Imagery in Fiction

Over at my other blog I have been writing about creating imagery and how to do it.  As readers we don't think about these things, we just want to relish the fictional world that has been created for us and jump right in. 

Lily Child's Feardom is a great place to cut one's teeth for this kind of writing.  Because it's flash fiction, it forces the writer to choose their words carefully - there's only a 100 to play with, and this means being very selective with what you want to convey.  It's great practice for writers - newcomers and veterans - and a must for refining your writing talent.

My short piece Execrate appeared last week, and I wanted the imagery within the narrative to speak for itself, which I think it did, to queasy effect.

Execrate

Clammy arches, insipid with a dark pervading sense of fear, glistened beneath the firelight; the sweat of men filled the stone hallways with a bitter musk.

He drank from a lustreless flute; extracted juices warmed his roseate lips, thick like oil down his throat, and yet it could not muster sensibility from a marbled expression. His phobia of clergy was just; swift.

The monk’s strangled gurgle permeated the stone hall. A strange coloured liquid dribbled from his mouth; dark coloured slurry spotted with blood. Eyes bulged, veins squirmed.

The long wooden spike emerged from the monk’s mouth.

Vlad finally smiled.