It must be those fall leaves again, but I'm obsessed with color these days.
I just finished reading The Light Beyond the Forest, the second in the fabulous King Arthur trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff, and she pays attention to color.
Here's how Sutcliff brings the quest for the Holy Grail to life with fresh descriptions of gold and red and black. As I read, I wanted to join the knights on their adventures!
new-fired gold
russet-brown
badger-streaked
crimson-striped
honey-comb golden houses
a cross as red as fresh-spilled blood on fresh-fallen snow
the proud fierce white of swan's wing or lightning flash
the blackness had a bloom on it like the bloom on a thundercloud
eyes as softly and deeply blue as nightshade flowers
the bulging black bellies of the storm clouds
a mouth as silken red as harvest poppies
blazed red as though he were a tongue of flame
Try taking a piece of writing you're working on. Have you used colors in your descriptions? Can you make them more vivid by using an unusual color word, or by creating a simile? What does the color really look like? Not just gold, but new-fired gold or honey-comb golden houses.
If your piece of writing doesn't include colors, try adding a flash here and there with your own inventive description.
What about the green field in the photo above? It could be another boring landscape, or it could come to life as the blurred-green grass stretched through the haze.
Be original with color! Have fun!
