Showing Imagery || Lit Team

Hello and welcome back to Lit Team Tips!

My name is Caroline, and I'm the captain of AOT Amino's Lit Team!

What's the Lit Team?

The Lit Team is a group of talented individuals who will roleplay with other s, participate in our LT Roleplay, and help give tips to people who would like to improve their writing!

So lets get started!

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Milky has a lot of tips for you!!

im·age·ry

ˈimij(ə)rē/

noun

1. visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

imagery is a literary device that is

use for when an individual is

describing something by using

their five senses; taste, touch,

smell, sight, and hearing.

when using these five sense,

you really wanna go full

on depth explaining what

character you are role playing as

is either seeing or smelling and etc.

yes! full on depth! don’t be

vague what/where your

character is doing/at.

an example:

‘The girl with brown hair looked out the window to see trees and a sky. ‘

lets see what the

problem is here. I didn’t go full on

depth detail with the window,

the trees and the sky.

I barely described the

character as well.

is the girl sitting or standing?

is she in her room or is she somewhere else?

what color is the sky?

are there any clouds?

is there a sun appearing?

is it windy?

what tree does it look like?

does it have leaves or no?

if it has leaves what are the colors?

these are details that you

can describe with by using imagery.

Now we provide the same

sentence but with imagery:

‘The girl with chocolate brown colored hair, stood in front of the creamy white vertical window sliders. She noticed that the sky had a dull appearance.

A tone of blue mixed with dim grayish white clouds swirling around. Her light golden eyes then moved to the look around the look at the maple trees.

The trees leaves were the only things was bright and vivid around the area. Colors from bright red to peachy orange to golden yellow.

The windy air pushed the tree’s branches to and fro. She then slide her window open and let the cold and crispy air in.

The wind pushed her chocolate ponytail and bangs along with the maple’s branch. They moved as one, a rhythm together.

She then pushed her bangs behind her ears and then softly said, “Fall is approaching.”’

I added a bit more at the end because I was really into to it. See?

Using imagery can give you a

clear image of what’s going on and such.

You can clearly see that I use

Sasha as my example. I used a Modern AU type

because they don’t have

vertical window sliders in AOT timeline.

I hope my tips and example of

imagery will help you in role playing.

Happy roleplaying ~ :seedling: ( ´▽` )

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Josephine sure is a lot of help!

When it comes to imagery I always recommend taking a few minutes to yourself to sit back and really think about what you are writing. Imagery is the art of creating a piece of writing that allows the readers to picture what the writers attempting to draw with words.

Let’s start with something simple: a tall grass meadow with a gentle breeze and flowers.

When I think of a meadow, it’s a bit foggy for me because I haven’t been to one in a while, but thanks to the Internet we can look up images, videos, or even animations of said meadows. Now, we know that meadows are general green with small speckles (dotting) of colors from an array of flowers. Let’s go with green and white.

Now we want to place our focus on the size of the meadow. It can be relatively large or relatively small, depends on the feeling you want to give the space. Let’s pick large. As for the breeze, we want it to be gentle, sweet, inviting. Place a focus on scent as well, as it will tie everything together for one large experience!

Finally, use “colorful language”. Colorful language is basically the use of fun words or writing enhancers like metaphors or similes. Don’t use too many!

Example:

As I stood in the middle of the green ocean of vegetation, I felt the warmth of the Earth’s breath envelope my body. The strands of my hair that were so carefully tamed around my neck and over my shoulders, suddenly blew wildly and freely as the air ed by me, wishing to be as free as the wind that tugged it. My eyes closed as I placed my relaxed and enhanced focus on the floral scent that was carried in the breeze. It was mildly sweet, yet so refreshingly natural that my lungs felt blessed beyond comprehension. The warmth of the sun felt like a warm kiss that mother’s could give their children lovingly. The green grass was only interrupted by speckles of white tulips that bravely stood amongst the green army.

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Ymir is very helpful with their tips!

“Show, don’t tell.” That’s what your English teacher will always tell you. But what does that even mean in the first place?

Well, basically, it means that you shouldn’t just go on a tangent to describe what the setting looks like, or what your character is feeling. You don’t want to stop the story just to divulge a bunch of information on your reader, because quite frankly, it gets boring for them. Keep the action going! Make your descriptions a part of the story, instead of spewing out information like an encyclopedia article. Describe what your character sees, feels, smells, tastes, hears; use their five senses. Keep your readers invested. Don’t take them out of the story.

Let’s use a setting description as an example, because this is one I find a lot of young writers have trouble with, and it’s something I also had trouble with when I was just getting started -

What NOT to do:

“There was a light breeze, and the air smelled like pine needles. The ground was covered with leaves.”

What you SHOULD do:

“A light breeze blew across her skin, and she caught a whiff of pine needles. The leaves crunched under her feet as she walked.”

Hope this helps!

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Valeria's advice really helps!

