Tips for Writing Imagery

As the September issue wanes on, Seances in the Forest, The Typewriter has decided to share some information we find useful in writing imagery, specifically for the spooky issue.

Firstly, in order to write an image, you must be able to see the image. Visualize it in your mind before you even write your first word. What color is the wall? What is the weather like outside? What does your main character look like? Why do they look that way? (Tip: including the ‘why’ in your pondering always helps to enrich your story, but we’ll get into that another time) Set your scene with your eyes closed, in a near-meditative state if you must. See it all, then, write. Write one word. Write ten. Write a thousand. Get as much or as little down as you can, then worry about the cleanup after. Don’t go back, go forward. Re-reading and trying to edit something you’ve only just finalized in your mind will never work. Allow it to breathe, allow yourself to breathe, then come back and ask, does this need to breathe in this exact spot?

Second, when I said visualize your scene before you write it, the same goes for your plot. Imagine your story as a movie. Imagine you are the actors, director, cameraman, and mic. Make up your film, but move with the camera. Think of the pacing of your favorite movie, think of how it establishes scenes or characters. A good film is the pinnacle of show, don’t tell, and we writers hope to achieve the same. If you find yourself over-explaining or over-describing something, chances are you’ve done something wrong. (However, like I mentioned earlier, there is nothing wrong with wrong. Keep going, try, try again, and then go back and reconsider. Writing is a process, and a multi-leveled one at that). Let the scene speak for itself. Let the character’s nature come out organically, in their actions, in their words. Let your story just be.

Lastly, for that truly visceral writing we all crave, there is but one secret that this editor finds particularly prime: put yourself in the scene. Put yourself in the work, put yourself in the poem. Be the character, be the tree in the forest, be the helpless observer. Live your words, breathe your words, feel your words. Only then will the true writing come out; only then will the work take on a life of its own and cease feeling like a fiction. Write what the character see when you look upon the murderer, write what you felt when you originally sat down to write. Put yourself into it; after all, a writer’s writing is their fingerprint, it is etched from their bone marrow). Funnel and channel everything you feel about your story, all the hope, fear, terror, loss, beauty and sorrow, and put it into the writing. Then, your writing will transcend writing and become a thing that tickles spines, plucks heartstrings, and becomes real in every creak under the floorboard.

Good luck, writers. We hope this helps, and we cannot wait to read what you’ve dreamt up.

Yours,

The Typewriter