As a creative writer, the concept I value most is imagery. There is nothing worse than reading what should be a fun and exciting piece, only to find yourself simply skimming along halfheartedly.

A piece of prose or poetry should be a doorway into another world — and sometimes that door is simply a window into our boring, everyday lives–  and the only way to create that door is to enable the reader with details that allow them to easily imagine the world the writer is attempting to build.

Imagery drives the plot of a piece, and is an important component of language and story telling. Without — what is often called “flowery” — figurative language, readers would find no joy in reading and writers no joy in writing.

However, imagery should not be confused with over-explanations. No one wants to sit there and read ten pages about a dust particle traveling from room to room, encountering nothing and keeping to itself. Readers want to be shown (not told) what the world they are being thrown into acts like, but that doesn’t mean a writer needs to speed pages trying to sound descriptive and poetic. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that a writer has to describe the tiniest things, but sometimes the most seemingly unimportant details can make or break a story. What color is the sky, in this new place? How does the main character’s face move when trying to convey some bad news? How did the antagonist look when throwing his blueprints across the room?

Imagery, although often misunderstood, is what turns the images into a writer’s mind into reality.