Characters….Alright so we all know how a person is created in real life, of course (in some cases even before we wanted to know, thanks to our sex-ed classes in high school lol). However the question remains for many, how do you create a person on paper? What is the best way to describe their looks, personality, faults, etc.
My first advice is to let the world around you, inspire you.
I’ve mentioned similar topics throughout my blog, seeing someone in a grocery store (when situations like these are safe again that is), conversations you’ve heard over the years that tell you a lot about others personalities. But we’re not just talking about personality are we? We are also talking about looks.
What do they look like? There are numerous lists of descriptors out there…For example some of the most common, being…
- Blond hair
- Brown hair
- Red hair
- Tall
- Black Hair
- Short
- Blue eyes
- Brown eyes
- Dark complexion
- Fair skinned
Of course there are many others but you get the idea. They are very common and we hear them used to describe someone quite often. The trick is to use some of the common mixed with some uncommon descriptors. Show the reader something other than the same monotony they hear/read everyday. Show them that you can mix it up a bit and find new ways to describe looks as well as personalities.
These lists, for Example are some less common used ways to describe someones appearance….
Skin Color…
- Alabaster
- Waxen
- Copper
- Cedar
- Almond
- Butterscotch
- Toffee
- Ashen
- Bloodless
- Sienna
Eye Color…
- Gunmetal Grey
- Whisky Brown
- Jasper Green
- Laser Blue
- Onyx
- Aluminum Grey
- Ginger
- Ultramarine
- Desert Brown
- Mint Green
Hair color… (Really any of the above lists can work for some hair colors as well)…
- Platinum Blonde
- Gardenia (White)
- Obsidian (Black)
- Cinnamon
- Sun-kissed
- Raven
- Ebony
- Eggshell
Of course those are just some color descriptors that you can use. If I did list for every way to describe an appearance, I could time travel and still not be done lol.
- Not only can you describe color but also, texture of skin or hair.
- Clothing style
- Mannerisms
- Eye Shape
- Face Shape
- Height
- Hands or Feet
- Length of hair
- And I could go on and on…
The point is, just be creative. Be inventive. Don’t always stick to the same old descriptors, yeah you can use them here and there to make the readers feel comfortable. To be honest these lists have me wondering if I should check the descriptions in my current novel to make sure I’m remembering to do just that lol (in both the comfortable and unique ways). Remember that you want your style of writing and your novel to stand out from the rest. So when you think your novel, or whatever project you are working on, is finally done, give it that one extra read over just to make sure because you want everything that you publish to be worth reading. What I mean is take your time to make it as great as it can be so it leaves a lasting impression.
In my next blog post I will talk more on character personality traits, and their faults. Honestly I can’t cover every bit of my techniques for creating a person in only two blog posts because there are just far too many but I can share some of how I create.
Getting the right character to look, sound, act and become who you need them to be in your story can be a challenge. One of the biggest things that I remind myself is to write the first draft by instinct. (As I stated in my blog about Editing, finishing my novel before I do anything else is what I try to accomplish first, just to get the story on paper). Writing it by instinct is writing it with your first thought. If your first thought it that your character has green hair, or even something as simple as blonde then go for it. That doesn’t have to be the final outcome if it changes in your mind later, just go with it to get the story out so you don’t freeze and get writers block so early on. Don’t get stuck on describing people if it doesn’t come to you right away. Just write.
Just make sure that if you change those descriptors to something totally different in the future, that you track down and fix every time you use it or every time you mentioned something about the color or whatever the case may be. I found out the hard way that I missed a couple areas that had to be addressed. But that is why I am being very thorough, I want to be sure that everything lines up right.
If you do it with your first novel than you will learn what to look for in your next one and improve every time. If you find yourself getting irritated and just pushing to get your project out there than take a break. That way each time you share your words with the world you can say that you did all that you could to describe your story the way it was meant to be told.
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Until next time…JUST KEEP WRITING.
Tiffany’s Writing Journey 