Are you really…. not supposed to…. describe what your characters are wearing….
I think there’s a great deal of misinformation on this topic.
I believe it’s fine to describe what your characters are wearing. However, like all things, it should serve some kind of purpose.
For instance, describing winter clothes helps impart to the reader a sense of how cold it is. Describing summer clothes helps explain how warm it is.
Describing an outfit before a social event gives a window onto the character’s sense of fashion, or explains their reverence (or lack) for the event; for example a character can wear a black suit to a funeral, or watch from a distance while wearing a t-shirt and jeans. These impart a different attitude.
An outfit may be described purely to give a little more interest to a character; to give the reader a bit more insight into who they are, through the way they present themselves. It may have no greater significance to the wider story but this is still a reason to do it.
So the “purpose” doesn’t need to be super-vital to the story. It canbe just because “describing this to the reader helps them appreciate the character or scene”, but that’s still a purpose.
I like that last comment because I think it can apply to a lot of things in storytelling! Anything that shows some element of your character has a purpose to the story even if it doesn’t exactly advance the plot.
These horrific, sexist, racist paragraphs - screenshotted and shared for posterity by James Smythe, to whom we are all indebted - are the work of one Liam O’Flynn, a writer and English teacher. Evidently, they come from his book Writing With Stardust: the Ultimate Descriptive Guide for students, parents, teachers, and lovers of English, and are intended as examples of good writing.
UM.
Dear white male writers: DO NOT DO THIS SHIT. IT IS SUPER GROSS AND FETISHISTIC AND ALSO TERRIBLE WRITING. THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.
Like I just. “Her virility-brown eyes -” WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN? How can you have an “Amazonian figure”ON a“wafer-thin body” when “figure” is a word that describe’s a body’s shape, and Amazonian means pretty much the DIRECT FUCKING OPPOSITE of “wafer-thin” in the first place? What the shitting fuck does ANY of this mean, apart from “I am only nebulously familiar with the concept of women and completely at a loss if I can’t compare their various bodyparts to jewels, animals and footstuffs”?
STOP
GO TO WRITING JAIL
GODIRECTLY TO WRITING JAIL, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200
tag yourself i’m the two beryl-green jewels in the snow
if her ears frame her nose do they like, grow directly beside her nose? how does she see from them?
*facepalm*
“Writing With Stardust: the Ultimate Descriptive Guide for students, parents, teachers, and lovers of English“
lovers of english
oh my goddddddd
i can’t get over this fucking post
“I loved her nebulous, eden-green eyes which were a-sparkle with the ‘joie de vivre’. They were like two beryl-green jewels melted onto snow.”
1. what the fuck is joie de vivre
2.melted jewels?
3. beryl green
eden green:
WHICH ONE IS ITTTTTTTTT
@laughlikesomethingbroken “Joie de vivre” is a French phrase that literally translates to “joy of living”, while it IS one of those phrases that gets used in English in this context it is SO EXTRA AND UNNECESSARY OH MY GOD. Don’t use French to make yourself sound sophisticated when you’re NOT I don’t know where to even START. Curvilinear waist? Sugar candy-sweet? What the FUCK are seraph’s ears? Voguish clothes? What the everloving fuck is “constellation blue” supposed to mean??? Like forget the objectification, this writing is horrifying enough before we even get to the embedded sexism
seraph’s ears are ears that you can’t see bc they’re hidden behind her 6 wings
Oyster white teeth?
holy purple prose batman
Female writers do this too. Have you read a Mills and Boon novel? Have you read high school girls’ yaoi fanfics?
Uh oh, we were focusing too much on how a grown man is selling this shit and not enough shitting on teenage girls. Egalitarians here to put an end to that shit.
Guess what? I’ve read A LOT of Harlequin novels and a LOT of fanfic and I have never ever seen anything this horrible at description.
Also, none of those stories were trying to hold themselves up as high examples of the craft
There’s a writing tip I’ve heard a lot over the years claiming that a thesaurus can be your best friend because it can expand your vocabulary and help you avoid repetition. There are also posts floating around promoting the whole “said is dead” idea, bringing attention to the fact that there are many other words that could be used in place of “said.” While I think this is great and having an extended vocabulary is important, especially being a writer, this can also get you into trouble.
