Salutations Writers,
Before I really start
talking about today’s topic, I thought I ought to say something that I forgot
to put into our Welcome Post. Hannah and I will be writing on Tuesdays and
Fridays. We might occasionally have to post something on Saturday, or decide
that we want to post something on Monday, but Tuesday/Friday will be our basic
blogging calendar.
Now on to today’s
subject! I thought for one of our first
post, I would start a small series of post about descriptions (i.e. Characters,
places, etc.). Today, I will be talking about Character descriptions.
When you are writing
a Character description, one thing that you will want to stay away from is a
parts list. Some times, when I am going through and editing a chapter of my
book I will read something like this:
A tall, bald man who
had tan skin, blue eyes, and moccasins walked in the door.
Gee…. that is a beautiful description. What I just wrote was
(in my opinion) a parts list. I listed character traits, but when you read
through them, it is boring, dull, and unexciting.
When you are
writing a Character Description, you need to paint a verbal picture for your
reader, and don’t worry about using the bold oil paints. Your description needs
to live and breathe in the reader’s mind.
Stay away from the average features (like the features that you might
have to fill in on the doctors office form.) Add birthmarks, and tell us what
makes your character unique. What makes this person frightening, jolly, shy, or
sick? Does your character have gnarled face, red cheeks, which are the color of
roses, a furrowed brow and eyes that continually stray away towards the corner?
These are tiny details. Little pixels that, when pieced together, make a
painting of your character.
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a masterful description of Strider,
in The Fellowship Of The Ring.
“Suddenly
Frodo noticed a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near
the wall, was also listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard
in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs
were stretched out before him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted
him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained
cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the
heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of
his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits.”
Tokien- Fellowship of the ring-p 153
This description perfectly explains strider’s character,
without even a single word of dialogue.
Another (shorter)
description can be found in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:
"A tall, black-haired witch in emerald
green robes stood there She had a very stern face and Harry’s first thought was
that this was not someone to cross.
Rowling-Harry Potter and the
sorcerer’s Stone- Chapter 7 pg113
This description is short, but it shows a lot of
foreshadowing into Professor McGonagall’s character. J. K. Rowling wrote about
her facial expressions in order to portray the Professor’s character traits.
That is all I have for today, my fellow writers. Hannah will
post another entry on Tuesday! I hope you all found that helpful!
Salutations and a belated Merry Christmas,
Emily K.
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