alright so i'm a sci fi guy taking my first stab at fantasy. and i have a couple of characters who have like... like five spikes coming out of their foreheads like a "crown of bones" and pointy elflike ears. its a mark bestowed by the gods on a ancient race. the longer the prongs on your crown of bones the stronger your magical ability. ... ahh nevermind it's a long story. anyway i can't seem to accurately describe it. people always think of the spikes like the ones on the statue of liberty, the ones that shoot straight out. anyway i drew a picture. i'm not a great artist or anything, if you can't see what i'm taking about i can draw a better one. please give me any ideas on how to describe this.
As if their faces extended, bones grew from their foreheads, slightly arching towards the crown of their heads. Something to that effect would be the way I would handle it to start with.
Even with some intricate word play, getting the reader to see the morphology exactly as you do is going to be tough without resorting to an actual picture. I had a friend (who is an excellent graphic artist) draw one of my little sci-fi beasties for me once. His rendition was awesome, but nothing like what I had pictured in my own mind. The reader is always going to bring their own imagination to the game.
I'd probably have a couple people whispering to one another, something like: "Hey, what's with the spikes growing out of that guy's forehead?" "I know. It looks like he has a crown, with the points crawling up along his scalp." " I hear his kind all look like that. Does take some getting used to."
i wouldn't call them 'bones'... 'bony protuberances' is what such things are usually called... are they covered with skin, or 'bare' like antlers, or horns?
thanks for all the advice guys. good suggetions all, especially you wreybies. in the end readers imaginations will see what they wish no matter how hard i try to guide them. maybe i'll have one of them drawn on the cover. mammamia - the "protuberances" are flesh covered but towards the end of them the skin gets all dry and scaly. like lizard skin. lol "button-up shirts"
