How to captivate the senses with an image moment.
A method writing tool to expand psychological time.
I'll do my best here to give you a taster of image moment.
It's one of the fundamental tools in method writers toolboxes.
We cannot see feelings so as writers we'll often talk about them.
Many writing gurus use the adage show don't tell and whether you agree with that or you think it's outdated the image moment gives us an ideal place to show.
As a reader we want to feel what our characters are feeling.
We want to experience love,
Loss,
Anger,
Dismay and we can't do that with words alone.
Words are too celebral.
So how do we show those feelings?
Tada!
An image moment.
In addition image moment expands psychological time for our readers.
It has them holding their breath between one moment and the next.
Like if we write the dialogue you're done for the man said.
We want the reader to hold their breath to find out what happens next.
We want them biting their nails and making up stories as to what it could be.
We want them on the edge of their seats.
In a film we would get cinematic cleverness,
Moody music,
Lighting,
The scared look on the person's face.
We would notice the clothes that the characters were wearing,
Where they're standing in relation to each other.
We will know how they're feeling.
We get a lot of visual stimulation.
The aim of the image moment is to provide this to the reader.
We need to be able to portray this psychological tension.
We want to show the reader that these things are happening without telling them what's going on.
And this is where the image moment comes in.
There are seven elements to an image moment.
Set,
Set dressing,
Mood,
Character,
Costume,
Commentary,
Prop and a few rules to stick to.
If you do anything outside of these rules it's not an image moment.
Here are the image moment rules.
The image moment starts and ends with a bookend,
Which can be a piece of dialogue or a very short action.
When starting to use this tool it's easiest to go with the dialogue.
In this example I use the following dialogue for my bookends.
Bookend to start,
You're done for.
Bookend to end says who.
The image moment will be between these two lines of dialogue.
A moment is exactly what it says on the tin.
A short span of time.
The moment sits within the bookends.
In Jack Grape's book on method writing,
He describes a moment as a short span of time,
Less than a minute,
Usually only a few seconds,
Between two bookends in which nothing happens.
It's worth repeating that last bit.
Within the image moment nothing happens.
No action,
No movement,
Nothing.
This is what helps to stretch the psychological time for the reader.
All that we have within the bookends are images and we use the seven elements to show the reader what's going on.
The mood is described,
The characters are described,
The costume is described.
In the following example I use the elements of character,
Set,
Mood and set dressing.
What does it evoke in you when you hear the following sentence?
You're done for,
The man said.
His long body was duplicated on the pavement under the dim yellow streetlamp.
Says who,
I said.
In any image moment you can play with the seven elements.
All of them can be used or a mixture of a few or even just one.
Also any of the elements can be used more than once.
Finally the image moment ends with the bookend.
Now have a listen to my complete example and see if you can spot the elements.
What does the piece show you?
What sense do you get of the mood of what's going on?
What do you think of the man,
Who is he?
What do you think of the woman,
Who is she?
That's the other thing I love about image moments.
They say so much in a few words.
You're done for,
The man said.
His long body was duplicated on the pavement under the dim yellow streetlamp.
His grey pork pie hat and ratty trench coat hid a bulge I hadn't noticed before.
My feet ached in their red stiletto shoes.
Mascara dried on my flushed face.
Says who,
I said.
Wouldn't you want to know what happens next?
In the above example I used the elements of character,
Mood,
Set dressing,
Costume and commentary.
As I said before,
You don't have to use all seven elements.
Here's a really short image moment.
Oh,
My mother said.
Her sun-kissed face looked younger in the evening glow of our final holiday together.
It's okay,
Mum,
I said.
I really hope you've enjoyed this talk and I'd love to hear your thoughts on image moments.
Lots of love.
