What Is Imagery & How Do You Use It In Fiction Writing?

What is imagery and how do you use it in fiction writing? We define imagery and explain how fiction writers can use it in their stories.

What Is Imagery?

“Description composed of sensory detail penetrates layers of consciousness, engaging your reader emotionally as well as intellectually…” ~Rebecca McClanahan

Imagery is a literary device that allows us to immerse ourselves in the stories we read. It is a type of description – one of the most effective ways to show and not tell, where we are able to experience fiction in someone else’s shoes. As writers, we use the five senses (sound, taste, smell, touch, sight) to create these unforgettable scenes. The writing is so vivid that we feel as if we are part of the story. The use of motifs is also a powerful way to use the senses.

Using imagery also includes figurative language like metaphors and similes to convey emotions, setting, and mood.

How To Use Imagery In Fiction Writing

There are five types of imagery:

1. Auditory imagery. Writers use techniques like onomatopoeia (bees buzz, pigs oink, leaves crackle and crunch), repetition, and alliteration to create sounds for the reader. Onomatopoeia is the most common and it means using words to imitate sounds. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting. Use these words in your writing.
2. Gustatory imagery. Writers use words like acidic, brackish, bitter, ripe, and sour when characters eat or taste something. Click here for more information and words on taste.
3. Olfactory imagery. Writers help you to smell freshly baked bread, lavender, smoke from a fire, a cloying perfume, a sweaty shirt, and newly ironed laundry. “Smell is one of the most powerful senses. It can transport us back in time in a moment. The sense of smell is more closely linked with memory than any of the other senses. It also evokes emotions. It is one of our most important survival mechanisms. A bad smell warns us that we are in danger, for example, when we smell smoke or rotten food.” (Source)
4. Tactile imagery. Writers make you feel the stones or dry grass beneath your feet. They make you touch the sleek fur of a cat. Your fingers feel the warm sunlight on your skin. “The sense of touch is so important because touch confirms that our eyes aren’t deceiving us. Readers identify with characters who interact with their worlds.” (Source)
5. Visual imagery. Writers describe scenes with textures, colours, contrasts, shapes, sizes, movement, patterns, tones, and light to create a picture in the reader’s mind. For example, a character who lives in a colourful home is very different to one who lives in a monochromatic home.

Examples of Imagery

1. Visual Imagery: “A forest fire was making its way along the tinderbox ridges above them, flaring and shimmering against the overcast like the northern lights. Cold as it was he stood there a long time. The colour of it moved something in him long forgotten.” ~Cormac McCarthy, The Road.
2. Tactile and Auditory Imagery: “Something stung his left hand. He slapped at it, expecting to see an insect. He looked down to see a pale yellow leaf. It fell to the ground with a rustle. On the back of his hand, a veining of red, wet blood welled up. The wood whispered about them.” ~Neil Gaiman, Stardust
3. Olfactory Imagery: “The dry reek of cigarettes has become the scent of burning leaves; the sweet and simple bonfire scent of autumn nights by the fireside.” ~Joanne Harris, The Strawberry Thief
4. Visual and Auditory Imagery: “Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.” ~Herman Melville, Moby Dick
5. Olfactory Imagery: “There were strange, rare odours abroad—a tangle of the sea smell and of weeds and damp, new-plowed earth, mingled with the heavy perfume of a field of white blossoms somewhere near.” ~Kate Chopin, The Awakening
6. Gustatory Imagery: “I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold.” ~William Carlos Williams, ‘This Is Just To Say‘ poem.
7. Visual Imagery: “Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Suddenly, they become the bleached bones of a story.” ~Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

The Last Word

The use of imagery (the five senses) is important when we create a character’s world. If we do it well, the reader will experience it in real time as they soak in the words.

Top Tip: The Visual Storytelling Workbook may also be useful to you.

by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson

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