30. Author's Purpose should be Concealed.—An attempt to bring about a visualization or any other artistic effect in the mind of the reader is foredoomed to failure when in any way the writer's purpose too evidently betrays itself as such. Too much in the way of direct statement or predication is one indication of such purpose, and is therefore more or less ineffectual. For effective visualization some sort of preparation of the mood or sympathies of the reader is generally required. This, however, should be concealed, being accomplished through suggestion, as is the visualization itself.
31. Unity in Visualization.—A visualization should be so managed as to bring the whole picture, or nearly all of it, into the mind at once. It is partly because it does not do this that the method by details is not generally effective. A string of incomplete images passing through the mind, each one taking the place of the preceding and effacing it, is not artistically satisfying. It is possible to retain such separate images and at the end bring them together in a complete picture, but this will require effort on the part of the reader; and it is fundamentally important in all writing to reduce the conscious attention and effort of the reader to the lowest point. Only extreme literary art can so nullify this effort in effect as to make description by detail pleasurable, if of any length. Description by detail is, perhaps, more admissible in writing having a meditative tone than in any other, except, of course, technical description.
32. Fine Writing.—Fine writing is especially to be avoided in visualization, since the tone of artificiality is immediately destructive of the reader's confidence in the sincerity of the writer. It betrays the author's purpose of producing an effect. The appearance of truth free from any semblance of over-statement is a first requisite.
33. In any visualization harmony of detail is of prime importance. Even in describing something actually seen it will sometimes be necessary to leave out items really present, but not of a kind to contribute to the general effect. The saying that "Truth is stranger than fiction" should read that fiction may not be as strange as truth. Harmony of mood is important, as well as harmony of detail, in the thing described. If the picture is a quiet one, exclamatory excitement on the part of the writer, however affecting the scene may be supposed to be, will prevent its becoming real to the reader. These things are, then, to be borne in mind with regard to the elements of a visualization: the details presented must be so far true to common knowledge and experience as to gain ready belief, they must have unity in fact and in effect, and they must also be sufficiently individual to appeal to the mind with something of the sense of novelty.
Reference Table of Symbols
| Exp. | = | Explanatory matter. |
| F1 | = | Statement of fact from which no inference is drawn. |
| F2 | = | Statement of fact from which an inference is drawn. |
| F2a | = | Statement of fact with inference mainly logical. |
| F2b | = | Statement of fact with inference mainly emotional. |
| In. | = | Statement of incident, secondary symbols as with F. |
| As1 | = | Anticipatory suggestion, a foretelling of something to happen, leaving the reader in doubt as to how it is to be brought about. |
| As2 | = | Anticipatory suggestion, a foreshowing of something definite to happen, exciting the reader's curiosity to know what it is and how it is to be brought about. |
| As3 | = | Anticipatory suggestion, a foreshadowing of something to be expected in the way of character development and consequent happening. |
| V1 | = | Description in which the mere idea of the thing described is presented. |
| V2 | = | A kindling hint by which the mind is enabled to piece together a visualization of the object. |
| V3 | = | Visualization of so vivid a kind as to possess the mind completely. This becomes |
| Vb3 | when it pleasurably affects the sensibilities. | |
| A1 | = | Audition in the way of simple idea of the thing to be heard. |
| A2 | = | Audition as a reviving of the sense of sound. |
| S1 | = | Sensation, the mere presentation of the idea of an appeal to one of the other senses. |
| S2 | = | Sensation, a subjective reviving of the sensation itself. |
| x | used to indicate that a subjective excitation of some one of the senses has motor effects, as in the shiver at the thought of a file upon the teeth. | |
| m1 | = | Mood "effect," from which we learn the feeling of the writer without experiencing it ourselves. |
| m2 | = | Mood "effect" from which we sympathetically experience the feeling of the writer. |
| m3 | = | Mood "effect," a revelation of the feeling of a character in the story. |
| c1 | = | Direct statement of character. |
| c1a | = | Direct statement of character that does not reveal the author's attitude toward the character. |
| c1b | = | Direct statement in which we are made aware of the author's attitude toward the character, but are not affected by it. |
| c1c | = | Direct statement of character sympathetically influencing us to the author's attitude toward the character. |
| c2 | = | Character "effect," characterization of a group or community of people. |
| c3 | = | Character "effect," class or type characterization of the individual. |
| c4 | = | Character "effect" in the way of individualization. |
| d | = | Degree, added to symbol for mood effect to indicate intensity of the feeling. |
| k | = | Kind, used to indicate that the inference concerns itself with character and not intensity. |
| / | = | A symbol employed ([see section 26]) to indicate that one inference is drawn as an ultimate conclusion from another more immediate inference. |
Subjects for Daily Themes
Subjects for visualization and the reviving of other sensations.