Writer's Glossary - I

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imagery

Figurative language in writing designed to conjure up powerful images in the mind of the reader. For example, we could lazily say:

He was bleeding a lot. Jane looked at the wound and said, "My God, Bill... you're really bleeding."

"Yeah," Bill said, his voice shaking. "It's serious. I won't make it if we don't get to a doctor soon."

Yes, we understand the message: he's bleeding, and a lot. But to resort to stating that he was bleeding badly, then having a character reiterate it in case we were too stupid to figure it out, then to have shaking-voice Bill SPELL IT OUT to us in case we were really stupid (or sleeping, as the case may be with this work)—why not build images in your readers' minds? To truly bring the terror and seriousness of his life-threatening wound clearly to a vision in the mind of the reader, we need to evoke the power of our language to create more vivid pictures. How badly is he bleeding? How red is the blood? How seriously is Death beating at his door?

The bright crimson of his blood was everywhere. Although he frantically clamped his hand tightly over the wound, more of it seeped fiercely out between his fingers.

Jane's eyes were wide, her mouth agape, in shock. "My God, Bill..."

"Yeah," Bill said shakily. "I need a doctor, Jane... I need one now..."

Now we know he's really dying, and have a pretty good idea of what it looks like. We showed how badly he was bleeding, and Jane didn't have to clear it up for us. All she had to do was look at this vicious, blood-spraying wound and react how we would be if we were there: go mildly into shock at the fact the guy is still alive at all and say, "My God, Bill..." And, instead of shakily giving us an obvious diagnosis, we are communicated the urgency Bill himself is feeling: "I need a doctor, Jane... I need one now..."

International Reply Coupon

This is generally required when a writer is submitting to a publication in another country, for the purposes of return postage n his SASE. All countries that are members of the Universal Postal Union provide IRCs. Each IRC is equivalent in value to the destination county's minimum postage rate for an unregistered airmail letter. The UPU has been around since 1874, the second largest international organization (after the International Telecommunications Union). It's Web address is www.UPU.int, and the organization is located in Bern, Switzerland. As of this writing (2010-09-25), there are 191 member countries.

IRC

See International Reply Coupon.