A teacher reports that during the process of writing a novel, he saw the creative link connecting language, image, and detail. He generated details from the images and language that preceded them. The initial envisioning often flickered erratically until he had generated enough language to place himself in a detailed scene. He has found that in any narrative he writes, the visual and verbal modes of thought run side by side, and a first draft emerges eventually. When revising, he works from the "depicted" vision, however spare those pictures might be. Experiencing his writing enables him to conceptualize what he's doing. He seeks to promote a transaction with words to create meaning from symbols. The details come from language, which comes in turn from images. Teachers should encourage students to practice visual thinking and experience its generative power. Students should be invited to imagine scenes, put those scenes in words, and discuss in class what further images and language those written scenes generate. Students can make the "show, don't tell" approach to writing more than a technique for writing well. They can make it a strategy for thinking well. (SG)