How To Write Descriptions People Want to Read: Wild Animals
This is the third in a series “How to Write Descriptions”. As writers, we have only words to communicate some of the most complicated images in life. The trick for writers is, how to pick just the right words. That’s what I share here: inspiration for succeeding in your quest.
Most of the following descriptions are from Peter Matthiessen. You can’t write about nature and not read Matthiessen–The Tree Where Man Was Born, Sand Rivers. But there are others. The incomparable Colin Turnbull who lived among the pygmies and wrote The Forest People, among others. You’ll recognize Mark Tredinnick, author of A Place on Earth: An Anthology of Nature Writing and the innocence of Tepilit Ole Saitoti, a western-educated Maasai Warrior who wrote The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior .
I’ll do ‘Nature’ as a general topic later. Right now, I’ll concentrate on Animals in Nature. This can’t fail to inspire you.
the hippos heaved their great bodies out of the water and opened their gaping mouths wide, snorting and grunting before they sank back beneath the surface heads resting humbly on the mud
revealing a large, open gash on his hind quarter
tremendous splash that sent waves rolling to the shore
two bulls fighting, but only half in earnest
hippos—a quake and rumbling from beneath the surface, then a roar and wash as the huge bodies surge, and way is made for two pink-eyed gladiators the fearful cacophony of groans, blarts, roars and grumbling, interspersed with deep watery gurgles
a shiny hippo rose and walked away among low trees in a sedate manner
only the tips of their noses poking above the surface of the water
The night before, hyena and lion howled and roared; hippos resounded from their pools deep in the forest
the air was filled with engaging dung smells
sweat dripping from their steaming bodies
Urban fauna (cockroaches)
squinting toward the dim shadows at the wood’s edge
Wart hogs, tails whisking and manes shivering as they snouted and rooted in the baked earth
Delicate tall stalk of a giraffe
a family of bush pigs setting out on the evening forage. The big boar was gray with a silver mane, but the sow and young shoats were rufous red with clean white manes
a large group of elephant and buffalo were moving peacefully toward the shining water
poking and snuffling as they went
the foot-dragged prints of a waterbuck, the ancient hand-prints and serpentine tail furrow made by a croc
A herd of impala picked its way around the pool, their harsh tearing snorts would warn a procession of almost every type of animal one after the other, picking its way with unhurried grace to the water’s edge
bounding along a barrier of silver deadwood at the edge of the wood
It was now mid-afternoon and large groups of elephants moved peacefully toward the shimmering water
overhead so it falls with a fine splat upon his back;
the matriarch stands guard, trunk high
the bull begins to flap its ears and paw the ground
picks up a trunkful and hurls it
a young bull standing in the grass of the river margin
testing the air with lifted trunk, he steps down on to the river bed, then swings around
cow’s trunk stiffened as she got our wind, the trunk rose in an awkward question mark
dig a hole under the bank. When the water wells up, he sprays himself behind his ears and under his belly
noble expectations
swampy depressions, lowland basin, lowland plains between the crater and the Serengeti plateau
Can’t you just see these wonderful creatures, living their lives as man can no longer do?
More descriptors:
How To Write Descriptions People Want to Read: Horses
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: characters, descriptors, nature, setting, writers, writers resources Tagged: animals, Colin Turnbull, descriptions, matthiessen, setting, tredinnick, wild, writers resources
