imagery induces readers to see things in certain ways. If you keep comparing your characters to weapons, you'll influence your readers to think of war:
If you change the imagery you change the meaning:
The issue is not the shade of brown Ramona's hair happens to be. You choose the image that creates the sensation you want.
Imagery affects form and meaning. Continually referring to dark colors, or things from nature, or machinery, creates a subtle pattern that unifies the work, and suggests themes that the reader feels, often without fully realizing why.
Lyrical imagery sets up other expectations -- seriousness, emotion, and intensity:
Raw images that conjure up pictures of pain and violence suggest a brutal world and the possibility of a dark ending:
Fanciful imagery suggests a world where anything might happen:
Controlling your imagery is important. If you start out with morbid images and those references then disappear, it's as if you introduced a character and forgot about him in the middle of the story. If your imagery mainly involves birds and flowers, an image suggesting that "Geoffrey looked like a Martian with a hangover" is incongruous.
See Cliché, Diction, Metaphor and Simile, Motif, Style, Texture.
Imagery
Imagery, in writing, is the technique of using language, particularly figures of speech such as similes and metaphors, to create emotions and sensations. For example, Stephen Crane starts The Red Badge of Courage by saying that the army "awakened" and "cast its eyes upon the road" and that a stream runs "at the army's feet." His imagery turns the army into a single animal.
Imagery induces readers to see things in certain ways. If you keep comparing your characters to weapons, you'll influence your readers to think of war:
Garth's eyes glinted like bullets. Ramona's voice was like shrapnel.
If you change the imagery you change the meaning:
Ramona's hair was the color of burnished mahogany.Or:
Ramona's hair was the color of beef liver.
The issue is not the shade of brown Ramona's hair happens to be. You choose the image that creates the sensation you want.
Imagery affects form and meaning. Continually referring to dark colors, or things from nature, or machinery, creates a subtle pattern that unifies the work, and suggests themes that the reader feels, often without fully realizing why.
Lyrical imagery sets up other expectations -- seriousness, emotion, and intensity:
We stood shivering and wet, watching the aspen's leaves tremble like Bible pages in the rising gale.
Raw images that conjure up pictures of pain and violence suggest a brutal world and the possibility of a dark ending:
The wind punched mean and dirty. Tree branches whined, whimpered, and cracked like broken arms.
Fanciful imagery suggests a world where anything might happen:
The hurricane roared like a sound system cranked too high, and the trees were all slamdancing with the aspens doing some kind of weird hula. Pines were bending, poplars were wiggling, birches were touching the ground. It was be-bop hurricane Saturday night, and we were invited to the party.
Controlling your imagery is important. If you start out with morbid images and those references then disappear, it's as if you introduced a character and forgot about him in the middle of the story. If your imagery mainly involves birds and flowers, an image suggesting that "Geoffrey looked like a Martian with a hangover" is incongruous.
See Cliché, Diction, Metaphor and Simile, Motif, Style, Texture.