Another gold nugget from Steven King’s book ON WRITING… on Description

Steven King: “The use of simile and other figurative language is one of the chief delights of fiction—reading it and writing it, as well. When it’s on target, a simile delights us in much the same way meeting an old friend in a crowd of strangers does. By comparing two seeming unrelated objects—a restaurant bar and a cave, a mirror and a mirage—we are sometimes able to see an old thing in a new and vivid way.”

You know I recognized this sort of description in stories… but I didn't make the hard connection on what it was that I liked about it.

Last night, I was reading in my weekly book (a chosen book that I read in only for a short time per week… usually inspirational in some way) and I realized why this man’s prose struck me as so beautiful. Well, not the only reason… but his prose really is a pleasure to read. But the book is Peace Like the River by Leif Enger. I wonder if he gave the book that title… because even the title of his story illustrates what I am trying to show.

Here are some of his descriptive lines that I thought brought vivid images to mind:

“It was a cutting wind; the light was leaking from a mottled yellow sky. Imagine a sick child all jaundiced and dirty about the cheeks—that’s how the sky looked.”

“There wasn’t a thing we could do; the geese were out of range. I was disappointed all out of proportion.”

“That night Swede and I lay somewhat breathless under a hill of quilts. For drafts there was noplace like August’s farmhouse; you could roast under such strata and your nose still cold as a glass knob.”

“You had only to look at his hands to see it: His hands were hard as any man’s and quick—quick as eyesight. They moved always as with a purpose long known.”

I am on page 81 in this book (Peace like a River) and it is filled with description like this. In this man’s case, I can only believe that this is a God given talent.