Game of Thrones and Divine Comedy are two exemplary texts that could be used to help students master creative writing.
As mentioned in my last post on creative writing, the descriptive language used in famous texts such as Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin and Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri should provide English HSC students with a vivid idea of the writing required to secure a band 6 mark when the exams begin.
The quotes from Game of Thrones and Divine Comedy below are descriptive given that they allow readers to imagine the feeling or mood that the writer is trying to express in a given situation or context.
Dante’s Divine Comedy in particular does a great job of providing readers with vivid detail of hell and all its circles as the poet goes on a journey of religious and spiritual discovery.
The highly popular Game of Thrones also sets a high benchmark for descriptive writing, particularly when it comes to conveying important themes such as fear and honour.
Again, these quotes should help students understand what descriptive writing truly entails – words that work in conjunction to allow readers to imagine the landscapes being described and the emotions that characters feel.
If students can replicate the form of writing below, they will go a long way to mastering the creative writing component of the HSC.
Descriptive quotes from Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
- A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge
- Fear cuts deeper than swords
- When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives
- Nothing burns like the cold
- Every flight begins with a fall
- Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle
- Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time
- When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king
- You wear your honor like a suit of armor… You think it keeps you safe, but all it does is weigh you down and make it hard for you to move
- A lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep
Descriptive quotes from Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
- Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, For the straight foreward pathway had been lost.
- Without fame, he who spends his time on earth leaves only such a mark upon the world as smoke does on air or foam on water.Get up! breathe with the soul, for it is brave in every battle, and will always win, unless the heavy body be its grave.
- As little flowers, which the chill of night has bent and huddled, when the white sun strikes, grow straight and open fully on their stems, so did I, too, with my exhausted force
- But the stars that marked our starting fall away. We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that Lying in a featherbed will not bring you fame, nor staying beneath the quilt, and he who uses up his life without achieving fame leaves no more vestige of himself on earth than smoke in the air or foam upon the water.
- For pride and avarice and envy are the three fierce sparks that set all hearts ablaze.
- And so we made our way across that heap of stones, which often moved beneath my feet because my weight was somewhat strange for them
- As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off, First one and then another, till the branch Surrenders all its spoils to the earth; In similar fashion did these evil seeds of Adam throw Themselves from the group, one by one, into the boat At Charon’s signal, as a bird is called to its lure
- And just as he who, with exhausted breath, having escaped from sea to shore, turns back to watch the dangerous waters he has quit, so did my spirit, still a fugitive, turn back to look intently at the pass that never has let any man survive.
Of course, there are many great authors who do a terrific job of presenting narratives through their descriptive writing. Students in their spare time could do worse than spend an hour or so each day just reading these texts and grasping how language can bring worlds, feelings and characters to life.