Imagery. One if the most important part of literate roleplay. You give your reader a setting and picture in their mind. What do you imagine when you are writing? Use adjectives, but don't be repetitive. Picture what is happening in your head. Describe it in the best way you can.

Whenever I use imagery I try to make it as detailed as possible. Helping the reader get into the roleplay. It helps them understand what is going on better as well. For example, it can be used to show the setting or character. This prompt I wrote, is describing the setting.

Dark swirls of sea frothed as the shore. The wind pushing them against the sand, clapping with every wave landing on the ground. Clouds covered over the blinding sun, making the land appear shadowed. Trees swayed violently as small droplets of liquid began to be released from the heavens. A storm had been breweing and it had finally arrived. The air pushed clouds towards the land, shrouding it in heavy rain. Soon enough, damage would come.

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Oh! Jean has some advice for you as well!

Imaginary can really add a lot to the way you roleplay. There's many things you can say or do to have this affect. First off you can also use sight and touch. Explaining scent, like "the fragrance in the air was a lovely smell of flowers." Can be a good usage of imaginary. The reader can imagine what the scent would smell like. With touch, you can explain how rough or soft, fluffy or not, etc an object is. One example is "the dogs fluffy fur was ruffled by the males hands as he pet it."

        Using words with description can help. Fluffy, coarse, lovely, rough, and smooth are all ways that you can really help add to a sentence. If you were to write "His hand moved over the surface." You could always add words into it. "The males hand slowly moved over the smooth surface." Is one example of how imaginary works. It gives the reader a better idea of what you are trying to say. With the extra adjectives, your sentence an change the way the reader thinks by a lot.

         Using adjectives helps the ready clearly understand what you are writing, and is a big help in literate roleplays. Using your senses can help a lot for the reader as well. I would not recommend trying to cram all five senses into a sentence. Spread them out, and make sure that your wording and adjectives make sense. Good luck roleplaying!

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These help a lot! Thanks Armin!

When writing imagery you first want to look at including descriptive words, such as adjectives, into what you are writing. Using descriptive words allows you to clearly specify what the character is seeing and doing. It is also a great thing to expand what you are writing with well chosen details that help people really grasp and imagine the scene that you are trying to get across within a roleplay or a writing piece. Expanding what you are trying to write basically means taking one sentence that describes imagery and turning it into multiple sentences that help describe it in great detail.

In addition to descriptive wording, try to incorporate some of the five senses into your writing. By doing this you allow the readers to truly experience the scenery; however, do not turn it into a sensory check-list situation by adding all five. Only include the five senses if it makes sense, and do not include them all in a row if you decide that you want to attempt to use them all. Make sure to keep them decently spread out within the paragraphs so it does not sound like they are on top of each other. My recommended amount of senses to use in a age would be one or two that make it sound original as well as unique to your personal writing style.

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Ayumi can help out!

On writing imagery things in fanfiction, its important to keep things simple. If you can't come up with things to write, think of words like dog, cat or lemon. Simple words like that can help with writing imagination.

Or you can think of a location for your imagery to take place. Like at a supermarket, school or at a house. Things like that or even thinking of colors can help with imagery. Here I'll show you an example of how to do that.

Also try not to make it super complex, like a neko vampire demon destroying the earth with a hyper beam. That just seems too hard and just doesn't make any sense. Don't try too hard when coming up with imagery things to write about. So just keep it simple for people to understand and you can write it.

There once was a dog name Jean, he was a smart dog who went to a school. The school's students were lemon humanoid children who had green hair. Jean went to school with his friend, a tabby cat named Marco. They often went to the supermarket to buy pink balloon bubblegum, the gum can make anyone float into the sky. The two were the best of friends, even if the world was taken over by humanoid lemon people.

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Thank you Marie for such great advice!

Writing imagery can be difficult to effectively implement into writing, but it is never the less crucial to the story and reader, as too much or too little can either confuse or bore the reader. The trick is simply to the following human senses; Sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound. While it may seem too simple, it’s became it truly is. Including these simple senses can add some spice to the story and improve your writing abilities! For example,

”The man flew over the grand ocean.”

While this gets the simple point across that the man flew across the sea, the reader is lacking description. Is there anything special about the man? Or what about the sea? Try using the five senses this time!

”The ragged old man with skin made of rough leather from long days in the sun soared over the shimmering emerald ocean. A thick smell of salt hinted at the humid summer air as the swift breeze, as gentle as a mother’s tender touch carried it away. Wings made of chalky wax and feathers peppered the seagull’s grey coloring were carefully pressed together but hastily strung across the man’s bony chest.”

Doesn’t that sound better? I believe that it does! You also may be able to identify the traditional Greek myth that it plays along with, the myth being “Icarus and Daedalus.” By being more caring and descriptive, a reader’s entire viewpoint can be switched around!

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Connor speaks the truth!

