The Importance of Imagery
Imagery is defined as visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
In the writing community you often hear the phrase ”show, don’t tell.” This means that rather than telling the reader something, it’s much more powerful to show them.
For example, if you’re writing a story, it’s best to show your characters’ qualities rather than tell the reader about them. If they’re depressed, you might show them as having difficulty getting out of bed. If they’re a social butterfly, you could have them walk into a room and make friends easily.
Imagery is another great way to convey an idea. I use it in all my writing, from social media posts to poetry. It’s a great opportunity to get a little grandiose to get your point across.
One of my favourite and most recent uses of imagery is in my poem ”Wasted.”
”I watched her slowly fade.
Like a lightning bug
On a sticky July night
She lit up
For the last time
And my mother was gone.”
This stanza is about losing my mother. I wanted to showcase the feeling when you first find out that someone dies- the one heartbeat in which everything changes, just like a lightning bug.
It has another more personal layer in that as a child I used to catch lightning bugs and put them in mason jars before releasing them back into the wild. No one knows that, but it’s a little secret I added just for me.
Implement
Use imagery. Go over something you’ve already written and find somewhere you can add it in to assist in communicating your point, or write something new and use a visual description.
Share what you write in the group!! I love imagery and think it’s one of the most underrated literary devices.
