Writing with Stardust: The Ultimate Descriptive Guide for students, parents, teachers and writers (25 page)

2.
Splinters
of sly mist grabbed at the trees.

3.
Tatters
of sneaky mist clenched the ship’s mast.

4.
Wisps
of wily mist clutched at the grass as they passed over.

5.
Sheets
of insidious mist fettered themselves to the mountain and strangled it in silence.

                                                
ARCHAIC WORDS

1.
Loops
of mist encircled the mountain.

2.
Coils
of mist enfolded the mountain.

3.
Nooses
of mist enlaced the haughty mountain.

4. The glowering mountain was
corralled
and ensnared by the crafty mist.

5. The stately mountain was
lassoed
and enwreathed by hanks of mist.

                                              ADJECTIVES FOR MIST

1. The steaming mist
lingered
in the air.

2. The hazy, gauzy mist
lounged
in the air.

3. The sorcerous and illusory mist
leisured
in the air.

4. The evanescent and ephemeral mist
loitered
in the dead air.

5. Furrows of brumous and nebulous mist
languished
in the deathlike air.

                                                 
RAIN SOUNDS

1. The rain was spraying through the
screen
of mist.

2. The rain was susurrating through the
shroud
of mist.

3. The rain was sibilant and ripped through the
plume
of mist.

4. The rain was seething and shredded through the
pall
of milk-white mist.

5. The rain was sizzling and sluiced through the
spume
of spirit-grey mist.

                                                   
LIGHT RAIN

1. The airy rain came from the
filmy
clouds above me.

2. The sprinkling rain came from the
fibrous
clouds above me.

3. Pearls of light rain came from the
furrow
of cloud above my head.

4. Teardrops of tepid rain drifted down from the
veil
of clouds above me.

5. The mizzling rain was warm and tinkled down from the
vellum
of cloud above.

                                                    
HEAVY RAIN

1. The plump raindrops were
as hot and hissing as the devil’s spit
.

2. The swollen raindrops were
as thick and stinging as a troll’s spittle
.

3. The saturating rain was
as fiery and splattering as witch-spit
.

4. The stinging rain was
as
sibilant and sinister as a warlock’s hiss
.

5. Silver nails of rain pinged and sissed off the corrugated roof
like a dragon’s, dripping spit
.

                                        
FLOODED RIVER COLOURS

1. The tea-brown river was boiling as it
carved
through the ravine.

2. The whiskey-brown river was sloshing as it
gashed
the river’s banks.

3. The brandy-brown flood was rumbling as it
gouged
out chunks of the bank.

4. The cognac-brown floodwater was foaming as it
hacked
through the meadow.

5. The mocha-brown torrent was lathering itself into a rage. It made a sound like bottled thunder as it trundled and
slashed
through the valley.

                                       
LEVEL 1: BASIC SENTENCES

1. The mist was
ghost-grey
.
COLOUR

2. It was
noiseless and bloodless
.
LACK OF SOUND

3.
Shavings
of mist passed over the field. 
SHAPE

4. It
crawled
over the still wheat.
ACTION

5. It
enwrapped
the scarecrow.
ARCHAIC WORDS

6. It was
mirage-like
as it moved.
ADJECTIVES

7. The rain was
showering
the field.
RAIN SOUNDS

8. It was thin and
aeriform
rain.
LIGHT RAIN

9. The
ploppy
drops came later.
HEAVY RAIN

10. The river was
broiling and bog-brown
.
FLOOD RIVERS

                                        LEVEL 2: A BASIC PARAGRAPH

The mist was
spook-grey
. It was
lifeless and motherless
.
Rags
of the mist tickled the lake as it passed. It
grasped at
the calm water. It moved on and
enclasped
the shrubs. It looked
fumy and filmy
in the weak light of the morning. The rain began
sissing
off the pond.  The rain seemed
mist-like
also as it came down in thin sheets. It became heavier and
pregnant
drops
of the rain arrived. After hours of this, the river was
turf-brown and slushing
.

                                        
LEVEL 3: CREATIVE PARAGRAPHS

The tranquil valley was swaddled in a veil of
poltergeist-white
mist. It was eerily silent in the valley and the reason was obvious. The deathly vapour didn’t lick the valley’s cold floor as the wind was known to do. Its
tongue less
form wouldn’t allow it to. Instead, it warped nature by using its
spineless tentacles
to trail around everything. It drifted and ghosted, glided and dangled. Then it pounced. Once it was sure it had conjured up enough of its milky white substance, it
clung to
and
enrobed
everything it could. Nothing was spared. It snagged and snared every crag and tree without mercy.

Although it looked
ethereal and gossamer-fragile
, it packed a punch far above its weightlessness. It writhed and coiled with delight, its ghostly scarves wrapping the valley in a maze of mist. Then its age-old enemy arrived to banish it into nothingness. Darts of icy rain came
spitting
from the sky. They hissed and swished, shredding the veil into collars of isolated steam. Increasing in intensity, fat
droplets
of soaking rain purged the valley of any remaining mist. The incessant rain swelled the river, bursting its banks. It turned
peat-brown
immediately
, rumbling
through the valley’s rocky caverns. This time, the rain had won.

                                      
LEVELS 4 AND 5: COMPLEX WRITING

A labyrinth of
fantasm-grey
mist hung over the forest. It seemed as if it had arisen as part of the forest’s wet breath. Hovering like voodoo vapour in the arcane light of the morning, it was motionless as it surveyed the trees beneath. Like an apparition one might see over an ancient barrow, it was more than air and less than flesh and blood.
Kinless and kith less
, it wove itself together, increasing in density. When it was satisfied its form could
entwine
the trees, it began to descend,
clasping itself
onto their leafy heads.
Fetters
of the
diaphanous
mist fastened themselves around the wood, leaving no tree unharmed. Although it was incorporeal, it managed to fade the mossy trees into a grim-grey reflection of itself. Like unholy incense, it wafted and spirited through the forest, swathing everything in its vaporous patina.

As wild and fantastic as a chimera, it grew in substance and intensity, steaming with its own spite. The forest took on an unearthly aspect. It was as if this devil’s tattoo had been designed to hide its beauty. Nature doesn’t allow anything to be immutable, however. A heavy
dewdrop
of rain was the first sign that the mist had gone too far. Then a drizzle came, followed by a deluge. The rain increased until it was
seething and sizzling
. Raindrops seared the mist, ripping it apart with its
stinging
,
silver bullets
. The forest was hissing like the dripping saliva of a demon. It lost its otherworldly aspect, gradually taking form again. When the last shred of mist had disappeared, a flood river raced through the forest, as if to celebrate nature’s verve and vigour.
Threshing
and echoing into the distance, its sound was the final death knell for the silent mist.