What is the difference between imagery and detail

He was amazed by how little things had changed out here. There were a few new houses he didn't remember, there was a tavern called Dell's just over the town line, and a pair of fresh gravel quarries. A good deal of the hardwood had been pulped over.

But the old tin sign pointing the way to the town dump was still there, and the road itself was still unpaved, full of chuckholes and washboards, and he could see Schoolyard Hill through the slash in the trees where the Central Maine Power pylons ran on a northwest to southeast line. The Griffen farm was still there, although the barn had been enlarged. He wondered if they still bottled and sold their own milk. The logo had been a smiling cow under the name brand: "Sunshine Milk from the Griffen Farms!

He had splashed a lot of that milk on his corn flakes at Aunt Cindy's house. He turned left onto the Brooks Road, passed the wrought-iron gates and the low fieldstone wall surrounding Harmony Hill Cemetery, and then went down the steep grade and started up the far side--the side known as Marsten's Hill. At the top, the trees fell away on both sides of the road. On the right, you could look right down into the town proper--Ben's first view of it.

It is very straight forward description. Almost journalistic in style with just a hint of nostalgia. This next part follows the above immediately: On the left, the Marsten House.

He pulled over and got out of the car. It was just the same. There was no difference, not at all. He might have last seen it yesterday. The witch grass grew wild and tall in the front yard, obscuring the old, frost-heaved flagstones that led to the porch.

Chirring crickets sang in it, and he could see grasshoppers jumping in erratic parabolas. The house itself looked toward town. It was huge and rambling and sagging, its windows haphazardly boarded shut, giving it that sinister look of all old houses that have been empty for a long time. The paint had been weathered away, giving the house a uniform gray look. Windstorms had ripped many of the shingles off, and a heavy snowfall had punched in the west corner of the main roof, giving it a slumped, hunched look.

A tattered no-trespassing sign was nailed to the right-hand newel post. From the first paragraph to the second, the tone changes radically.

King uses image generating words like: 'wild', 'huge', 'sagging', 'punched' and 'slumped'. And my favorite sentence in the whole paragraph: "The house itself looked toward town. That one word, in that one short sentence, gives the house a personality bringing it to life. Riis Marshall WF Veterans. Hello Terry I think you've answered your question pretty well yourself: pick up some of the works of great storytellers and read how they have done it. One of my favourites for this is Dickens.

It don't get no better than this! All the best with your writing. Warmest regards Riis. Click to expand I'm not real good at doing it, but when I read the work of others who are masters, it is really magical. One of my favorite authors, Gillian Flynn paints such vivid pictures with her words. She is an author I go back and re-read every once in awhile and can pretty much pick any chapter and be rewarded.

Here is an example from her book "Dark Places. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it. TKent said:. Compared to:. InstituteMan WF Veterans. I think imagery requires emotion, and exhaustive detail is the enemy of emotional connection. I'm not saying that there isn't both technical skill and artistry that blends description over into imagery, but the scenes in fiction that really stick with me years later were written by masters about characters I cherished.

Almost perversely, in order to really imagine a scene--even the physical description of the scene--I need to be able to relate to the character s involved.

Those are some truly great scenes with some richly textured characters, and I can see them both so clearly. That is TOO cool! Terry D said:. One of the agents I pitched to on Saturday was from the agency which represents Gillian Flynn.

One way you can strengthen your imagery muscles is to write poetry. Poetry forces the writer to focus on producing vivid images using fewer words than we prose writers like to limit ourselves to. It doesn't need to be good poetry just some verse to make yourself look at ordinary things from different perspectives. For instance, during the first week of class I was monopolizing the faculty Xerox machine at CYP for long periods of time, much to the chagrin of other instructors who also needed to make copies.

The reason I had to make so many copies is that the ACC bookstore did not order enough copies of the textbooks for most of my classes. As I was attempting to make copies of about 40 pages from the textbook for my World Literature I class, I apologetically explained to one of my colleagues that the bookstore had not ordered nearly enough copies of your text.

While Edwards had graduated from Yale prior to beginning his ministry, Brother Sheffield had driven a beer truck prior to beginning his. While St. This may seem like a strange route to take to the ministry, but I digress. Brother Sheffield was making highly effective use of olfactory imagery, which appeals to the sense of smell.

Another common type of figure of speech is personification. A writer uses personification when he gives human qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics to nonhuman entities. The nonhuman entities can be animals or inanimate non-living things. Given below are some example of symbolism in literature. Apple is a symbol of temptation. Imagery refers to the use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to the writing. Symbolism refers to the imbuement of objects with a certain meaning that is different from their original meaning or function.

Symbolism implies a hidden meaning in words. Symbolism appeals to the intellect. About the Author: admin. View all posts.