Part 6: Looking out of a car window while travelling
Do you enjoy travelling to a new place? That new and exciting theme park that has recently opened and is situated about a couple of hours from Central London? How about the highly recommended picnic spot by a gushing stream? Imagine a train journey through new towns and villages. Sometimes it is the journey and not the destination that matters. Literally. Would you agree with that?
At times like these, we see a myriad of scenes and feel varied emotions go through us as we not only go on a journey but also experience it. What do you see as you look outside your window? How do you write about it? It is not for nothing that the window seats of a plane or a train are more popular than the ones on the aisles. Each window frame tells a different story to the person looking through it as it creates an assortment of admirable accounts ready to explode into their imagination.
Let’s try to describe an open countryside.
Suddenly we come upon a vast area of open land. The last vestige of an angular imposing concrete structure forgotten a couple of kilometres back, the eyes try to adjust to the long lengths it can finally travel without anything limiting them. The view is so green and so unbridled that one’s brain doesn’t quite believe what it is seeing, partially expecting bricks and mortar to invade the vision like back home. What with the cacophony of traffic as well as the constant interruption of one’s thoughts, the city views really have become the standard of what is usually seen when one looks out of a car while travelling. This is completely different now. Small specks of huts seem to appear as blurred smudges only to vanish completely before the brain can decide what they were. Boulders smeared everywhere play hide-an-seek between the trees. While things closer seem to be in a hurry to get out of your sight, the hills in the distance move along with you as you continue onwards. Their smooth ascent and descent in height dance in waves up and down but ever so slightly that you feel they are also moving at the same speed that you are.
Let us talk about the tone of the paragraph above. At first glance, what do you think the author prefers: countryside or city life? It is pretty obvious, isn’t it? With words like cacophony and imposing to describe the city, both words having harsh undertones, while applying words like unbridled and play to the open lands, the countryside is preferable. Do you note the personifications to describe the hills further away? Now, it is obvious that things further away look like they are moving along with us. But how do you go about writing nicely on it? Maybe this is one way of doing it?
Ever taken a train journey at night through a new town? Next time, you could stay awake to have a completely different perspective of the exact same place that looks like a new town at night. How would you describe one?
The sun had set now. The last streak of orange faded into nothing as the world travelled back in time to a black and white movie. The only light streaming down the aisle was a fellow passenger’s who was playing a silent game on her iPad. Turning towards the rectangular window, I continued to spy on the town that seemed to sleep and wake up with the sun. There were hardly any lights on anymore at any window of the houses. A town that was alive only a few minutes back seemed to plunge into darkness at the slight indication of the sun. Because we were travelling through a town, the speed of the train had died down to a fast jog. Jagged eves jutted out from the top of the buildings while softer walls seemed to house their snoozing inhabitants. Shrouded in greyscale, the textures of the roof and walls of the buildings looked like the rough skin of a gigantic rhinoceros. The smooth up and down movement of the train was transferred to this monster as if it were breathing, heaving its chest in the same manner.
Figures of speech galore! Adjectives? Check. Simile, metaphor, personification? Check, check and check. Different sensory descriptions? Done too.
Visual imagery is key to describing something that is rich with resplendent resources. Describe what you see, but do that in a unique way. Come away from common comparisons and boring banter. Your choice of words must be striking. Next time, take your reader on a journey with your words.