Today is a post about something my mom and I talked about yesterday. We were discussing how some of the great authors tie everything to their characters personality. Meaning that the way a character dresses, how the character closes their purse, or the way they wear their hair. This is a great way to distinguish one character from another. If we change the tone that we write in when a different character enters the scene and discuss how the character's heels clip as they walk. This gives the reader a little more about who and what the character is.
This is easy to visualize. For example, what is the first thing that comes to mind when I say punk or nerd. What are you picturing. A pocket protector, broken glasses, piercings, mohawk. Think about the different way a uptight woman walks compared to a woman who has five children. What are their different behaviors? How do they act around strangers? How do they act around friends?
When writing about our characters our environment will look different depending on the character we are talking about. The conversation will look and feel different. The words we use will be different.
I will be out of town for the next couple of days but I plan on continuing to post and I look forward to all of your wonderful comments.
i think another part of this as well is that our characters attire will tell us a lot about them without the writer having to say it...of course the attire has to match the persona as well....
ReplyDeleteI was noticing this in a book I was reading; the antihero and the protagonist (separate characters) dressed very differently from each other and had different attitudes toward what they wore. It does have an impact on how the reader perceives a character!
ReplyDeleteI think what how a character dresses does tightly connect with how they act. You might have a lighthearted character dress in a free-spirited kind of way--even if that character is in the coporate world, maybe they wear something that sets them apart from the norm. Interesting to think about!
ReplyDeleteThey kind of talked about this at LTUE. One of the things that we need to consider is not only personality but also where they live. You aren't going to find someone wearing thin lightweight clothing in the North Pole. They brought up the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. Depending on what nation people live in depends on the clothing they wear.
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