Dale Hurst – Author - Novelist news and other titbits
  • Home
  • About Dale Hurst
  • Writing
  • Podcast – The Dale Hurst Writing Show
Home
About Dale Hurst
Writing
Podcast – The Dale Hurst Writing Show
Dale Hurst – Author - Novelist news and other titbits
  • Home
  • About Dale Hurst
  • Blog
  • Writing
    • Lust & Liberty
    • Sin & Secrecy
    • You Can Hear Chopin
    • Short Fiction
      • Ballad of a Godless Man
    • Poetry
  • Podcast
    • Season 1
    • Season 2
  • Get in touch
Browsing Tag
inspector javert
Blog

The Spirit Animal — A Useful Descriptive Device?

May 11, 2020 No Comments

We’re all animals when it comes down to it. But is the use of animal comparisons in description and character development useful and effective? Or just lazy and unimaginative?

One of my absolute favourite parties that I went to was animal-themed, which I attended as a flamingo, as the photo above evidences. Since then, I adopted the animal as part of my persona – flamboyant and decidedly elegant when it suits. One thing I have never done in any of my work (so far) is compare a character to a flamingo. A wealth of other animals do feature, however.

Animals are great descriptive devices. Not just for the looks and movements of a character, but also for their thought processes and to an extent, even their overall personalities and the reasons why they interact with other characters a certain way. A lot of what I call “Literary Snobs” deem this as lazy and unimaginative, but I think it works beautifully if used creatively, rather than the same old clichés that you come to learn at school.

A few of my favourite authors use it to varying degrees. Victor Hugo has a lovely, considerably-sized passage in Les Misérables that muses on how everyone has some form of animal in their nature. It comes as he introduces the novel’s primary (misguided) antagonist, Inspector Javert.

Granted the supposition that in every man there is contained a species of the animal kingdom, we may at once place Inspector Javert. The Asturian peasants believe that in every wolf-litter there is a dog-whelp which the mother kills, because otherwise when it grows larger it will devour the rest of her young. Endow this dog with a human face, and you have Javert.

Les Misérables, Part 1, Book Five, Chapter IV

Jean Valjean, the protagonist of the novel, is likened to a wolf, on a number of occasions throughout the story, primarily to symbolise the criminal (and you can read more about that in this article).

The wolf is a pretty easy one to go to – you hear of lone wolves all the time in real life. But what about other mammals? Or birds? Or shellfish? J.K. Rowling memorably compares Severus Snape (my favourite character) to an overgrown bat more than once, while her librarian Irma Pince is likened to “an underfed vulture.” It works superbly, especially when used so creatively. You can immediately picture what these characters are supposed to look like.

Philip Pullman takes the use of animalistic imagery to the next level in the His Dark Materials books, wherein every human (or witch) is partnered with a daemon – an animal familiar that embodies their personality. I expect the flamingo would come into play again for me here if we started assigning daemons to our own friends and family…

Animals are also prevalent in Dickens’ work, which is, as you may know, one of the key inspirations to my own novels. In Little Dorrit, fearsome antagonist Jeremiah Flintwinch is referred to more than once as “crab-like”. More specifically, “…the little keen-eyed crablike old man.”

The main anti-hero for the upcoming The Berylford Scandals: Sin & Secrecy – Abel Stirkwhistle – is partly inspired by Flintwinch. In this novel, we find Abel approaching his sixties and still suffering the disastrous effects of a stroke, including an awkward and jagged way of movement. So, as a partial homage to Dickens and Flintwinch, I decided to really play up the crab comparison. As time goes on, you may see this description evolve, and he becomes less of your beach variety of crab and more of a sea monster.

Abel isn’t the only character to get the animal treatment in some form. When we first get re-introduced to Lady Vyrrington, she is compared to a slightly rheumatic swan, while Mrs Haffisidge retains her mouse-like qualities from the first book.

There is also a degree of “hunter and hunted” about this story, so I have used a lot of predator and prey-based imagery. Mice and cats or hawks, rabbits and foxes, flies and spiders.

What do you think? Are spirit animals a great way to envisage a character? Or is it unimaginitive? What animal would you liken yourself to? Let me know in the comments below. And for more news and content or to get in touch, please follow my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Continue reading
Reading time: 3 min
Written by: Dale Hurst

Newsletter

About me

This is Dale Hurst here. Novelist and journalist. Subscribe above to receive all updates.

