Character Description
When it all comes down to the final point, there are two kinds of fiction writers in the world. One allows the reader to imagine what characters look like mostly on their own. And the other routinely offers imagery such as this:
“Unwigged, his hair was dark, thick, fine-textured, and shiny. It was also disturbingly familiar-looking, though it was shoulder-length and tied back with a blue silk ribbon. He removed this, plucked the comb from the desk and tidied the hair flattened by the wig, then retied the ribbon with some care.”
Philosophizing
Or, if you prefer, one can separate writers of fiction into two other categories. Those who refrain from philosophical pontificating. And those who kick that idea fully to the curb. This is the narrator addressing the reader directly, not dialogue between two people of differing perspectives:
“People are gregarious by necessity. Since the days of the first cave dwellers, humans -- hairless, weak, and helpless save for cunning -- have survived by joining together in groups; knowing, as so many other edible creatures have found, that there is protection in numbers. And that knowledge, bred in the bone, is what lies behind mob rule. Because to step outside the group, let alone to stand against it was for uncounted thousands of years death to the creature who dared it."
Time Traveling
Right at the outset, the book announces that it is taking place at Inverness, Scotland just as World War II is finally about to be put into the archives. And then, suddenly, the narrator has a feeling she’s not in Kansas anymore:
“Castle Leoch. Well, at least now I knew where I was. When I had known it, Castle Leoch was a picturesque ruin, some thirty miles north of Bargrennan. It was considerably more picturesque now, what with the pigs rooting under the walls of the keep and the pervasive smell of raw sewage. I was beginning to accept the impossible idea that I was, most likely, somewhere in the eighteenth century.”
Love, Scottish Style
The lovely lilt of the brogue of the Scots is portrayed—but not to excess, thankfully—through dialogue written in dialect which serves as a special form of imagery. Fortunately, it is English-style Scottish dialect so even an American reader can understand things without much effort. (Read the novel Trainspotting to understand the enormous difference from Scottish-style Scottish dialect.)
"Not yet. We've time. And I mean to hear ye groan like that again. And to moan and sob, even though you dinna wish to, for ye canna help it. I mean to make you sigh as though your heart would break, and scream with the wanting, and at last to cry out in my arms, and I shall know that I've served ye well."
