Happy St. Patrick's Day all you Irish and want-to-be Irish.
May the luck of the Irish rest in your pocket all your life.
I love this day. It means spring is coming. It means it's time for green shakes, green beer and cabbage with corned beef. It's time to plant potatoes if you believe my grandfather who was Polish and not Irish.
It's a day filled with traditions and imagery.
So how do we use imagery in our writing?
Here is a simple lesson.
Choose a photograph or a picture that depicts a scene. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day let’s imagine a photograph of a man planting potatoes. You can use any sort of picture you wish.
Stare at the picture for awhile. Let yourself enter the scene and stay there for a few moments.
Now put yourself into the picture. Imagine that you are in the picture. You are looking around. You are experiencing everything that is happening in the picture.
Ask yourself: What do I see? What do I hear? What do I smell? What can I touch? What can I taste?
Taste is often difficult for some people to imagine but if you are working to plant a long row of potatoes can’t you imagine the taste of sweat on your lips or dirt?
Write down all of the senses you are experiencing. Write it out using as many adjectives as you can think of to describe the experience. Doing so will help you learn how to bring your writing scenes to life for your readers.
FYI
I met my husband on St. Patrick's Day in 1973. Irish luck? Maybe.
Pat Davids
4 comments:
And a Happy St. Patrick's to you, Pat! WE're having corned beef and cabbage for supper--definitely a kraut and a pollock wanna-be-Irish.
What a great lesson. I can smell the damp, loamy scent of freshly turned soil. The potatoes (ours since we cut them) have a starchy fragrance that says spring too.
Joan,
The only Irish in me comes from the highschool I attended. We were the Chapman, KS Fighting Irish!
Hope the corned beef and cabbage was good.
Pat
Happy belated St. Patrick's Day, Pat. The only tradition we observed for the day was to drink green colored orange juice. I secretly started this when my kids were little so they could feel like they had luck on their side--at least for that one day. I did this for years and they loved it, even after they realized it was just mom doing it and not a leprechaun.
A very belated Happy St. Patrick's Day to you, Pat. How cool that you met your honey on St. Pat's day. Thanks for the exercise, too.
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