Maureen Ulrich's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-advice"
On Physical Description
As promised, I am returning to my blog to pen a little advice. I don't know if you're proud of me, but I am!
Okay, back to physical description.
I think this is a really, really important tool for helping your reader to have a visual of each character. Even minor characters are deserving of a physical detail. The detail can be as simple as this:
"You should get her tested for mono," the school secretary says.
"The kissing disease?" Mom asks.
"I've seen a lot of it around here." The secretary peers at me over her reading glasses. "Believe me, I know mono when I see it." (Breakaway, p. 266)
I am hoping the reference to the reading glasses will give the reader a visual. I have a visual of the secretary. I know exactly where she is and what she looks like. I haven't included all these details, but according to Ernest Hemingway's iceberg theory, I don't need to.
The more important the character, the more physical description is required: age, eye colour, hair colour, height (tall or short), skin tone, body type. You don't need to lump these all into one sentence. In fact, it's better if you spread them out into a few, well-constructed sentences. Here's an example from Power Plays (p. 21)
Tyler turns out to be short, scrawny, and at least seventeen. Staggering through the door with a near empty bottle of Crown Royal in his hand, he has a baseball cap jammed backwards on his shaven head and a scraggly goatee.
There should be enough detail in this passage to give the reader a notion of not only Tyler's appearance, but the sort of person he might be too.
To help me keep my characters straight, I often borrow one detail of a REAL person's physical appearance to help me "ground" the character.
Physical description needs to be given as soon as you introduce the character. Otherwise your reader will be creating his or her own visual for the character, or worse, no visual at all. Characters in white space (lack of setting) are bad enough, but formless, shapeless characters in white space make for a whole lot of NOTHING.
Seems like I'm touching on setting too, so maybe I should visit THAT subject next week.
See you then!
Okay, back to physical description.
I think this is a really, really important tool for helping your reader to have a visual of each character. Even minor characters are deserving of a physical detail. The detail can be as simple as this:
"You should get her tested for mono," the school secretary says.
"The kissing disease?" Mom asks.
"I've seen a lot of it around here." The secretary peers at me over her reading glasses. "Believe me, I know mono when I see it." (Breakaway, p. 266)
I am hoping the reference to the reading glasses will give the reader a visual. I have a visual of the secretary. I know exactly where she is and what she looks like. I haven't included all these details, but according to Ernest Hemingway's iceberg theory, I don't need to.
The more important the character, the more physical description is required: age, eye colour, hair colour, height (tall or short), skin tone, body type. You don't need to lump these all into one sentence. In fact, it's better if you spread them out into a few, well-constructed sentences. Here's an example from Power Plays (p. 21)
Tyler turns out to be short, scrawny, and at least seventeen. Staggering through the door with a near empty bottle of Crown Royal in his hand, he has a baseball cap jammed backwards on his shaven head and a scraggly goatee.
There should be enough detail in this passage to give the reader a notion of not only Tyler's appearance, but the sort of person he might be too.
To help me keep my characters straight, I often borrow one detail of a REAL person's physical appearance to help me "ground" the character.
Physical description needs to be given as soon as you introduce the character. Otherwise your reader will be creating his or her own visual for the character, or worse, no visual at all. Characters in white space (lack of setting) are bad enough, but formless, shapeless characters in white space make for a whole lot of NOTHING.
Seems like I'm touching on setting too, so maybe I should visit THAT subject next week.
See you then!
On Cliffhangers
Okay. I know. It's been nearly four months since the last tip. I fell off the writing advice wagon for a few months, but I am back.
Chapter endings/cliffhangers, if you will.
It's not a good idea to begin many chapters with "When he woke up in the morning, he . . ." Ending chapters with "She decided to go to bed and deal with it the next morning" isn't a great idea either.
It's better to pick up and drop off action in the middle of conflict or conversation. You have the option to pick up the thread immediately in the next chapter, or jump ahead to the following day or a later scene.
You want to keep your readers hooked. You want them to turn the page and read the next chapter. And the next one, and the next one after that.
To me, the greatest compliment is, "I couldn't put it down. I read it all in one night."
Each chapter should begin and end with a hook. If you have a completed manuscript, go back and read the last sentence of each chapter.
Do you have enough of a hook to entice your reader to turn the page?
Chapter endings/cliffhangers, if you will.
It's not a good idea to begin many chapters with "When he woke up in the morning, he . . ." Ending chapters with "She decided to go to bed and deal with it the next morning" isn't a great idea either.
It's better to pick up and drop off action in the middle of conflict or conversation. You have the option to pick up the thread immediately in the next chapter, or jump ahead to the following day or a later scene.
You want to keep your readers hooked. You want them to turn the page and read the next chapter. And the next one, and the next one after that.
To me, the greatest compliment is, "I couldn't put it down. I read it all in one night."
Each chapter should begin and end with a hook. If you have a completed manuscript, go back and read the last sentence of each chapter.
Do you have enough of a hook to entice your reader to turn the page?
