The high hills are for the wild goats;
The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. Psalm 104:18
“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”
Destin Sparks
I heard of a person saying, “There are pictures everywhere”. Some novelists work strenuously to create vivid images of the individual, landscape, the room the scene is taking place and the world in which the book is centred around. For centuries we have all been drawn to stories, whether we listen or tell them before going to sleep, or we enjoy an intriguing experience with our friends and family by the campfire on a beautifully lit night with the soft breeze caressing your face and back. Staring into the flames that flaunt their beauty with pride to fix your gaze on it as you listen to the storyteller, focused so intently you can see the world that is being painted, sigh and wish you were there, you keep an eye on the speaker and the other in the fire so as not to draw attention to yourself, as you quietly express the intensity of emotions desperate to gush out of you.
There is no doubt the best situations we encounter each day are the ones planted in our minds. We think in pictures and see the world from our point of view. Many people can look a painting and see so many different variations of it due to the realm it brings them into. What part of life does it take them back to and why that one in particular? Those whose eyes remained glued to the image have an inexplicable connection understood only by those who have had similar experiences.
Communication would be so much easier if we trained ourselves to be descriptive in our conversations. Vocabulary does fail to aid us in this regard, in spite of the numerous words in the dictionary. I have found it often to be the smartest words that grab the attention of the reader or listener. You need not venture far to sell just enough for the recipient to want more. The ability to do this makes you a great marketer, storyteller, salesman and just about anything in life really. How do you describe your safari trip? What are the highlights you can glean from a tropical island? That dessert you felt can be found nowhere else in the world and be replicated by no one, what was the overall circumstance that drew you to this conclusion?
If words fail you every time you want to relay something in an extraordinary way, I say read the dictionary, or at the very least, whip out the thesaurus. The icing on the cake? Your personality. What a person lacks in vocabulary, they make up for in diction, intonation, syntax, fluency and articulation of speech. Perhaps not fluency but they are able to carry a story forward for as long as necessary, provided the audience maintains the grip the hook caught them on in the first place. Use relevant words, think about the best words that you know fit the story and your personality. The audience plays a part in your discourse. Should you be recounting key features of your adventure to a minor, you know what to do.
Painting a picture with your words essentially means learning how to bait your audience to desiring more as the imagination finishes your story for you. Master how to use enough words to paint the picture that the mind will create beyond a thousand words.
Writersfield 