I was still alive. It is particularly useful for concluding a speech or an essay. The writer's own personality occasionally shows through. This is particularly true in humorous writing. I looked at them through snow-crusted eyes.
Writing is a bit like dancing.
You have basic moves to follow, but the best dancers have their own rhythm, their own flair. Writers of fiction, in fact, may become known for their striking individual styles, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, to name two. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you, just as you wanted to be understood, believed in you, just as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.