Language that appeals to the senses - sight, sound, smell, taste, touch - making the reader experience the story rather than just read it.
Imagery is descriptive language that engages one or more of the five senses, creating vivid mental experiences for the reader. It's the difference between 'she was sad' and 'she pressed her forehead against the cold window, watching the rain blur the streetlights into smears of yellow.' Good imagery doesn't just describe what things look like - it makes the reader hear, smell, taste, and feel the world of the story.
Imagery is what makes fiction feel immersive. Without it, you're giving your reader a report. With it, you're giving them an experience. Strong sensory details activate the same parts of the brain that real sensory experiences do - your reader doesn't just understand that a kitchen smells like burnt coffee, they almost smell it themselves. Master imagery and you can put your reader inside any scene, any world, any moment.
Morrison's imagery is relentlessly physical - colors, textures, temperatures, tastes. She makes the reader feel everything her characters feel, which is precisely why the novel is so powerful and so difficult to read.
McCarthy creates a post-apocalyptic world almost entirely through imagery - ash, gray sky, cold, the taste of flat Coca-Cola. The sensory deprivation in his descriptions mirrors the world's emptiness.
The famous madeleine scene, where the taste of a cookie dipped in tea unlocks an entire world of memory, is literature's most celebrated example of how sensory imagery connects to emotion.
Most beginning writers default to sight. Push yourself to include at least two other senses in every major scene. Sound, smell, and touch are often more emotionally powerful than visuals.
One precise, unexpected detail does more than five generic adjectives. 'The peeling yellow wallpaper' beats 'the old, ugly, worn-out, faded, dirty wall' every time.
The details a character notices reveal who they are. A chef notices smells. A musician notices sounds. Let your imagery do double duty - building the world and revealing the character.
Describe a single room using each of the five senses in separate paragraphs - one paragraph for sight, one for sound, one for smell, one for taste, one for touch. Then write a final paragraph that weaves all five together into a single flowing description. Notice which senses surprised you with how much they revealed about the space.