Writing Meme Day 27 - Looky looky
Jun. 29th, 2010 11:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomi_jay27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
Well, that's a tricky one. Appearances are important to me as a reader. I like to have a strong mental image of the characters I'm reading about, but I hate it when an author spends pages and pages lovingly describing a character's hair, eyes, clothes, facial hair, nail varnish, boots, perfume... etc... And I especially hate it when authors do this via the medium of a character studying themself in a mirror. Subtlety is okay, people!
As a writer, I have very clear ideas of what my characters look like, but I don't want to bludgeon my readers over the head with my version, because of how I feel as a reader. And chances are, my idea of what they look like will differ wildly from yours anyway. Since my characters' appearances very rarely have any major impact on a story, I just don't worry about it too much. I mean, I know that Ethan has a constant five-o-clock shadow and rumpled clothes, but those things are hardly essential to the reading of the story, so why spend a lot of time discussing it? I have a bit of a private joke about how Scarlett is a redhead, but does it matter that she has a name is also her hair colour? Probably not.
Anyway. I honestly don't spend an awful lot of time "designing" characters. Usually a mental picture of them comes to me without much thought: either the appearance is triggered by the name or vice versa, and that's all there is to it.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
Well, that's a tricky one. Appearances are important to me as a reader. I like to have a strong mental image of the characters I'm reading about, but I hate it when an author spends pages and pages lovingly describing a character's hair, eyes, clothes, facial hair, nail varnish, boots, perfume... etc... And I especially hate it when authors do this via the medium of a character studying themself in a mirror. Subtlety is okay, people!
As a writer, I have very clear ideas of what my characters look like, but I don't want to bludgeon my readers over the head with my version, because of how I feel as a reader. And chances are, my idea of what they look like will differ wildly from yours anyway. Since my characters' appearances very rarely have any major impact on a story, I just don't worry about it too much. I mean, I know that Ethan has a constant five-o-clock shadow and rumpled clothes, but those things are hardly essential to the reading of the story, so why spend a lot of time discussing it? I have a bit of a private joke about how Scarlett is a redhead, but does it matter that she has a name is also her hair colour? Probably not.
Anyway. I honestly don't spend an awful lot of time "designing" characters. Usually a mental picture of them comes to me without much thought: either the appearance is triggered by the name or vice versa, and that's all there is to it.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
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no subject
on 2010-06-29 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-29 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-29 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-29 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-30 04:58 pm (UTC)For instance, in the story I'm shopping around, the hero is a military officer and yet he always looks like he's slept in his clothes. He does it on purpose, because he's been promoted from the ranks and slightly resents the officers who bought their commissions. He's proud of looking like a scruff because it means he's a real soldier on campaign, not just some ponce with shiny boots sitting in a nice office. His heroine is a former popstar to whom appearances are still quite important, and who actually finds herself thinking at the start that it's odd she's flirting with a man she doesn't find very good looking. By the end of the book, she can't take her eyes off him and thinks he's the most gorgeous creature she's ever seen, mostly because she's so attracted to his character that it's affected her perception of his looks.
By contrast in my Sophie Green books the heroine ranks herself as reasonably attractive and can't understand why the very gorgeous hero is even looking at her. Both of them understand how to use the looks they've got to get what they want, but where Sophie frets about her appearance and constantly wishes it was better, Luke treats his looks as an asset: something to refine and take care of, because it's useful, rather than because he's proud.
I'm fascinated by the psychology of appearances, and how good looks can affect how a personality develops. If I write someone who's really good looking, it generally has an effect on their behaviour, for better or worse!
(Since I'm also doing this meme I probably ought to be writing this on my own blog, eh?)
no subject
on 2010-07-01 09:21 am (UTC)Hmmm.