Popular Posts

ANNOUNCEMENT: New Book in Progress

November 15, 2018

No Time Like the Present…

July 1, 2018

“To Err is Human…”

August 4, 2018

You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic: A Brief Overview

January 24, 2019

Categories

  • Ballad of a Godless Man
  • Blog
  • Characters
  • Food Writing
  • Journalism
  • Lifestyle
  • Lust & Liberty
  • Podcast
  • Poetry
  • Short Fiction
  • Sin & Secrecy
  • Travels
  • Writing
  • You Can Hear Chopin

dalehurst_author

The Berylford Scandals (1. Lust & Liberty, 2. Sin & Secrecy) 📚
Podcaster | The Dale Hurst Writing Show🎙️

Dale Hurst | Author
Not everyone's experiences in independent publishi Not everyone's experiences in independent publishing are positive, sadly. 
.
I spoke with fellow author @thehsmatthews – who wrote these lovely books – about her recent gripes with Amazon KDP and what she recommends for other writers who find themselves in the same position (God forbid...)
.
The full interview is on my website (link in comments 👇👇👇)
.
#indieauthor #indieauthorsofinstagram #authornetwork #authorscommunity #authorsofinstagram #writingcommunity #writersofinsta #writernetwork #amazonkdp #indiepublishing
I love creating characters. It's the greatest joy I love creating characters. It's the greatest joy of storytelling, I think. But to make sure they all don't end up as one-dimensional cardboard cutouts in the story, I create comprehensive profiles for all my principal players. Some of the things to include in such profiles are discussed in the latest post on my website (#linkinbio) ✍️✏️🖊️📝📖📚📘📙
.
#writingcommunity #writersofinsta #writernetwork #writingwisdom #authornetwork #amwritingmystery #amwritinghistoricalfiction #charactercreation #characterprofile #creativewriting
Another very popular episode and one of my persona Another very popular episode and one of my personal favourites, featuring filmmaker Jamie Webb of @jkw.media talking about true crime documentary and drama and the trials and creative processes behind both. Here's a snippet. You'll have to listen to the whole thing to hear the flipside 😉🔍🎥🩸📝🎙️
.
Find it on Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music 🎙️
.
#podcastersofinstagram #podcast #podcastsofinstagram #podcastaddict #writernetwork #writingpodcast #writingwisdom #thedalehurstwritingshow #amwritingtruecrime #truecrimeaddict #truecrimecommunity #documentary #filmmaker #drama #writingcommunity #authorsofinstagram #filmmakinglife
One of my favourite characters to write. Love her One of my favourite characters to write. Love her or hate her, there's no denying Mrs Urmstone is devoted to Lady Vyrrington and won't hear a word said against her. This quote from Lust & Liberty pretty much sums that up 📖📘📚
.
#amreadingmystery
#amwritingmystery #amreadinghistoricalfiction #theberylfordscandals #lustandliberty #summerreading #summerreads2023 #bookquotes #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #igbooks #histfic #historicalfiction
5 whole years ago, I published my debut novel, Lus 5 whole years ago, I published my debut novel, Lust & Liberty 😱🤯🎉 letting loose all the scandals in Berylford and the dramas of its people. 
.
Everyone's support and responses to the story have been overwhelming and I'm continually grateful 🥰
.
(If you haven't read it yet, add to your summer reading list and grab a copy on Amazon now 😘📚📖)
.
📸 Patrick Cermak
.
#summerreading #summerreads2023 #theberylfordscandals #lustandliberty #bookiversary #publication #anniversary #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #igbooks #readingcommunity #readingtime #regencyromance #amreadingmystery #amreadinghistoricalfiction
How can we as authors continue to think outside th How can we as authors continue to think outside the box with female characters in the sci-fi genre? Fellow Star Wars enthusiast, writer and cosplayer @aimocreative joined me on the podcast with some of her thoughts. Full episode on Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music as always 📚📖🎙️📝✍️
.
#podcastersofinstagram #podcast #podcastsofinstagram #podcastaddict #writingpodcast #thedalehurstwritingshow #writingwisdom #amwritingscifi #amwritingsciencefiction #writingcommunity #authornetwork #authorsofinstagram #authorscommunity
Enjoy these covers while you can... They might be Enjoy these covers while you can... They might be changing soon... In light of the recent announcements from Amazon that they'll be hiking up their printing prices, we need to do some down-sizing. More news to come! Both books are still available from Amazon as always (#linkinbio) 📖📘📚📙 
.
📸 @jkw.media 
.
#bookstagram #booksofinstagram #igbooks #theberylfordscandals #lustandliberty #amreading #amreadingromance #amreadingmystery #amreadingcrime #amreadinghistoricalfiction #historicalfiction #histfic #mysterynovel #crimefiction
Spoilers ahead if you haven't read Lust & Liberty Spoilers ahead if you haven't read Lust & Liberty but are planning to.
.
In this new blog post, I reveal the reason behind killing off a fan favourite... a decision that more than one reader has called for me to change 😆
.
Link to the new post is in the comments ⬇️⬇️⬇️
.
#theberylfordscandals #lustandliberty #writingwisdom #writingcommunity #authorsofinstagram #authornetwork #writersofinsta #amwritingmystery #amwritinghistoricalfiction #creativewriting #spoileralert🚨
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Dale Hurst

  • About Dale Hurst
  • Get in touch

Recent Posts

  • H S Matthews — My Battle with Amazon KDP
  • Building a comprehensive character profile
  • Why did I decide to kill off this character?
  • Planning a new book – my process
  • 7 things to remember when writing a first draft

Dale Hurst

  • Email
    dale.hurst93@gmail.com
  • Address
    Poole, Dorset
© 2020 Copyright Dale Hurst // All rights reserved