Do not believe for a moment that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is true even for the most vivid and imaginative writers. Even pictures can be complex and difficult to understand.
Take mind maps for instance. Have you ever tried to look at a mind map and make sense of it? I’m amazed that anyone can successfully use a mind map productively. I certainly cannot. But if you try to write down in prose what a mind map is trying to convey, I feel that it would be more in keeping with the sentiment of the allotted task and structure.
When using the right words - descriptors and other important text - you can become most revealing just as a good picture would do. This is not to say that imagery in itself is a bad thing. Of course it isn’t. But words have a way of conjuring up hidden meanings, thoughts, and feelings that pictures alone cannot do so. Visual imagery allows us to look at the graphic or image in front of us and we are somehow constrained by the visual perspective.
However, with words we can free our mind and use our own emotions to fill in the gaps that words themselves cannot convey. In a way, I suspect, prose and text is simply a framework or skeleton on which we hang other parts of our thought processes. Those thought processes will include what we ourselves have inside of us and what we have learned from our life’s experiences so far. And therein lies the tale of the best way to enable prose to conjure up the most powerful imagery — that is to include the reader in the process of writing.
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