1. How to Add Vividness to Your Text
Aglaia Leptokaridou

2. ● Incorporate the five senses.
Examples:
Sight (visual image): The blonde girl had tattoos on nearly every surface of her skin.
Smell (olfactory image): The biscuits smelled like cinnamon.
Hearing (auditory image): She slammed the door shut.
Touch (tactile image): He had skin as soft as velvet.
Taste (gustatory image): The coffee was bitter.
Combination of senses (synesthesia): He had a voice as smooth as velvet (sound and touch).

3. ● Use motion verbs.
Examples:
I ran into Sara yesterday.
Caroline moved away.
She went on to become famous.

4. ● Use collocations.
Examples:
She would describe her experiments in great detail.
Heavy rain is a common phenomenon in England.
Sara has a fascinating theory.

5. ● Incorporate figurative language (metaphors, similes, personifications):
Examples:
Her anger was a storm. (Metaphor.)
She moved like a dancer. (Simile)
The weather was joyous on that day. (Personification.)

6. ● Use time words and phrases
e.g. suddenly, at first, just before [...], when…
Examples: Do you see the difference between the following sentences? Which sentence is more effective
in evoking emotion and describing a scene/scenario?
● The ghost appeared. Suddenly, the ghost appeared.
● She missed the bus. Just a second before she could step inside the bus, the driver drove
away.
● She was anxious. At first, she was anxious.