In lexical semantics (i.e. the study of word meanings), synonymy and antonymy are things that come up kind of a lot. One of the most basic ways that we humans conceptualize the world around us is by comparison–saying something is like something else, or the opposite of something. The same is true when ascertaining meaning. For example:
Person 1: So, what is a wolf? Person 2: Well, it’s like a dog, but has x, y, and z features.
Person 1: What exactly does “day” mean? Person 2: It’s not night, for one thing.
And so on.
One of the main features of language in general is that it’s efficient, or at least it tries to be. Taking this into account, it’s hard to believe that there would be two single words that express the same exact meaning. Even words that appear to have the same exact meaning, upon closer inspection, have subtle differences which makes them two separate words. They may belong in the same semantic field, but there’s still some tiny difference in meaning that warrants the existence of both.
Take, for example, the word scared. If you were to look this up in a thesaurus, you’d probably find words like afraid, terrified, andfrightened. Sure, they all have the same general meaning of a feeling inflicted by fear, but they’re not all the same. Each word is a varying degree of fear. Even afraid, despite being almost the same as scared, can’t always be used interchangeably without slightly changing the meaning of the entire clause it’s a part of.
It’s really important to take this into account when writing. Take those advice posts with a grain of salt. Sure, those posts can give you a hundred different substitutes for the word “walk,” but if you really mean walk, don’t say ambleorsaunter because they’re entirely different types of walking. True synonyms don’t actually exist. Write exactly what you mean, and don’t try to flower it up by plugging in a bunch of words you found in a thesaurus.
Hey everyone, Abby here! Today I want to talk about imagery and descriptions, and how to include them effectively in your writing.
What is imagery?
For the purpose of this post, imagery is defined as “[the use of] figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses”. Put simpler, imagery is just a form of writing that helps the reader create vivid mental images of what’s going on.
Why is imagery important?
Do you remember in second and third grade, when your teacher would always ask you if the characters in your story were floating around in space? That’s why imagery is important. Your reader may not be that young, but having (even a vague) idea of where your characters are is better than nothing.
Neglecting imagery in your writing can sometimes make your readers think that a) you don’t care about this place or person, no matter what’s happening or b) this area or this person’s appearance has no relevance to the story at all. Let’s de-bunk these two.
You don’t care about this place or person, no matter what’s happening. This can often come of as unprofessional on your part. If you don’t care about the subject in question, why include it at all? You should probably try to include at least a phrase of description for everything you introduce.
This area or person’s appearance has no relevance to the story at all. Someone is going to find it relevant; many, many readers like to have a base for creating a mental image. As one of these readers, a lack of description of any sort is something I find highly annoying. And the same point above: if it’s completely irrelevant, why include it at all?
How much imagery should I use?
In order from least to most descriptive, I’m going to give four examples of imagery that I’ve seen before using an original character. Accompanying each one will be a quick description with some tips.
She had dark hair, brown eyes, and glasses.
This is a good method of description if you want to give a baseline introduction to a side character. It also works if you want your readers to be (vaguely) aware of a character who’s going to play a larger role in the story later, but in that case I would go a level up.
The phone in her lightly tanned hand reflected on the lenses of her glasses, hiding her dark brown eyes. There was a streak of electric blue in her shoulder-length brown hair.
This one is probably closer to the description level you would want to use for a character who will later be important to the story. You could also use this for major characters if you need the introduction to be a quick one, but if you have the time than you should probably step it up a little bit. Using this level of description for characters who play a very minor role in the story may be superfluous, depending on how they contribute.
Oblivious to the world around her, she scrolled on her phone. The light from the screen reflected brightly on her glasses, hiding the deep brown of her eyes. The cord of a single earbud disappeared in her shoulder-length dark brown hair, almost entangled in the streak of electric blue. She had a light tan that showed on her arms and through the rips of her dark jeans. She had the broad shoulders of someone used to fighting for her way and wore a t-shirt from a band she was sure nobody had heard of.
