: Re: What makes a strong mental image? Images, as I call them, are an important part of your prose. Now, let's look at examples of bad images: From Onision's (from now on, Onii-san) book, Reaper's

@Odierno164

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What makes it good is a good use of sensory information that the reader can recognize, "a warm blanket on a cold night" is talking about a particular sensory feeling we can relate to.

It has to be consistent with the character, and what the character knows, but ALSO something the reader can recognize. Saying "The animal reminded him of a vinglebeast" may be consistent with his experience, but doesn't help the reader at all.

It should not be overblown, or "purple" prose, meaning prose that is so flowery or ornate or poetic that it draws attention to itself, thus breaking the reader's reverie to focus on the description. Two ways to avoid this: Fewer adjectives and shorter length, readers expect descriptive prose to be easily digestible, not a paragraph long.

On the other end of the spectrum, it should not be cliché, a description we have heard so often it also breaks reverie. "It hit him like a ton of bricks" was certainly original at some point, and it must have been wildly successful imagery to be quoted so often that it became a cliché, but at this point it is just tired.

Which leaves you in the middle somewhere, original enough to avoid cliché, but not so original the reader notices it, or has to parse it, or for whatever reason it breaks their reverie.

It needs to aid the reader's imagination of the scene, or mental or physical state of the character. What is the character feeling? What sensation or emotion? What do they see? What do they smell?

These are some guidelines of what NOT to do. There isn't exactly a formula for good imagination aids, that is part of the art of writing and applying your own imagination.

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