Through reading great works, I learned some words create memorable images than others. And, fortunately, these words are too common than you imagine.

Socks are too common, corporate and non-corporate men often wear them and we see them everyday, but this word can make great novelists like Chinua Achebe, Mark Twain, George Orwel, Stephen King, etc.

What are we saying here? Mark Twain and I can be talking about the same thing but people may pay attention to Mark Twain because they love how he is saying it.

These 7 powerful words could make huge magic you never expected in your story and, through them, you can find others—perhaps even in your bed room—that will make your readers celebrate you.

1. Window

I found out, like camera, window makes one focus and it is the best tool to use in your story. Supposing your character is in her room, there are million things to see through the window.

Example: As she looked through the window, it wasn't the outside she expected to see: it was hell fire. Latter, she thought her head wasn't correct.

2. Edge

To get desired effect, edge could only be used either as the outside limit of an object or area or the sharpened side of a blade. This will draw the attention of your readers towards your style.

Example: My uncle watched the bed bug as it ran over the edge of our glass table.

3. Rooftop

What I sharply remembered in 'Harry Potter' are the rooftops of the estate where Harry Potter lives with his uncle Vernon Dursley. You can see how this common word improves the setting of the story.

Example: From the 3rd floor, I could see the rooftop of St. Augustine.

4. Rotten food

Human memory can retain negative experience easier than the positive one. I must confess any rotten food can remind me of this feature.

Example: I watched my husband as he threw the rotten food through the window. By then the world was silent so the thud sounded terribly like thunder.

5. Sun

Apart from merciless sun we often read in classic novels, sun is mostly used to open the new chapter of a story to show morning, midday or evening time, but you can be more creative. This word is very important.

Example: Mashat looked up to heaven and saw there was no sun, so there was no shadow. This was the time he could steal an apple from Shade's headtop as she could neither see his shadow, nor hear his footsteps.

6. Old books

Writing this feature, I scarcely remembered the title of the short story I read where the hero, describing a room, said, "The room smells like old books." Although I found it difficult to remember the title of the story, I remembered the story because of the phrase 'old books.'

Example: "My uncle sells old books to earn a living," my sister told her guests and then looked at her old chemistry books in the shelf.

(Note: Old books could mean books that last long and books that are recently published but look dirty. Old books could also mean used or second-hand books).

7. Socks

I didn't think about socks because I had socks in my feet while writing this feature but because I was and am a reading enthusiast who read many contemporary American short stories where socks make memorable images. Unfortunately, I often scarcely recollect titles.

Example: My husband and I perceive bad smell and couldn't tell the source until I remembered Sam, whose Tim Boot was over the doormat, entered in socks. Was it a rotten food? No, who brought it? Was it a dead rat? No, we didn't have rats. Was it farting? Not me, neither my husband. My husband would have admitted it.
"Sam, I'm sorry", I said, "see if your socks stink."
Sam touched one, sniffed his hand and said, "They stink."

Final Tip

After the first draft, you can find ways to develop your story during structural editing, adding these powerful words or others you find yourself.

Asked yourself to know the setting of your story (it could be in your home town or any place), go there either physically or imaginatively and look for what to create memorable image.

Doing this may be hard so reading novels and short stories will help you know what works and what doesn't work in stories.

Fortunately, the major difficulty you may encounter in your 2nd or even 3rd draft is incoherence. To get rid of such constraint, it is better you learn how to unite sentences and paragraphs either by using conjunctions or not.

Do you have any other memorable word to suggest?

First published on Nairaland.com Forum as written by Maren John Mafuyai (marenx)