Type your favorite descriptive quotation from this passage. In day-to-day communications, people use many ways to convey ideas. If you are describing to a friend something interesting that happened to you, you communicate not only with words but also with the tone and inflection of your voice, the look on your face, and the gestures you use. All of these forms of nonverbal communication help to explain what happened and to make it clear how you feel about it. A playwright knows that his audience not only will be able to hear the spoken script but also will be able to see characters and the setting. The writer of the short story does not have these advantages. The only means by which he can communicate with the reader and convey his ideas is diction. If he is to be published and remembered, he must use words skillfully.

To write a story that will seem real to his readers, an author uses imagery. Imagery occurs when an author creates pictures with words. Using his imagination and skillfully manipulating the language, the author appeals to the reader's senses, making the reader feel, touch, taste, and hear. The most effective writers make use of the sound and rhythm of words and sentences to complement their meanings.

Perhaps you have already noticed examples of imagery in stories you have read. A writer seldom uses a bland word in a description if a more specific word will create a clearer impression. Instead of walk, for instance, he is likely to say amble, shuffle, or swagger. Similarly, he avoids clichés such as "cold as ice" or "skinny as a rail." Instead, he strives for fresh, unique comparisons which give life to his writings. Often a writer uses the setting to complement the plot. Descriptions of buildings, weather, and scenery help to establish a mood and provide an appropriate background for the action.

Read Esther 1:1-8 from the Holy Bible. This passage describes a great feast put on by King Xerxes.

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:) That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him: When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourscore days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace; Where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king. And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure.