March 12, 2007
Do The Clothes Make the Man or Vice Versa?
Description is important in writing. Without it, we’d read about characters who live in a void. But description is, like it’s sister POV, an art form. Description shouldn’t lay there on the page. We don’t care what your character is wearing unless of course they’re wearing a tuxedo t-shirt to a black tie affair they weren’t invited to :D then description can be really funny. It’s not all ‘he was tall dark and handsome’ or even ‘he had a brooding look’ it’s about all the little things a character projects in the way he dresses, in the way he moves, in teh look in his (or her) eye. So here we go……..
He had the look of a man who had let life beat him down one too many times, from his weathered, almost colorless face to his faded red hair and faded blue eyes.
I leaned across my desk, a gentle smile on my face. “Mr. Cain, what can I do for you today?”
She was young, fresh faced and full of life, a bit of a tomboy with wind-reddened cheeks that cried for the touch of my knife and tangled blonde hair my fists ached to wrap themselves in. It would be my greatest pleasure to kill her. 
And just for Raine…..
I opened the door and instantly regretted letting my friend, Raine, talk me into a blind date. The man standing on my porch was wrong, wrong WRONG, from his boots to his work-roughened hands nervously jangling his keys to faded chambray shirt. Neither his dimples, nor his twinkling brown eyes could save him.
How the hell could Raine forget the only thing I hated more than cowboy hats, was bald men.
But I couldn’t tell he was bald because of the big cowboy hat!!
Besides—Mik said she heard that Dennie said she heard he was good in bed!
(Good stuff, chica—nice touch with the descriptions).
tHOSE brown eyes sure do twinkle.
Off to fix that!
HE’S NOT BALD. . . TAKE IT BACK………..
Good description. Tells a lot about the character. If only I could do things like that. *ggg*
Dennie NO!!!!!!!!
JOrdan it’s so easy to be lazy about stuff like character description, which was the not-so-well-articulated point of my blog post, and God knows I”m just as guilty as anyone else. In something like this where you’re goofing around it IS easier to just throw up whatever comes to mind–it’s much harder when you’re writing the actual book. Honestly, Raine is the description queen for me–she keeps me from being lazy.
PS JOrdan I did NOT just call you lazy! :D
GIRL. You are SO good at that!! :)
Great description. You just have to do this another time. This is fun :)
Amie, Sure you didn’t…*ggg*
Mahaira it WAS fun!
Jordan I DID NOT!!!!!!! :D SWEAR!!!!!!!