Word count: 263 words
Reading time: About 1 minute
A great way to improve your writing is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate.Today’s comes from Kate Southwood.
As someone who lives in the Pacific Coast earthquake zone, who has picked up debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami on the beaches of Tofino and who lives too-close-for-comfort to the recent Calgary flood, I have more than a passing interest in natural disasters.
Perhaps that’s what drew me to the novel Falling to Earth by Kate Southwood, which tells the (true) story of a 1925 tornado that wiped out Murphysboro, Illinois. (In her book, Southwood calls the town Marah.) I particularly liked the way Southwood’s book focused on a family that had survived the disaster, intact. No loss of life. No loss of home. No loss of business. Their good luck, juxtaposed with their neighbours’ misfortune, provides a compelling turning point for the novel.
Most of all, however, I enjoyed Southwood’s exquisite writing. Here is one of my favourite sentences:
The sky above the town is clear, left scoured by the cloud, and as the light fails, it begins to color again, a delicate blue that deepens quickly, tumbling through navy into black.
I have seen skies like that — and didn’t know it, until I read her words. Look at the verbs, scoured, tumbling. Consider the onomatopoeia: delicate blue that deepens. See the picture her words create.
There are many other equally fine sentences in this book. It’s well worth reading.
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