Sight /Visual

Imagery

As An Experience

Considerations: Color Brightness/dimness Clarity/lack of clarity How it travels (the power of modifiers) Show don’t tell: reaction to it

Smell – Olfactory Imagery

As a reality

Considerations Positive, negative Strength How it travels Show don’t tell: reactions to it

Example #1

Telling: ”The ground floor, rented room was tiny, damp and obviously uncared for.”

Showing: "As he entered the room from the hallway the first thing he noticed was the fusty smell: a combination of mould, damp and stale cigarette smoke. There were snail trails across the worn, brown, cord carpet that covered what little floor space there was. Opposite the doorway, pushed up against the wall, was a single bed, covered with a duvet but no duvet cover and a flat, tobacco-stained pillow.”

http://www.writing-world.com/grammar/print/

dawn02.shtml

Sight and smell

Sound – Auditory Imagery

As A Reality

Considerations: Loudness Sharpness How it travels Show don’t tell- reaction to it

Example #2

Telling: The bell rang.

Showing: Ernie sheltered his ears from the discordant clang that sounded through the halls with the force of a hundred jarring keystrokes.

http://www.soundsnap.com/industry_and_machines/rollercoaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqeQ0bYj7s

Touch – Tactile Imagery

As a reality

Considerations: Temperature Texture Show don’t tell:

reaction to it

Example #3

Telling: He played the piano.

Showing: “When his fingers assumed a life of their own, titillating the ivory keys with the complex music of Bach and Mozart and Beethoven, and he became one with the cadence, breathing with the crescendos, his fingers caressing the melody, until everything else faded, everything else disappeared, and only the music existed.”

http://www.inspirationforwriters.com/techniques/show.html

Describe this scene employing tactile imagery:

Taste / Gustatory Imagery:

Close your eyes.

Imagine your main character taking a bite of his/her favorite food.

Take a second bite. Think of the tastes. How would you describe them without telling us what they are?

Take a third bite. Think of the textures. How would you describe them without telling us what it is.

Open your eyes. Describe in writing.

Show Don’t Tell- Depict the Senses

How can these statements be revised?“It was cold.”

“The room smelled bad.”

“Byron was a rich man.”

“The girl liked her birthday present.”