Scenery is something that we take in daily, whether it’d be looking from outside your bedroom window, or biking down a gravel road. In fact, it’s probably one of the most important factors of a story, especially when your story is beyond non-fiction. Yet, in some writing, or even in roleplay chats, imagery can be ignored or forgotten, leaving nothing for the reader to truly go off of. Although you may have this design or area in mind, explaining it can be much more immersive, letting them imagine the scene like you had. To keep it brisk, my main point is…

Always go into detail when introducing a new object, character or place.

It doesn’t have to be lengthy, so long as it drives the point home. For example; Gordon Ramsay picked up a small, wooden spoon, his white knuckle grip threatening to crack it’s poor handle into splinters. “My gran could do better than you, and she’s dead!”

Don’t be afraid to rename the details now and again, too. So instead of just saying “Spoon” over and over, things like “wooden utensil” would still remind the reader what the character is holding, while spicing the writing up. Now, does that mean you HAVE to leave nothing to the imagination, explaining every crack in a wall or counting the tiles on the floor? No, of course not, because that’ll bored the reader to tears. If they get the main vision, then you’ve done a wonderful job already. Sometimes it’s more fun to let your mind wander than to be a stickler of every design.

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Even our newest member Sage can help out!

Haven't you every just reread your roleplay reply before hitting send and noticing how it sounds so dull and plain? I'm going to teach you how to write a roleplay response, filled with emotion that paints a picture into the reader's mind. To start off, let's give an example of a dull and boring roleplay line,

“Ymir jumped off the tower and transformed into a titan”

Now that's boring! Let's give it some like, try using adjectives and different pronouns and helping verbs to spice it up a bit! An example would be replacing

“Ymir” with

“The young freckled brunette woman”

It paints a picture in your head of, a freckled brown haired woman with freckles! Now let's try another one, let's replace

“Jumped off the tower” with

“leaped off of the massive structure that was going to be consumed by titans.”

This would be another example of creating life. Let's try the last bit of the sentence!

“and transformed into a titan” with

“She raised her left thumb and slid the knife that she had in her other hand through it. Several sparks began to fly as her body was transforming into one of the titans, but different. She was a shifter.”

Now that finishes our roleplay line! Compare them and you'll see the picture that comes to your head while reading one, and not the other!

Original:

“Ymir jumped off the tower and transformed into a titan”

Picture-Painting Version:

“The young freckled brunette woman leaped off of the massive structure that was going to be consumed by titans. She raised her left thumb and slid the knife that she had in her other hand through it. Several sparks began to fly as her body was transforming into one of the titans, but different. She was a shifter.”

Sage, Out!

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Our Busy Bee of a manager, Farlaine has some sweet tips!

Imagery is the way an author describes a setting, person, or object. It involves the use of adjectives, metaphors, and even hyperboles. Imagery is what creates depth and realism in literature.

When writing - whether in literate roleplay or fanfiction - imagery, use references! For example, when writing about a scene in Attack on Titan, head to Google and pull up some pictures of the scenery from the series. Take into detail the small little aspects of the Walls; the types of clothes the people wear, the smell of the food on the streets, the sounds of bustling townsfolk.

Imagery works in many ways, allowing the author to captivate their audience through description. Here is my example of imagery in use.

Wall Maria, prior to the Fall.

Within the comfort of the behemoth walls laid the young boy Connie Springer. He measured no taller than a tree stump at the time, needing the guidance of his mother's tender hands to stand upon his two feet. The young boy, with dazzling golden eyes that shone like the surface of water during sunset, was energetic to meet the world. The gusts of wind gently blew against their damp clothing, hanging weightlessly in the air.

The small town of Ragako, south of Wall Maria, was alive with people. The paved dirt roads stirred up with the carriages ing by, the sweet melodic laughs of the children ing with various fruits and vegetables from the farmer's carts. His gleaming eyes gazed upon one sight, his father holding up a piece of meat that was just slightly smaller than his own frame, what Connie assumed to be their dinner. His mouth parted, a playful giggle filling the air as he looked up to his mother. He was happy with his family.

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Guess its my turn to give some advice huh?

Imagery is a very delicate subject. People are confused when you don't describe enough, but annoyed and bored when you describe too much. You've gotta look for that perfect balance.

Examples

'He said hi'

That's boring right? Who is he? What does he look like? Where is he? Who is he saying hi to?

'Avery smiled a super wide smile at 11:05 pm EST at his friend Sandra. The trees swayed back and forth at the mid-summer breeze outside his home in the center of town, where he would spend his afternoons. His hair was brown, the color of the earth he walked upon... Blah blah blah'

TOO MUCH. Not to sound rude, but nobody cares enough to want to know that much!! Just get to the point!

'Avery smiled as he waved towards his friend Sandra, his brown hair sat neatly atop his head as he waited for his friend to come over'

^^^ I would say this is the perfect amount of imagery for this statement ^^^

So my advice for you? Don't over-do it, and don't slack off with it either. Find the balance and everything will be fine.

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And that's it for this month's Lit Team Tips!

I hope that we were able to help you out! us next month for another post! Have any ideas that you would like help with? Comment them down below! Always open for new suggestions :)

Happy writing!

#AOTLitTeam