What is the Objective Correlative technique of creative writing?

 Objective correlative – A visuals-based concept in creative writing that helps writer express emotions more intensely through a character, scene, or visual detail.

 

Objective correlative is a concept made famous by the poet T.S. Eliot.

 

It is the “art of finding a physical object, a scene, or a chain of events that, when described in a story, will automatically evoke a specific emotion in the reader, without you ever having to name that emotion directly.”

 

In simple words, it is a feeling converted into an object that serves a symbolic purpose in the story.

 

For instance, instead of writing that the “character feels sad,” the writer paints a concrete picture using “visual or sensory details,” something the reader can see, hear, or feel, that perfectly matches the internal state of the character. This method adds depth to the writing, while avoiding generic emotional declarations.

 

If you want to convey a character’s grief, you wouldn’t write, “He felt a deep sense of loss.” Instead, you might describe him standing in an empty room, running his fingers over a framed photograph on a dusty mantelpiece. The act of touching the photograph, the emptiness of the room, and the presence of dust on a once-cherished item – these details become a direct representation of his internal sorrow.

 

If you want to show a character’s profound loneliness and sense of being left behind after a family wedding, instead of “telling” that the character “felt so lonely after everyone left for the wedding,” the objective correlative technique shows concrete visual details. For instance, the character is “sitting on the floor of an empty house. The air is thick with the scent of wilting marigold garlands left in a heap in the corner. She absentmindedly picks at a stray sequin from her lehenga, a single, tiny sparkle from the night before, now lost on the cold stone floor. The silence is broken only by the hum of the refrigerator.”

 

 

By using these sensory details like wilting marigolds, stray sequin, and the silence broken only by the hum of the refrigerator, the writer never has to use the word "lonely." The reader feels Amara's loneliness and sense of being left behind because the imagery itself carries the emotion.