WC Chat Revamp : Forum : characters


characters

9 Years Ago


When it comes to describing characters, I often find that less is more. What are your opinions on the matter? Dose this take away from the over-all experience?

Re: characters

9 Years Ago


I agree, actually. I think it's good to describe them, but not to dump a load of detail that distracts from what's happening. I try to keep it even less for one time, unimportant characters. I stick with like, their hair color and eyes and that's it. Giving a full desc for an unimportant character makes us think we should pay attention to see them again. Another thing I personally like to do is describe a character more and more throughout. Like, I start with a couple physical notes, then more later, and so on.

Re: characters

9 Years Ago


The idea of showing a character overtime in a story, is a great idea. Spreads it out you know. Sometimes; however, I already have it in my head what a character looks like... just from basic features ( and the name for that matter) and I find that, if later on, the writer changes what I've already perceived... my mind gets rather upset by that.
Is there any way to avoid this in writing?

Re: characters

9 Years Ago


I try to keep my characters down to about 3 descriptors unless there is a specific reason to point out more.
I find it hard to slip in descriptions of my characters because I find that my characters almost never think of their appearance. So usually you don't know much about how they look until you see them through the eyes of another character.
Maybe that's flawed storytelling, but I don't feel the express need to describe my POV character.

Re: characters

9 Years Ago


Yah I like to leave it open too so it let's you imagine for yourself what the character looks like with the few parameters I put up but the over all tone of a character I like to fully control

Re: characters

9 Years Ago


I like to visualize my characters as the actors I would pick to play them, and describe those actual people the best I can. Which will no doubt be a source of agony for me if any of my books are ever really made into movies, and the actors who play them look nothing like the ones I visualized.

Re: characters

9 Years Ago


I do this too! I see my stories like animations in my head and try to write the chapters like episodes accordingly. I too used to worry about actors not looking like I visualized them on stage. I guess the best thing is to try to see it as the artist's adaptation of your work, you know? Like, what they saw when they read it. They being the hypothetical director/ producer.


Re: characters

9 Years Ago


I think everyone covered points I pretty much agree with. You could try practicing describing your characters in one sentence. Try to capture what the essence of their appearance is, to you. If you were going to describe, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the day, you could just say: looming man, built like truck, with a no-bullshit look in his eye. That'd just be to jump start the reader's imagination. As you moved on into the piece, you could drop a bit of description here and there to round out the appearance you want. Yes, I also don't like it when I imagine a character one way and then the writer interjects some description hundreds of pages in that warps the character's face. Screw that!