Have you ever felt like the scene
you were reading was practically jumping off the page?
I did, especially when the text
passages invoked a string of images in my mind which set the atmosphere and
make the character or scene more colourful, more realistic, more tangible. A
lot of that vividness is achieved by a careful choice of words which introduce
an underlying theme into a paragraph or action sequence. However, in order to
pick the right words to create a theme, you need to have a big pool of
vocabulary at your fingertips.
Take the following passage for
example:
Scalding heat seared through her body. In a gasp, dry air blazed its way to her lungs, setting her chest on fire. Trying to escape the scorching shock of agony, Myrna started awake. Ripping open her eyes, they burned with tears as she fought to make sense of the flames consuming her.
Example by Vivienne
The theme here is fire as a
representation of pain. You find different word classes working together to
conjure up the image:
Nouns:
heat, fire, flames
Verbs: seared,
blazed, burned
Adjectives:
scalding, scorching
However, it has to be noted that sometimes one or
two well-placed words are enough to set the theme. This example is aimed at
demonstrating the possibilities and leans toward an overdose of fire-related
words. Consequently, the impression of flames consuming Marla nearly overrides
their association with burning pain in the reader’s mind.
Still, I think it is very
important as a writer not only to research facts, habits, cultural intricacies
and character quirks, but also the vocabulary that goes with those topics or
images that are closely related to the scene you would like to set. In the end,
it is these associations, made through vocabulary, choice that make up a big
part of an author’s style in terms of descriptive writing. The vocabulary
serves to invoke a vivid image in the reader’s mind, making a scene or
character more tangible and imbuing it with its own flavour.
If you want to spice up your own
writing synonym dictionaries like the Thesaurus can be a great help - www.thesaurus.com. Just try yourself out
and play with your words! Another interesting option is the Urban Dictionary - http://www.urbandictionary.
I hope you have fun creating your
own images and worlds. And I’m curious, what’s the most memorable image you can
remember?
-Vivienne
Photo Credit to unserkachelofen.at
Photo Credit to unserkachelofen.at
Categories:
Wheel of Writing
