{"id":5771,"date":"2013-10-25T11:46:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=5771"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:40","slug":"emotion-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/emotion-words\/","title":{"rendered":"The Emotion of Words"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"words,
by Smock Art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Words carry a lot of meaning.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean that in the sense of synonyms and homonyms, but in the sense that the way we construct our sentences and phrases can carry \u2013 or not \u2013 far more meaning than the words alone should.\u00a0 It\u2019s sometimes called \u201cword pictures\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to paint a mental picture of a girl who is sickly and frail, you would do well to stay away from the words \u201clight\u201d or \u201cfair\u201d in describing her skin and use \u201cpale\u201d or \u201cashen\u201d.\u00a0 A dog that is scrawny will likely be viewed as unhealthy, while \u201cslender\u201d or \u201cthin\u201d may be viewed as fit and toned.\u00a0 If moving a bag or package, \u201choisted\u201d, \u201cheaved\u201d or \u201chefted\u201d brings to mind a good deal of weight while \u201ctossed\u201d or \u201cflipped\u201d indicates a light load and easy task.\u00a0 A good thesaurus will help you find alternate words and a dictionary will help make sure you\u2019re using them correctly.\u00a0 But it goes beyond this.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sometimes the most powerful description is the one that does not directly say what you want to convey at all: \u201cDon\u2019t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.\u201d ~ Anton Checkhov<\/p>\n

By using the \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell\u201d means of story telling you place the reader inside the narrative seeing the scene, not being told what there is to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve was having trouble keeping his eyes on his work with her standing so close.\u00a0 Her figure was a perfect blend of athletic and curvaceous.\u00a0 Topped with the face of an angel, framed in an ebony mane, he found her quite irresistible.\u201d In this passage I could have gone into great length describing the fullness of her breasts, the curve of her buttocks, well-toned legs, the shape of her face, eyes, nose, lips and the style and length of her hair.\u00a0 Many authors do.\u00a0 I chose to allow the reader to form their own mental image of Janis based on their own preferences and experience.\u00a0 The details weren\u2019t important to the story, so I granted the reader license to create them.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately it was quite early in the morning; cool, and the snake had not yet had its coffee.\u00a0 I dispatched it easily and with little fuss.\u201d Sometimes using a little humor as a metaphor can describe a scene or the conditions better than a lengthy explanation that will slow the action.\u00a0 Short stories especially benefit from an economy of words.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut once in a while \u2013 when in a highly charged emotional state — poetry drips from the point of my pencil.\u201d\u00a0 Mental imagery helps describe the anguish of writing poetry.<\/p>\n

We stood, staring at one another for several moments.\u00a0 Her eyes were wide and moist, pleading with me to give up my quest.\u00a0 My eyes were wet too, I loved Jillian, but I hated living like a rat in a box.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going, Jillian.\u201d I whispered, \u201cWill you come with me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her eyes overflowed, tears streamed down her cheeks, \u201cI can\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019m scared Nikki, I just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

I beat the tickets I still clutched against my leg a few times, clamped my lips together as I nodded slowly then walked into my room and closed the door.\u00a0 I needed to pack.<\/p>\n

There is a great deal of anguish in that last paragraph, but does it need to be described?\u00a0 Do I need to spell out his conflict, his breaking heart, his frustration in words?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so; it\u2019s all there, tucked in between the lines.<\/p>\n

Using a few well-turned phrases can cut out a lot of narrative clutter and streamline a story.\u00a0 What are some of your favorite word-picture passages?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words carry a lot of meaning.  I don’t mean that in the sense of synonyms and homonyms, but in the sense that the way we construct our sentences and phrases can carry – or not – far more meaning than the words alone should.  It’s sometimes called “word pictures” If you want to paint a … Continue reading “The Emotion of Words”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-5771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21520,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions\/21520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}