This is the general way I would go about introducing a main character. It’s a good way to show a bit of this character’s personality while also giving the reader a good idea of what she looks like. I personally prefer not to go much farther than this, unless there are any details that are screaming out for attention.
The phone in her hand lit up the lenses of her glasses in a cold light, masking the deep muddy brown of her eyes. Hidden behind those glasses were long, thick eyelashes, dark bags, and lightly applied makeup with a cat-eye wing. Her round, lightly tanned face was framed by dark brown shoulder-length hair, though the part at which she wore it revealed a streak of bright blue. She smiled down at the screen, revealing two wide front teeth and a dimple on one cheek. She wore an earbud in one ear, the cord dipping down below her phone before looping back up. Her black jeans, riddled with rips all the way to the upper thigh, were almost the ensemble of her outfit — they would have been if it weren’t for the leather jacket covering the t-shirt representing her favorite band. Masking brightly patterned socks were a pair of lace-up combat boots that climbed up to her mid-calf.
In all honesty, I cannot think of a regular situation in which this would be a suitable first impression. That is, unless your PoV character has a thing for recognizing every little detail or has an hour to spare to notice every single detail of this character. If you find yourself reaching this level of description, you wander into the dangerous info-dump zone.
Instead of introducing everything at once like this, try to include it all through context. Maybe at some point a wind picks up and she hugs her leather jacket tighter for warmth; that’s a lot better than just stating she’s wearing one.
Including Imagery in Your Writing
We got a little taste of the “levels” of imagery, but what else can we use hose levels for? Here’s a little set of guidelines that I like to follow in my own writing.
Level I Imagery
Use this one for:
Bare basics introductions
Moments when there’s not enough time for anything more
Somewhat relevant details that you think the reader should be aware of in the moment
Baseline description for a character that will be important later (usually in rare cases)
Characters that have less than five lines or don’t play a large role in your story
A quick run-down of a new place that the characters won’t be spending much time in
Returning to already established details in your story
Introducing details that are important to the story in the moment but may not play a large role later
Level II Imagery
Use this one for:
Describing characters that will be important later
Quick introductions of main characters
Regular introductions of side characters
An object or theme that will be important or recurring in the story
A place that the characters will be spending a moderate amount of time in
Introducing new details that may later become important in the story or that your PoV character would take the time to notice
Level III Imagery
Use this one for:
Introducing main characters in regular situations
A place that your characters will be returning to a lot or that will play a large role in the story
Anything major in your story that you want to draw your reader’s attention to
You’ll notice that I didn’t include anything about new details in the third level of imagery; if a detail is important enough to warrant an entire paragraph of description, if should probably be included in the main introduction.
So, that’s all I’ve got for today! In the future I’m going to make a post about actually writing with imagery that branches off of this one. Now that I’ve talked about how to include it, I should probably give some tips for how to actually write it. (Great planning on my part.)
If there’s anything you want to see me talk about in my next post or if you have any questions about this one, please don’t hesitate to leave a message in my ask! Until next time, much love! <333
Describing the setting of your story adds a level of depth to your story, but sometimes it can be difficult trying to piece together the descriptions with enough clarity to engage your audience.
A little exercise I learnt while studying - similar to the one I wrote about describing characters - is to go to Google and look up a picture of a setting you think is close to your world - it doesn’t have to be perfect, it can be an isolated or specific environment, like a boiler room or an abandoned mall, or it can be something more general like a steampunk, fantasy or apocalyptic world. There is a lot of incredible works out there - photographs and art - that will give you a visual aid for describing your world.
Copy the photo into your document of have it up on screen next to your writing and try and write as many details as you can (as sentences or dot points, it doesn’t really matter) - the colours of the world (the sky, the grass, the houses etc.), try to use words specific to the location (like bluffs, tundras, plains, barrens, plateaus, etc.). Try to focus on the smallest things becasue they can tell you the most about the world. For example, in an apocalyptic setting, a rusted red tricycle tipped on its side can speak volumes.
You might not end up using all the details you write down (unless you want a Tolkien-esque description of the world), but it helps to create a more clear image in your head and gives you something to work with.
Hopefully this helps and I wish you all the best with your writing.
Describing your character’s appearance and be either the easiest thing to do, or the hardest. Some of us spend ages just staring at the computer screen rewriting the same sentence or trying to picture the character in our head in order to write them into existence.
A little exercise I learnt while studying is to go to Google and look up a picture of a person you think is close to the appearance of your character - it doesn’t have to be a celebrity, it can be a standard photo you find while looking up a descriptor like ‘brunette’ or ‘blue eyed man’.
Copy the photo into your document of have it up on screen next to your writing and try and write as many details as you can (as sentences or dot points, it doesn’t really matter) - the colour and shape of their eyes (try to be as specific and descriptive as you can, and not just the generic blue, brown, green, grey, etc), the colour of their hair and the way it’s styled, the shape of the jaw or their nose, freckles, dimples, scars, etc.
You might not end up using all the details you write down, but it helps to create a more clear image in your head and gives you something to work with.
Hopefully this helps and I wish you all the best with your writing.
Here’s something that’s fast to learn, easy to remember, and that will help your writing immensely.
Keep descriptor words (adjectives and their ilk) close to the things they’re describing. This improves the clarity of your writing and helps to keep your writing concise.
Examples:
What not to do: “Angelina groped for the edge of the door dazedly.”
What to do: “Angelina dazedly groped for the edge of the door.”
Remember - you know what’s going on as you write. The reader doesn’t. So simply keeping descriptors close to what they’re describing makes for much clearer writing.
As authors, we all know descriptions are an integral part of writing. Some of us, though, don’t know when. All of us have, at least
once,
put descriptions where they shouldn’t be or missed them where they should be.
So, here’s a totally not comprehensive guide for
✨How to Add Descriptions✨!
Things to Avoid
Clothes:putting in the full costume could bore the reader. It takes away attention from the story, and whenever the reader wants to imagine scenes, they’ll spend extra time trying to visualize the whole outfit and it takes away from your writing.
Body and face: describing all the little details of the face and body, especially upon meeting a new character, is a common infodump. It’s too much information all at once and readers can have trouble keeping track of it all.
Setting andWeather:where the characters are shouldn’t be infodumped;it should be treated as just another bit of description. Something like the rain formed puddles on the ground, from the cloudy-gray sky above me. There was no sun to be seen, and the black seemed to trump all else, making for a sombre setting. The rain itself looked colourless, lifeless; it fell sharply to the ground like bullets from the sky is something you’d want more in a prose-central piece rather than an action/adventure, for example. I know it’s easy (and fun) to get carried away with descriptions, but there’s a right place and time for everything.
What to Do
Clothes:best to explain minimally, just enough that we have a general idea of the character. She was wearing a hoodie and jeans.
If the clothes say something about the character, you might want to get more into it. For example, maybe she’s wearing a hoodie he had on the other day. Or, they always wear gloves: why?
Faces:the best choice is to keep it to the bare minimums, like she had short blonde hair and a smile. Notice smile: it tells us something about her personality up front as well! Additionally, you can add little things like he laughed, hazel eyes catching the sun and making them a golden colour later onin the story: having an emotion to link with a description, than just a plain idea of it, is something of value.
Bodies:a little bit at a time goes a long way. A smart move is to describe things that tell us something about the character. Do they have painted fingernails? Or are they cut short? Maybe she fidgets a lot. Why is that? What does it tell us about them?
Setting and Weather: keeping it to a minimum and adding only the important details lets the reader have fun creating their own scene. Try something more like it was a dreary, rainy day. When writing poetry, of course, you can change this up, but since we’ve all seen rain before, you don’t have to explain it thoroughly.
I will point out: there’s a quote that says something to the effect of “if there’s a gun on the wall in act 1, it should be fired in act 2”. This is to say make sure all your setting description is important: adding unnecessary details only clogs up writing.
Please note that these rules absolutely don’t apply to every circumstance, so if you feel it fits the scene, don’t stop yourself from writing it that way. Art is subjective, lads.
