Quick Write – Writer’s NB Take a picture from the pile on

your way in. Please sit down at your desk, and

begin writing a piece about the landscape that uses all five senses.

Your task is to describe the scene in front of you in as much detail as you can.

Be ready to share.

Insert my picture here

Please take notes in your Writer’s Notebook as we go along.

Question #1:

What is imagery?

It is description. Factual (what is actually there)

i.e.: the gritty wet sand under her bare feet

Figurative (an object is described when compared to another noun) i.e.: the armies of sand grains advancing

across the wood floor of the beach house

What is imagery?

It USES ALL 5 SENSES, not only visual cues.

SightSound

SmellTaste

Touch

What does imagery do?

“Images are seductive in themselves, but they’re not merely scenery, or shouldn’t be. An image, when it’s doing its full work, can direct a reader toward some insight, bring a poem to an emotional [height], embody an idea.”

– Kim Addonizio

It inspires imagination in readers.Your reader should be able to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch people, objects and scenes that are not physically present.

Question #2:

1. Slow down your writing.

In other words, add more detail.

Make sure each word is included on purpose.

Be certain your reader can imagine what you’re describing.

Think of this as writing “frame by frame” as in a movie.

2. Avoid clichés.

Fits like a glove Fight for your life Walk on eggshells Jump for joy Eat your words Flesh and blood Not my cup of tea

3. Avoid…

Abstractions (ideas/concepts that cannot be experienced directly through one of our five senses) Anger, love, hate, criticism, intelligence, greed,

death Generalizations (can only be vaguely

visualized because they include too many of a given group) Creatures, something, kitchen equipment,

everything Judgments (telling the reader instead of

showing them) Suspiciously, beautiful, stupid

Writing Exercise - WNBAbstractions -> Images

Describe love or death using one of the five senses… without using a cliché.

Writing Exercise - WNB Generalization -> Images

Creature Domestic animal Dog Mixed-breed Shepherd Old Sammy asleep on the red rug,

his haunches twitching in his dream

4. Show, don’t tell.

Let your writing be: Concrete ( there is an image,

something that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched)

Detailed (there is a degree of focus and specificity)

Significant (the specific image also reminds your reader of an abstraction, generalization, or judgment)

Example – Fixing Delilah

What do we know about these characters, and how do we know it?

REwriting Exercise - Collected

Go back in time and relive that moment in writing, first person, present tense.

Where can you add imagery to make your story seem more like a movie? Highlight passages.

Edit with your purple pen.

Take another look at your “Music of My Heart” piece.

“Writing that centers itself on physical description has at least two things going for it. First, it activates the readers’ senses ad engages both their minds and their bodies. Second, it helps writers get out of their analytical brains and into their sensory subconscious, the place where real truth gets told.” – Pam Houston

5. Try figures of speech

Metaphors A comparison made without using “like”

or “as” Similes

A comparison made using “like” or “as” Personification

Giving human qualities to inanimate objects

Metaphor Compare yourself to something else without

using “like” or “as”. I am … (Think Kate Perry here:

firework!) Simile

Compare your house to something else using “like”.

My house is like a … Personification

Give human qualities to your most prized possession.

Writing Exercise - WNB

Writing Exercise - Collected Grab a highlighter and a different color pen. Reread your quick write from earlier today (in your

WNB). Read critically. Locate abstractions, generalizations, and

judgments and highlight them. On a separate piece of paper, revise/rewrite your

description of this landscape. Slow down, add images, try out figures of speech.

Submit to me before you leave today.

“The more you practice with imagery—recording it in as much vivid detail as you can—the more likely it is that your poetry will become an experience for the reader, rather than simply talk about an experience. We are surrounded by images daily. Pay attention to those images, and use them to make your [writing shine].” – Kim Addonizio

Homework: Read Annie Dillard’s short piece of creative

nonfiction, “The Giant Water Bug,” in which she describes a single observation during a nature walk.

Write a typed, one-page (double-spaced) response to this piece. Be ready to share your thoughts in class.

Your response should be detailed and specific. Discuss what Dillard does and how it impacts you.

Bring an object that is important to you with you to class.