The Fire Breathing Tiger Hunter

Here are today’s Wonderful Words:

Sheriff Gorunov is a born Alpha, a handsome, fire-breathing dragon of a man who smokes with an alarming vigor: cigarette clamped between his canines at the point where filter and tobacco meet, the act of inhaling fully integrated into breath and speech such that there is no discernible pause, only billowing smoke that seems to be a natural by-product of a voice that booms even in the confines of his quiet kitchen.

The Tiger, John Vaillant, page 229

Background

The Tiger is the true story of a man eating tiger terrorizing the people of a tiny town in remote Russia. At the end of the book, a group of men set out to hunt the tiger. Sheriff Gorunov is one of those men.

What makes it wonderful?

When I’m first introduced to a character, the description draws the picture in my mind of who that person is for the rest of the book.

You never get a second chance at a first impression, right?

My first impression of Sheriff Gorunov is burned into my brain with this description.

Someone who smokes with an alarming vigor? I had to look up the definition of vigor to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. It means physical strength and good health.

This man smokes with physical strength and good health? That’s hilarious! But it’s also an impactful image.

And for anyone who has ever smoked a cigarette, you know exactly how challenging it is to integrate the acts of inhaling smoke, breathing air, and speaking words. I was never a big smoker, but any time I tried to do that, my choking cough would shoot the cigarette from my mouth like a heat-seeking missile.

This guy isn’t just a smoker. The cigarette is an extension of his body. A part of who he is.

The description defines the fact. The fact defines the character. The character defines the story.

A chain-smoking, alpha-male sheriff, from a remote Russian town, who is part of a six-man tiger hunting party. And if that description isn’t enough, Vaillant continues and fills in the color of the picture I was outlining in my mind:

He will haul a total stranger bodily (and effortlessly) through a doorway because it is considered bad luck to shake hands across a threshold; a map, when he is done with it, will be scored and pocked with holes from his emphatic pen.

Simply a perfect character description.

Let's get technical

Vaillant perfectly employs imagery in his description of Sheriff Gorunov. The description is so vivid, the reader feels like he is sitting across the kitchen table from the man, listening to his booming voice and breathing his second-hand smoke.

As we’ve discussed many times, imagery is a vivid description that appeals to your senses to evoke a picture or a feeling.

This description evokes a clear picture of a man who is not only equipped, but ready, to hunt a tiger.

When describing a character, sometimes the best approach is to focus on one attribute—like Vaillant did here with the smoking. Let that quirk, or habit, or appearance define your character. Put the focus there, then fill in blanks with smaller details.

Happy writing,

Joe