In this one-day intensive, you’ll explore how to make effective use of one of the key elements of craft in all good writing: imagery. Effective imagery goes far beyond flowery description to bring your reader closer to the experience on the page and to evoke thematic resonance. A well-placed image reveals character, mood, context, tone, and setting.
In class, we’ll explore how to draw on intuition and right-brain association to harvest images; we’ll also look at how to choose and shape those images. We’ll look at effective uses of imagery in published pieces, and everyone will have time in class to revise existing work and generate new material. Whether you’re looking to improve a work-in-progress or to start from scratch, this class will give you the tools to make imagery work for you.
Lindsey Crittenden is the author of an award-winning short-fiction collection, The View From Below, and a memoir, The Water Will Hold You (“exquisitely written,” Publishers’ Weekly starred review). Her short stories and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Best American Spiritual Writing, Glimmer Train, Cimarron Review, and other publications. She has taught writing for 30 years.