What does it mean to use vivid language in your writing? Language that is vivid paints a picture for your readers, so that they can clearly envision what you are talking about. Vivid language is very important to descriptive writing.

Let’s look at the sentence:

I took a trip to the mountains.

Does this paint a picture for your reader? Assuming that the reader has ever seen a mountain, the reader is able to somewhat visualize what you meant. However, the picture the reader has may be very different from what you actually mean. After all, there are many different types of mountains.

Is this better?

My last trip was to the quaint mountain village of Helen, Georgia located in the foothills of the evergreen Appalachian mountain range.

Does this paint a clearer picture for the reader?

How about this?

I visited the snow-capped peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, where I stayed at a skiing resort.

Does this paint a clear picture? Is it different from the image evoked from the first example?

There are many different types of mountains. Just saying that you took a trip to the mountains is not sufficient to paint a clear picture of your experience to the reader. Vivid language consists of the descriptive adjectives that bring your experience to life for the reader.

Look at what you have written and see if the words are sufficient to put your reader in the moment with you, as if he or she could see what you saw during your experience.

Courtesy: Daily Writing Tips

Educating.