Sparkle

The premise of the novel appealed to me. The protagonist seemed pretty interesting. The setting is one I don't know much about, so the novel could be an excellent teacher. The book wasn't all that expensive.

So why didn't I buy it? Why didn't I even go in search of a page to read to see if I liked it?

The writing style of the author's blog turned me off. There was nothing wrong with it. The author was describing a process, and, as you might expect, went from point A to B to C. There were no grammatical errors, at least not ones that stood out. It simply didn't sparkle. There were no interesting turns of phrase, no figures of speech, not so much as a simile or alliteration. The author moved from one profession into writing, but there was no comparison of the two ways of life.

I've been thinking a lot about sparkle lately. My stories, like the writers life in the blog, tends to be A to B to C. Where is the sparkle in that?

Can I use more figures of speech? More odd turns of phrase, and especially in my case, more surprise endings? I'm sure going to try.