Storytelling 101: Visualization
A writing exercise that helps you develop your ability to tell a story.
Let's practice storytelling—my favorite writing. Fiction or non, it doesn’t matter. Writing a good story aims to transport the reader to the moment.
To do this, we need to be able to paint a picture with words. Some writers take this too far. You want to lead the reader to form pictures with their imagination.
You do not need to imprint the exact picture in their heads. This is too much detail and will create cognitive dissonance. They will try to form the picture in their head, and you will contradict it with the one in yours.
The key is to leave enough ambiguity in the description to allow the reader to form their picture while you move the story forward.
Example
The knight lifted his helmet to have an unobstructed view of the battlefield. Blood-red clover matted to the earth under writhing bodies deep in the throws of agony.
The enemy retreated, but there was no victory that day.
His sword angled down to the ground and dripped blood. The victim’s body beneath it, he gasped for his last breath.
Was it worth it?
