Imagine the scene: you have spent an hour unpicking the language and structure of two long, dense texts to hurriedly write analytical responses to four questions. The last question – question 4 – which required you to compare the perspectives of both writers, was particularly challenging. You didn’t quite have enough time and you’re feeling a bit drained. You turn the page and you’re faced with…a picture. You’ve never seen it before, never been to the place it shows, and can’t relate to it at all. You are now expected to write an interesting, evocative description of this picture in 45 minutes. Where on earth to start?
You stare at the picture in panic. Two people stand, hand in hand with their backs to you, gazing out on an alien landscape. The picture is timeless, and the landscape is barren; not one feature of it speaks to you. It shuts you out, rather than invites you in. Your attention drifts to the tick of the classroom clock, insistently telling you that time is passing. You’re dimly aware of the echoing beat of your heart, speeding a little like it’s been wound too tightly. The ache in your hand and the tension across your forehead remind you of the pages of inscrutable script you’ve torturously eked out. What was it that your teacher said about adopting an original perspective? You can’t remember. The picture stares blankly at you, indifferent to your prying.
Do you see what I did there? I hope you’ve spotted that the second paragraph contains imagery (and a few other techniques) and as a result, it’s more engaging to the reader, or at least more evocative of the challenges GCSE English students face.
Although this is by no means a brilliant example of creative writing, it does show that you don’t have to throw everything at a task to achieve a particular effect. I haven’t tried to appeal to all of the reader’s senses, just auditory and tactile mainly. The paragraph isn’t absolutely peppered with metaphors either. There’s a bit of personification, and a simile. However, what the paragraph does do is develop ideas through imagery. I could, for example, just have mentioned that the classroom clock was ticking, but my comparing it to the student’s beating heart, the text conveys a sense of panic brought about by the awareness of time passing. The personification of the ‘unfriendly’ picture which I began at the start of the paragraph is returned to at the end of it. The use of cyclical imagery reinforces the impression that it’s not possible for the student to get access to the image. So, less is more in terms of imagery, but it’s important for student to learn how to sustain an image and create a pattern out of it.
This is quite a tricky skill to learn. As you can see from one of my student’s first attempts at a picture description below, it is easier to introduce an image, but more tricky to develop it. Using imagery (or indeed any other technique) basically comes down to purpose – in other words, students have to ask themselves what mood or atmosphere they are trying to create, and then work out whether their use of imagery does this.
As you can see, the first question concentrates on the writer’s purpose, because this is what should govern the rest of the writer’s decisions. Once the student has identified the pattern of imagery, I ask what the connotations are of this imagery and how it contributes to the overall atmosphere of the paragraph. Once we establish this, we look at the end of the paragraph, where mood changes, and this allows me to introduce the idea of ‘layers’ of imagery. In other words, in a single short passage, it’s possible to give conflicting impressions of a place through contrasting imagery. After this lesson, here’s the same student’s second attempt at picture description (this time of an island)
There’s still some way to go here in terms of establishing layers of imagery, but the use of imagery is far more sustained – and effective – than the first attempt.
If you’d like me to help your teen to develop their creative writing skills and to develop an enthusiasm for crafting picture descriptions and stories, just get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.
