Imagery and symbolism in writing

The powerful literary techniques of imagery and symbolism, when used correctly, are able to enhance the depth of writing. Imagery helps a reader picture the scene, adding a deeper connection with the narrative, whereas symbolism adds wafer-thin layers of meaning, and helps colour their interpretation of events by adding an emotional connection.

This week’s blog post will cover both techniques, as well as exploring why they should be the most-used tools in any writer’s arsenal. Don’t worry, we’ll also go over what they are, as well as some examples, so you’re ready to put them to good use!

Imagery

In writing, imagery refers to the use of vivid language, which adds depth to written pieces – usually, evocative or sensory descriptions are the ways to do this. Anything which adds colour or allows the reader to more accurately imagine an image is… well… imagery. The technique is the bread and butter of writing, though it has many different applications – you could use familiar imagery that a reader would be used to or totally out-of-this-world stuff, depending on what you want to achieve through your writing – or even something in-between!

There are many different types of imagery, but they tend to revolve around sensory descriptions, more often than not. These are things like visual imagery, describing how things look, so that the reader can be guided into imagining the scene. For example, if you were to write ‘a fluffy lollipop rolled out from under the bed, stopping its progression after the coin it got itself stuck to anchored it to the floor’ then they are likely to imagine a dirty bedroom – but as there isn’t much specification (what flavour is the lollipop? Is the ground carpet? How much is the coin worth?), they will likely still have their own interpretations of events despite the description.

How to enhance imagery

And for some, that’s enough! With the basics covered, the scene can move onto the characters, story progression or whatever else they want to cover. However, if it is dreadfully important to the story that the reader knows what flavour the lollipop is, then you can always enhance the description. ‘He gulped, bringing it towards the light – but the thick fur covering had completely covered the sugary globe. Time was escaping, and he knew he had no other choice but to plunge it into his mouth. The fur soaked up most of his saliva, but he eventually tasted a muted hint of artificial orange.’ And then you’d have ticked off the sense of taste, too!

The rest of them are pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t put our unnamed protagonist through any more torture. But if you did want to go deeper in your own writing, you could cover the other senses – auditory, olfactory or tactile descriptions also have the ability to immerse the reader in the story, making the narrative more entertaining and memorable.

Symbolism in text

So, what’s symbolism? It’s the use of symbols to represent abstract concepts or ideas – so using an object, character, setting or other method to convey emotions or ideas. The technique is used to add an extra bit of understanding, and adds meanings that may not even need to be fully explored in the text, meaning you can smugly nod as the reader immediately understands what you’re hinting at, before you’ve fully explored it.

Like for imagery, you can use symbolism in many different ways, and as before, there are some commonly used examples, too. As there’s been a whole lot of literature happening, there are also many symbolistic conventions that have arisen – such as colours (black for death/evil and white for innocence/angels), popular tropes (battle-scarred badasses wearing sunglasses or milkshake dates in American films) and more.

Imagining symbols!

Though often used on their own, combining the two techniques can work really well for altering the meaning of a story. Describing a setting like a tumultuous sea would be classed as visual imagery, though sprinkling in some symbolism, for example saying that the eaves were ‘nothing compared to the piercing stare I could feel boring into my shoulder blades’ paints a stronger picture of the kind of atmosphere without simply stating this fact. Ok, now make your own!