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Message |
    
Mary Erickson
Wandering Member
Post Number:
167
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 08:06 am: |   |
I recently read a book by a local author that's quite good. She used a lot of beautiful imagery. I've begun to go back over my manuscript and try to use more of this type of language, i.e., instead of saying "Matthew frowned," I wrote "His dark eyebrows were a straight line." This is a difficult job. Many of the best or obvious similes or metaphors have already been used and are thus cliches. Some of the ones I come up with border on the comical. My question is "How important is imagery to good writing?" Is it a form or speech that lends itself to a particular genre?
Mary
www.merickson.org
www.behlerpublications.com |
Kevin R. Paglia
Wandering Member
Post Number:
112
Registered: 07-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 12:32 pm: | |
To me imagery is dependent on the importance to the story. I may not use it for a transitory place or a for items and gestures I think are just supporting for a story, but when it comesd to the stort's emotion then I use a lot of imagery. It is a mix for me between letting the reader know enough to see what i see and letting them fill in what they imagine the image would be. This was especially tricky when I was trying to describe heaven and places in heaven for my latest attempt at being a Christian fiction writer.
Kevin |
Joy Lee Rutter
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
533
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 01:16 pm: | |
Hi Mary:
I have been wrestling with the same question myself. Try reading 4 Dean Koontz books in a row and then go back to your manuscript. At times, a rude awakening awaits if you've overused phrases such as, "Jill sighed heavily." Perhaps it would be less irritating if the author wrote, "With a whoosh of expelled air bordering on dramatic, Jill....blah blah blah...". There's probably a zillion other ways one could write "Such&Such sighed".
Many of Koontz books take place within a two to three day span from beginning to end, so that is why I zeroed in on his works. A writer would HAVE to be descriptive if their book is well over 300 pages and spans no more than a couple days.
Back to your question: "How important is imagery to good writing?" I answer this with reader's viewpoint, not writers "do's and don'ts". So based on my own reading experience, (and this is personal opinion): Descriptive imagery is more important in a sci-fi, mystery, or horror. Sci-fi? The answer is obvious. The subject matter is usually something never seen by the typical reader. Mystery? The reader needs details. Clues.   As much description as possible without taking away from the pace, or giving away too much. Horror? Again, the reader needs a mental image no matter how disturbing.  He enjoys horror, so the author needn't be too stingy with description. I don't read (or write) romance or erotica, so I can't offer my opinion on that.  Suspense is usually fast paced, so a lot of description may not be as important as narrative action. I mean, during a car chase, if the chasee is looking through his readview mirror and "catches sight of the one-eyed man with thick eyebrows arching over his one intense green eye that appears to be ablaze with anger..." the reader is going to wonder how the person in the lead car can see that much detail through his rearview mirror and why isn't he paying more attention to traffic ahead during a high-speed chase?  Not to mention that it takes away from the fast pace the reader craves. 
What a great post, Mary. I can't wait to read how others work imagery into their writing because it can be challenging.
Joy
http://behlerpublications.com/titles-rutter.asp |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
1862
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 01:54 pm: | |
A great story is a story that is like a dream while the reader is awake.
This, in my opinion, should be the goal of every writer. Pace, intrigue and the unknown are important but if the reader can't see, taste and feel the story, they may put the story away.
In my early years of adulthood I sat through many business writing and technical writing courses. Creating descriptive images is hard work for me.
http://www.pacwriter.netfirms.com/ |
LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1826
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 02:33 pm: | |
As was stated by Joy, imagery must be paced. In a romance, there is a lot of imagery. That's part of what endears the reader to the two characters falling in love. It's part of what makes romance, romantic. A candlelight dinner said as such is just a dinner by candlelight. But a candlelight dinner described as:
The dancing shimmers glinted off the edges of the gold-trimmed plates and lit embers of passion in Nathan's eyes. Her lungs paused as Cherita glimpsed a flicker of desire that she was sure even he did not know he possessed. Her fingers quivered only slightly as she tasted the succulent strawberries at her place. The juice dribbled from the corner of her mouth as her lips closed around the flavorful bud. From the corner of her eye, she watched the flicker and embers join together to form deep-seeded passion which he struggled greatly to control. Afterall, he was a man of logic, was he not? Passion had no place in his world. Cherita found great pleasure in the idea that she had stirred those embers to life, yet hid the upturned corners of her lips by dabbing at the juice.
