Characters descriptions...
Often while writing Daimones I stopped trying to answer a question that kept bugging me: How much is too much when describing the characters.
I now found the answer while reading an author I like. He goes saying that he is "not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they are wearing".
He adds: "I can't remember many cases where I felt I had to describe what the people in a story of mine looked like—I'd rather let the reader supply the faces, the builds, and the clothing as well.
Concludes with: "So spare me, if you please, the hero's sharply intelligent blue eyesand outthrust determined chin; likewise the heroine's arrogant cheekbones. This sort of thing is bad technique and lazy writing, the equivalent of all those tiresome adverbs.
I can relate...
I now found the answer while reading an author I like. He goes saying that he is "not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they are wearing".
He adds: "I can't remember many cases where I felt I had to describe what the people in a story of mine looked like—I'd rather let the reader supply the faces, the builds, and the clothing as well.
Concludes with: "So spare me, if you please, the hero's sharply intelligent blue eyesand outthrust determined chin; likewise the heroine's arrogant cheekbones. This sort of thing is bad technique and lazy writing, the equivalent of all those tiresome adverbs.
I can relate...
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June
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Aug 30, 2012 12:27PM
Adverbs are definately out of favor these days. I skip overly descriptive passages unless they are breath-taking. However, being a clothes-horse, I do have to stop myself from TOO often describing what my characters are wearing. However, clothes, or the way they are worn (carefully accesorized or just thrown on) DO give a little insight into the character or the situation.
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Yes, I do agree. One of my character, Laura, is described thoroughly the first time she is seen fully and not as a quick glance of an even more quickly disappearing survivor.Why? Because she made an impression on the main character, so the way she looked and what she wore made an impression "in" the story and to one other character.
I think it is what you are referring to. As with many things, if and when it adds to the story. Otherwise, they often risk to fall into the category of "unnecessary words"--which are subject of a previous topic :)
Sure! That is why we repeatedly edit - which I didn't do in the preceding post. I now spot an unnessary 'however'.Again speaking of too much description; people bristle when I say I never liked Somerset Maugham. His beautiful descriptions often bored me. I must be crass - or easily bored.
Any reader, and consequently any writer, is free to express and feel the way they like. There are those who swear by "50 Shades of Grey" and those who swear to burn it and send it to oblivion. A writer will never please everyone, everytime, or everywhere in a book. With every reader it is a hit or miss, and sometimes you get someone bored too. ;)
