Tuesday's Inspiration # Stephen King and Imagery revisited #MFRWauthor #inspiration #imagery

This is the repeat of something from a few eyars ago. The blog posts are now well over 2000 but this is good for another look.

Who better for the 1000th post on my blog than Stephen King. While I seldom read his books since horror chills me, I do admire his ability to build an atmosphere and use imagery to bring the reader into his world.

In an essay he wrote he said a lot of things about imagery and how to build this into a story. He mentioned a lot of rules that the writer learns over time. The following quote is one that sang to me. Particularly since I tend to be concrete in my writing, at least that was how I began. Hopefully I've grown over the years. 

"Imagery does not occur on the writer's page, it occurs in the reader's mind." Imagery isn't concrete descriptions but imagery are those little bits of description that stimulate the reader to build a scene in their heads. Not only descriptions of places but of people. Sort of like this. He was a messy eater. Better would be The meals of a week or even a month stained his shirt. It's that sort of thing that makes the reader sit up and say wow to the picture formed in their head. The great thing about this is no two readers will invision the man or the scene in the same way.

Mr. King has more to say on imagery and I'll be using them to inspire me in the next Tuesday or two.

Tuesday's Inspiration ala Stephen King on Imagery

Third time's the charm. The essay by M. King really gave me a lot to think about and a lot of inspiration. I tend to be a tight writer and imagery isn't one of my greatest strengths as a writer of fiction. The quotetime is "Don't be totally transported with imagery."

We've all read stories where the writer is so hyped on imagery the story gets lost in the number of images they're pushing at us. While we may finish the book we can then wonder what the book was about. Words, phrases and the use of every writing trick to bring the scense to life and we do see the scene but we don't remember it all.

An interesting thing I saw on TV was about people looking at a scene and then trying to remember what they had seen. Few of any could remember every detail. Most people only remembered a few things. This is something we should consider when writing. What images do you want the reader to carry from the scene.

For someone like me, I have to consider this very much since I may not create images for the reader to expand on in their own imagination. I'm trying to do better.

How about you? Do you bury your reader in images hoping to overwhelm them into seeing what you have envisioned? Do you forget the images to get the story down? A happy medium is the best way to go. So one more quote from Stephen King. "If you're writing fiction, you don't want to drown your reader in textures."

Tuesday's Inspiration inspired by Stephen King 400 plus rules

Am still browsing through an essay by Stephen King. What I found this time made me laugh and laughter is necessary for a writer. So here goes. This is about rules. "Use vivid words. Avoid the passive voice. Avoid the cliches. Be specific. Be precise. Be elegant. Avoid unnecessary words. These rules and the four hundred--" The quote goes on. What really struck me were the 400 other rules. Couldn't help wondering what they were and wondering what they could be.

Rules for writing. Mr. King is absolutely right about the ones he mentioned and there are more. These aren't rules one knows when they begin writing. They are ones discovered as more and more words are put on paper or show up on the computer screen. They are rules given by the editors, agents, members of our critique group can point out when they are reading your manuscript. For me  being specific falls under the It was rule. Avoiding those non-specific words can be hard and I find removing the comes in the revision mode. When I am in the heat of getting the story down I usually break all those rules and probably ones that weren't mentioned. Revision is the time when those rules come into play.

One specific rule I learned early on in my career went something like this "Characters don't exist in a vacuum." An editor handed this to me and I still struggle with getting this rule right.

How about you? Is there a rule of writing fiction that you need to learn how to follow?

Tuesday's Inspiration - Stephen King on Imagery

Who better for the 1000th post on my blog than Stephen King. While I seldom read his books since horror chills me, I do admire his ability to build an atmosphere and use imagery to bring the reader into his world.

In an essay he wrote he daid a lot of things about imagery and how to build this into a story. He mentioned a lot of rules that the writer learns over time. The following quote is one that sang to me. Particularly since I tend to be concrete in my writing, at least that was how I began. Hopefully I've grown over the years.

"Imagery does not occur on the writer's page, it occurs in the reader's mind." Imagery isn't concrete descriptions but imagery are those little bits of description that stimulate the reader to build a scene in their heads. Not only descriptions of places but of people. Sort of like this. The was a messy eater. Better would be The meals of a week or even a month stained his shirt. It's that sort of thing that makes the reader sit up and say wow to the picture formed in their head. The great thing about this is no two readers will invision the man or the scene in the same way.

Mr. King has more to say on imagery and I'll be using them to inspire me in the next Tuesday or two.