Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater: Essay Prompt

We’ve all heard the cliche, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” right?

Well, sometimes, a beautiful, well-written sentence can inspire a picture in your mind that trumps a physical picture any day of the week.

Here’s a favorite of mine from Shiver (p. 8), by Maggie Stiefvater:

As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.

Now it’s your turn. Find a picture, either physical or in your mind, and try to describe it to someone. You can use both literal descriptions (“The cat was black”) and figurative ones (“The cat curled like smoke and oozed across the floor like ink.”)

Try to convey not only the image of the picture, but the feeling and ambiance. Use a thesaurus to find just the right adjectives.

Once you’re done, e-mail us your work (and the picture if it’s a physical one) at clumzbella@yahoo.com or sara.novelnovice@comcast.net and we’ll post it on Novel Novice so you can brag about your mad skills!