Stephen King’s article, Imagery and the Third Eye, is an excellent reminder that we must describe enough for the reader to “see” a picture in their mind.

I’ve always believed that we shouldn’t describe everything. It’s never bothered me if a reader sees something different to what I saw when I wrote the story, as long as they saw something and it left them feeling satisfied.

Why do I feel this way? We all come from different backgrounds, cultures, religions, countries. The house that I see in my mind, isn’t the house that you see in yours, because our neighbourhoods are different. Trees and flowers are different in my area to yours as well.

What is scary to me, may not be scary to you, so a good piece of writing needs to give the right elements so that the passage brings a scary image to both of our minds.

Yes, it’s a good article. Go read it to discover if you see images with your third eye.

Filed under: Characterisation, Planning, World Building, Writing: