Simple Fantasy Writing

Figurative Language: An introduction

11:15:00 AM

One of the challenges of writing a story is that you have to take what you have imagined and convey that image to another person so that they can have the same experience and enjoyment that you have had. If I held a photo in my hand and you had to guess what it looked like . . . could you?

No. You would not have the slightest idea.

That is why it is important for you to become a writer who knows how to describe the image that just passed through your thoughts. This can become a problem since a story flows like a river and description can be a large panoramic scene—that can potentially slow your story to a halt.

Sometimes slowing the pace of a story down has its uses. For the most part a story has to have some kind of movement. After all, who wants to read a ‘story’ that describes a chair in the most intricate manner . . . and nothing ever happens. The reader might learn a lot about that chair. Most people do not have the patience for that endeavor.

How to do it Right

Use your common senses. Use the extensive vocabulary that exists. Don’t just tell your reader what happened. Take them by the shoulder, push them into the flowing river, wait a moment and watch them flail about, hear them scream, and listen for the chattering of their teeth. . . Get it? The senses allow you to make the idea in your head more realistic. The scene transforms from simple narrative summary into a dynamic descriptive scene.

Try sitting in your local coffee shop and observing all that happens. What do you notice? What details become important to you? What atmospheric elements attract your attention? These are all details that could become an important element of the scene of a young (or old) writer sitting down at a coffee shop, starting his or her first manuscript and getting past the bog of writers block. (Terrible cliché)

Hesitate on This

Many of the articles posted online suggest that you should avoid becoming too reliant on adjectives. The long list of adjectives is an element of writing that might impair your ability to interest your reader.

This can be avoided by bringing the most important and specific details to the attention of your reader. Most of the time, those details can be shown by the actions of your character.

Show, Don’t Tell is a phrase that will help strengthen your writing.

Try This

If you have a friend that is willing to help you write better. Have them read what you’ve written. Ask them if they were confused or bored. That will give you some immediate feedback. Don’t let them dictate what you should write . . . but let them help point out some weak parts of your writing.

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Figurative Language: An introduction

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