Descriptive Writing Lesson

Writing Lesson:  Words Create Images

Good writers--practiced writers--know how to paint clear and vivid pictures in the minds of their readers.  Today we are going to practice this skill. 

Lesson #1:  Good writers work with precise, specific words, rather than common or vague words. 

Vague:  Car, Food, Furniture, Picture, Flower, Bird, Music, Woman, etc.                                               

              

The problem:  Each of us creates a different picture in our minds when we read these words.                                           The solution:  Good writers paint specific images that all readers visualize in the same way.   

Let's practice creating specific images from vague words.  

It's not a car, it's a:

It's not just food, it's:

It's not simply music, it's:

Lesson #2:  While using vivid imagery is important, try not to over-flower your words and images 

                        with superfluous adjectives and adverbs.  

                     

The problem:  1969, convertible, cherry-red mustang with white leather seats.  

The solution:   Simplify.  Sometimes a simple "Mustang" will do.

Lesson #3:  Learning from the experts:  Let's read an excerpt from an author who mentors specific word choice and concrete images. 

                   

A "Mentor" text is any text that teaches us how to use words and language in meaningful, deliberate ways.  The more we pay attention to the word choice, vocabulary, style, punctuation, and sentence variety of practiced or expert writers, the more we learn about ourselves as writers. Paying attention to how words are placed together in good reading, helps us to become better writers.  Good reading "mentors" us as writers.  Think about what the texts that you are reading are teaching you as a writer.  How are they "mentoring" you?

Mentor Text #1:  Excerpt from the novel, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett  

The small boys came early to the hanging.  

      It was dark when the first three or four of them sidled out of the hovels, quiet as cats in their felt boots.   A thin layer of fresh snow covered the little town like a new coat of paint, and theirs were the first footprints to blemish its perfect surface.  They picked their way through the huddled wooden huts and along the streets of frozen mud to the silent marketplace, where the gallows stood waiting.

     The boys despised everything their elders valued.  They scorned beauty and mocked goodness.  They would hoot with laughter at the sight of a cripple, and if they saw an wounded animal they would stone it to death.  They boasted of injuries and wore their scars with pride, and they reserved special admiration for mutilation:  a boy with a finger missing could be their king.  They loved violence; they would run for miles to see bloodshed; and they never missed a hanging.

Which words create a specific, vivid image in your mind?

Questions:   As readers we get the sense that these boys are "bad," but the author never TELLS us this.  He SHOWS us through his words.  What words contribute to this feeling?  Would the writing be as powerful if the author simply told us that these were "nasty, evil boys"?  What does this text "mentor" to us as readers?

Mentor Text #2:  Take a look at the student essays from the New York Times article.  What imagery creates pictures in your minds as readers?  Which words/phrases are most effective and create the most impact?  What do these essays "mentor" to you as writers?

HOMEWORK REMINDER:  Your "I'm From" poem (25 points) should be posted in your blog as a new blog post.  You can title it:  "I'm From." It should include images and/or links.  You should be prepared to read it out loud in class for our poetry reading on Monday Sept. 10.  You will not receive full credit until you have read your poem aloud.