Visual Writing (1)

By: Keivan Taban

Fiction writers must adopt a style and use a language that, where necessary, pins images, however rough, in their readers’ minds or at least helps them visualize a particular time or space in their heads. These images could have a lasting effect on the readers’ minds, or, conversely, could only be transient visual impressions. No matter what kind of image the writer’s language forms, it is the extent of readers’ fascination with the language and its ability to describe a thing or a scene vividly—as if readers’ were seeing that thing or scene with their own eyes—that brings value to a creatively written piece. Equally important is the admiring readers’ perception of language and its capabilities as s powerful tool upon discovering the photographic power of right words and thoughtfully crafted sentences.

Praiseworthy prose evokes mental images and provokes colorful imagination, leaving readers sunken in vistas captured not by their eyes but by their visual perception of written words and sentences.