Again, I apologize for the delay. More internet issues.....
Today, we're going to do some more work on character description, and, for today, we're going to pretend that your character is a criminal. A particularly dangerous criminal.
Today, we're going to do some more work on character description, and, for today, we're going to pretend that your character is a criminal. A particularly dangerous criminal.
I'll be honest.... I actually stole the idea for this exercise, but I added a twist, so don't judge me.
Again, I'm working on flash description. When you meet someone, you don't stand there for a full five and a half minutes examining them and learning every detail by heart. That would get awkward for more than one person.
And it will get awkward for your reader too.
So instead, we're going to learn how to describe a character's most distinctive attributes in a moment, and we're going to learn how to do this by placing your character temporarily in the shoes of a purse-snatcher.
The setting doesn't matter. You, as the writer, have full say on that, but at least three EXTREMELY different people (an old lady, a school girl, and a dump-truck driver, for instance) should witness the purse-snatching. One of those three people should be the person whose purse was snatched.
We'll pick up the writing where the police arrive and start questioning the witnesses. Each witness must describe your character (the purse-snatcher) and each witness should get at least one thing wrong, but two things right. Remember, the crime happened extremely fast. Each person should only have gotten a glimpse of the criminal.
Most likely, the person who was the victim of the crime will have the most accurate description, but not necessarily. They may be so confused and shocked that they have NO idea what the criminal looked like. Use your own common sense in your writing, but the point is to write straight for several minutes until you have several accounts that conflict each other and several details that each person acknowledges. This gives you an idea of what physical attributes stand out the most to YOU, and you can then play the part of detective -- piecing the stories together to find out what the criminal REALLY looked like.
After that, and this part is completely optional, create a wanted poster for the character with approximate height, hair color etc, and make sure to add special notes such as "probably walks with a limp", and such. Keep the poster on hand whenever you're writing and pretend to be one of those nosy neighbours who are always looking for people who might be con-men. Use the notes you have on the wanted poster when you're writing about your character, and he'll seem more real to the reader.
Of course, don't overdo it. He shouldn't be scratching the stubble on his chin every paragraph or so.....
So there you have it. I hope this exercise was helpful and can't wait to see what your thoughts are on description in your writing. We only have one more week of exercises in this area, so hurry up and say what you think!
Until then,
Gel
Again, I'm working on flash description. When you meet someone, you don't stand there for a full five and a half minutes examining them and learning every detail by heart. That would get awkward for more than one person.
And it will get awkward for your reader too.
So instead, we're going to learn how to describe a character's most distinctive attributes in a moment, and we're going to learn how to do this by placing your character temporarily in the shoes of a purse-snatcher.
The setting doesn't matter. You, as the writer, have full say on that, but at least three EXTREMELY different people (an old lady, a school girl, and a dump-truck driver, for instance) should witness the purse-snatching. One of those three people should be the person whose purse was snatched.
We'll pick up the writing where the police arrive and start questioning the witnesses. Each witness must describe your character (the purse-snatcher) and each witness should get at least one thing wrong, but two things right. Remember, the crime happened extremely fast. Each person should only have gotten a glimpse of the criminal.
Most likely, the person who was the victim of the crime will have the most accurate description, but not necessarily. They may be so confused and shocked that they have NO idea what the criminal looked like. Use your own common sense in your writing, but the point is to write straight for several minutes until you have several accounts that conflict each other and several details that each person acknowledges. This gives you an idea of what physical attributes stand out the most to YOU, and you can then play the part of detective -- piecing the stories together to find out what the criminal REALLY looked like.
After that, and this part is completely optional, create a wanted poster for the character with approximate height, hair color etc, and make sure to add special notes such as "probably walks with a limp", and such. Keep the poster on hand whenever you're writing and pretend to be one of those nosy neighbours who are always looking for people who might be con-men. Use the notes you have on the wanted poster when you're writing about your character, and he'll seem more real to the reader.
Of course, don't overdo it. He shouldn't be scratching the stubble on his chin every paragraph or so.....
So there you have it. I hope this exercise was helpful and can't wait to see what your thoughts are on description in your writing. We only have one more week of exercises in this area, so hurry up and say what you think!
Until then,
Gel