The above sure beats saying, "The flame from the candles danced in his eyes." etc. etc. and "Cherita hid her smile with her napkin."
I wouldn't necessarily know the erotica genre, though I have attempted a dabble or two there (only to find myself failing in that department for now--not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. LOL).
You have to gage the story and the speed in which the scene must take place. During any kind of fight scene--unless it is a romance and the 'fight' leads to a slightly more interesting interaction--you don't want to overload the details. You want the story to move along quickly. But if you are setting a much slower pace, you want some additional details.
Then again, sometimes, a sigh is better called a sigh, and a shrug is better called a shrug.
You have to watch for flow. If it doesn't flow, it doesn't go.
LA
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cora morace
Hunger Member
Post Number:
84
Registered: 11-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 05:25 pm: | |
Mary,
I try to write as I like to read. I can see the rotten veggies headed my way as I say one of my favorite authors is James Michener. The great Pat Conroy is another genius of the "word upon word"..... and so is James Lee Burke. Michener is descriptive overload,(I like him anyway) Conroy takes you into his head as he tells his tale and Burke turns description into an art, with words that not only impart emotion but often are almost lyrical in their combinations.
To me there is so much opportunity in every sentence to convey much more than the simple thought it would envoke sparsely written. I want my readers to feel my story through my eyes. It's like I have an opinion on everything that happens, and the reader is going to know it! (even if I have to choke them with metaphor to get the point across.... I do get carried away.) Weeds become "villians in the vinca" (I don't just have weeds - I hate weeds - the reader gets the added feelng) and blood drips "like sticky syrup" (uck! we put syrup on our plates and the mental response is much more repulsive with that image than just thick dripping blood could imply).
The truth - I think I write that way because it's fun. Nothing like a good turn of phrase to make me feel happy and fulfilled, and that's what it is all about.
CJ |
Mary Erickson
Wandering Member
Post Number:
168
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 10:00 am: | |
Thanks everyone for your great advice. My book is a murder mystery but it's also a romance. I loved LaurieAnn's descriptive imagery of a "mating" scene.
And, Joy, I'm going to have to read a Dean Koonz. You guys have given me some good direction, and, yes, Cora, your book does have some lovely imagery, which is one of the things that make it so good. Kevin, your thoughts on pacing were helpful, also.
I have to confess, prior to now, I think I've skimmed over a lot of bad imagery. I'm reading a Steve Martini, and he's pretty good with phrases like, "They do winter well," when writing about a particular area. However, when he used the following description of a woman, it reminded me of some of the absurd imagery I'm coming up with. "When she turns I see her eyes for the first time, tired, dark edges, tracks like a thoudand birds in the dried mud at some watering hole on a parched savanna."
Anyhow, I'm having some fun with it. I'll come up with something that doesn't sound right and then as I go about my chores "I'll chew on it until my teeth are decayed and my gums feel like the raw boils on a leper." And when my husband is asking me what's for dinner, I'll look at him and say, "Huh?"
Mary
www.merickson.org
www.behlerpublications.com |
Joy Lee Rutter
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
539
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 01:24 pm: | |
Mary, when Roger asks what's for dinner, my eyes pierce him like the stare of a pouncing cat awaiting his next move. Does he dare speak again? As he recoils from the fire-like tentacles emitting from my corneas, like a frightened animal, he treads lightly as if walking on eggs, toward the phone to order take-out. The hideous look dissolves from my face as love, blooming like a spring tulip, returns.
Yeah, yeah, a bit overdone, but it sure was fun.
Joy
http://behlerpublications.com/titles-rutter.asp |
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