No doubt we have all had our interests aroused by a piece of evocative writing or a good story. Maybe we have struggled to find the right words to describe our safaris to our friends. It is not easy to write well, but perhaps thinking like a writer can also enrich our time in the bush.
“The view was spectacular as the sun set in a ball of fire over the endless African plains. Shaking his magnificent mane, the lion got to his feet and uttered a ferocious roar.”
But what makes it bad? The imaginary example above contains no grammatical errors or factual mistakes, but the scene it describes doesn’t ring true. ‘Magnificent’ and ‘spectacular’ give us nothing to visualise. ‘Ferocious’ is a cartoon idea of a
