World, Writing, Wealth discussion
All Things Writing & Publishing
>
What's your characters' style?
date
newest »
newest »
It depends on my novel, but since most of them take place in various nations in the Russian Empire, my characters tend to wear a mix of their nation's traditional clothes when they're at home or out visiting, as described in several Russian sources, and if they are in more formal company or visiting a Breton or French person, then they wear more Western-style clothing.
Cool, sounds encouraging cross cultural exchange, traveling and visitation -:)
Mine depends on the setting. The styles depend on place, year.
I know when I read the descriptions of certain characters in a book, my description almost always win out. Especially, when it comes to the male hero. I'm attracted to a certain type, and he's nothing like the ones in the books:)And that's what I do as a writer. I know readers have their own ideas of who the characters look like, so I try to keep description to a minimum.
I suspect I am with Groovy. I am a minimalist when it comes to describing what they look like, or what they dress like (unless, for example, one changes into military style combat gear). I hope you can see what my characters are like through what they do, and also what they don't do. That latter approach has sometimes got me into trouble with reviewers, but I feel that certain people who get to positions of authority tend to be people who focus on the job, and avoid other sorts of things. As an example, the officer in charge of a platoon cannot afford to be overly friendly with the men, because every now and again he has to ask someone to go and do something that carries extra risk. He has to be able to short these jobs out or give them to whoever is most likely to succeed. He cannot afford to try to protect a friend. So that leads to a character that does not do a lot of things, and who is reserved. Characters who are reserved do not really get acclaim from many reviewers.
One of my favorite fashion-related scenes to write thus far was my scene in The Nutcracker Doll where the main character describes the traditional Ukrainian dress she's going to wear to her parents' Christmas party.
Nik wrote: "So, do your heroes have a style?"If this is a general question, as opposed to one to Elizabeth, I would say that if well-drawn, they should convey some sort of style, but not necessarily in the specific sense that Elizabeth may have been referring to (clothes). Nik, you should elaborate because this could be an interesting discussion point :-)
A style can be in multiple aspects - a voice timbre, an accent, the clothes, the manners, the choice of car, cigarettes, guns, a specific punch -:)
Indeed, so would you say your characters have a style? And do they have a variation in style? This should be interesting :-)
The main character in my last book was a dog.Whenever a boring or pretentious person came to visit, he would curl up and lick his nether regions. I suppose that took style of a sort.
Bald like Statham, with mustache like that of Danny Trejo, billionaire like a dude in 50 shades or lowlife like Pitt in Snatch? Or do you leave the questions of look and social background to readers to figure?