Okay guys! So today is the day that I finally put up the post that I was supposed to put up on Friday. Christmas holiday is one of the busiest. Not because work is busy, not because I have school, not because I have so much to do. There’s just a lot of family. I love my family but peopling in general exhausts me. By the time I remember that I haven’t written the post I’m usually in bed about to go to sleep really late because of talking to my relatives. Whew. So today, the one day that I don’t have a whole ton of family to see I’m going to catch up on all the chores, one of which is this post. So hopefully this goes well.
Building Better Characters: Dress Properly and You Can Do Anything
So, this week we’re going to talk about your character’s appearance. I know that most people would talk about this is one of the very first things that they create about their character. I personally don’t do that. I think that it’s easier to create a good character if you aren’t hung up on how they look at the very first. Just like in real life, if a person sees someone they tend to make judgements based on others looks. Believe it or not, I’ve found that a lot of writers do this as well. So personally, I have an easier time creating a real feeling person if I do the look later on in the story. Sometimes this doesn’t work for some writers, find the order that works best for you and use it every time.
For me, when I write a character, I come up with their personality basic, their background, their biases, and the other things that I talked about, first. And after I have done all of that I have started to develop a good picture of what I think they look like. Then once I find the right name I get a clear image of what they look like. The main love interest in my sci-fi novel was underdeveloped for a long time. I had a rough idea of his background and motivation but not really much else. His name was Tristen. For some reason it was really hard to write scenes with him in them. So eventually I wrote a character sheet for him and then suddenly I realized that I had his name wrong. I thought about it for a while and decided that his name was Trenton, not Tristen. Now I have a perfect image or what Trenton looks like and writing scenes with him in them are actually by favorite.
Some of the typical things to describe about your character is their hair color, eye color, height and weight. Is your character red headed and have a temper? Is your character a bit more plump and so more self-conscious then the other characters? Does your character have a strange eye color because they aren’t actually human? Does their eye color change when they do specific things? Does their hair? Is your male protagonist taller than his female counterpart or shorter? These are all the typical descriptions that people need to get a clear picture of your characters.
But how your character looks isn’t always just their hair color, eye color, height, and weight like character sheets ask for. Sometimes your characters looks are more than those typical description words. What does you character wear? What is their typical casual clothes style like? Do they wear button up shirts at home or do they wear really beat up t-shirts? These types of things are also details that are important for your character. Just like in real life, where people wear certain clothes to get certain messages across to others, you are dressing your characters up certain ways to give a certain impression to the reader. I usually draw my character outfits out. It helps me to think about what I need to add to them to fit the character and it’s easier to write a clothing description when I can actually visually see what it looks like.
One of the things that you really need to think about when writing your character is what is their eye catching characteristic? Every character has one. Sometimes they aren’t super intense. Maybe your character has a mole just under their eye. Maybe your character has crooked teeth. Or maybe your character’s noticeable feature is something more impressive. Harry Potter had a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. My character Kira has a mechanical left arm. My character Vira has violet eyes. Things like these are what make your characters appearance unique and give them something to define their character by.
There are all sorts of ways for someone to create the looks of your character in-depth. Just remember that their hair color, eye color, height and weight aren’t all there is to creating the look for a character but that you shouldn’t ignore those details either.
That’s all of I have this week guys. Christmas will be over on Tuesday and so I hope that this Friday I will actually be on time with the post. Maybe I’ll write the next one ahead to time if I have a moment to write it so that it’s all ready. We only have three more posts left before my extended hiatus. Let’s all stick around for the ride! So as always,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!