Homework:
1) Using the beginning of Chapter 10 as a model, I would like you to write about a place that you love, or are at least familiar. Use your five senses and detailed imagery to convey a sense of your place to the reader.
Remember, Winnie talked about how she felt trapped and regimented by her family's drive to keep their house in order, and this offers a contrast to then what she describes with the Tuck's cottage. Through her description and imagery, one gets a sense of peace, calm and pleasure that Winnie feels when she is there. Make sure that you convey emotion through your description of your place.
- typed, 12 point font, Times New Roman
- double-spaced
- 1 1/2 - 2 pages
This simple checklist, from The Writer’s Little Helper by James V. Smith, Jr., is a concise list of best practices for creating rich imagery that will have your readers clamoring for more.
- Paint the image in small bites. Never stop your story to describe. Keep it going, incorporating vivid images, enlarging the action, and putting the dialogue in context. (A sponge carpet of pine needles covered the trail. It cushioned their soles and absorbed the sounds of their footsteps.)
- Incorporate images into action.
- Use the tiny but telling detail.
- Choose action-bearing verbs. Cushioned, absorbed, stopped, whispered, pointed, grasped, tore, leaped, tugged, screamed, ran, slapped, stabbed, cursed. These words do so much more than say what is. They indicate first fear, then panic.
- Choose action-bearing non-verbs. Looming is a verb form used as an adjective. Crashing is used as a noun.
- Create an image without saying so.
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