More than a box of crayons . . .

I’m a rather visual person – I love color, bright shades, highlighted focal walls, coordinating tints. Yep, it’s all around my house. And I’m not alone. My family members, bless their little pointed hearts, have adopted the same thirst for color. One daughter painted her room vivid pink. Let me go on record and say I did try to motivate her toward a lighter, less vibrant shade, but she was absolutely certain it was the ‘perfect’ color. Four walls in this tint and the experience was like living inside a Pepto-Bismol bottle. (No, you can’t use that example; it’s already in my current romantic suspense, Trickle of Lies) The point is that color surrounds us in the real world, yet so often in print, writers languish over the same ‘boring’ words to describe shades.



Did you know that the first box of Crayons was released in 1903 and sold for a nickel a box? Cool trivia fact, save it for the next time you’re playing Trivial Pursuit. Only eight (8) colors were in the box: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, and black. In 1903 that might have been enough shades, but today’s writers need to get beyond the basics and expand the ‘color’ vocabulary.

Pulling a page from Crayola, writers can deepening the sensory perception of their readers by painting word images with the right colors.

What do these words bring to mind?
Cotton Candy
Deep Sea Blue
Purple Heart
Fire-engine Red
Tar
Head-light White
Sunshine Yellow

How many have never eaten Cotton Candy? Or at least been to a fair or a carnival and seen the sticky stuff? Word of caution: if the writing is destined for heavy distribution in overseas markets, not all of these words will work. For most readers, however, Cotton Candy is universal and provides instant color association. Even in a 95,000 work of fiction, no writer wants to spend ten words to produce color recognition, when one or two will do. Consider options when describing shades. Use personal history. Each of the above images belongs to my background. What shades come from your history?

Still grappling with sensory perception? Here are a few more examples to get started:

Purple: plum, violet, lavender, lilac, Purple Mountain Majesty (thanks to Crayola)

Pink: orchid, fuchsia, shrimp, carnation, rose, blush, salmon, Wild Strawberry (thanks to Crayola)

Gray: steel, slate, iron, dove, metallic, silver, Timberwolf (thanks to Crayola)

Blue: sky, aqua, Bluebonnet, navy, periwinkle, Denim (thanks to Crayola

Green: lime, sea-green, kiwi, celery, avocado, leaf, Granny Smith Apple (thanks to Crayola)

Yellow: sunshine, lemon, banana, mustard, dandelion, SunGlow (thanks to Crayola)

Red: crimson, blood, Christmas red, scarlet, apple, Brick Red (thanks to Crayola)

Black: coal, ebony, midnight, tar, ink, onxy, Outer Space (thanks to Crayola)

Share a few of your favorites.

~~SANDRA
HARM'S WAY