Oh, this was a description of your character, not Simon Baker. He seems a good fit looks wise. The Guardian rings a bell, I might need to google it. I doubt I would have made an effort to watch it though, it doesn't sound like my type of thing.
That's kinda cool 'cause you can show character development through their underwear choice. In my and @T.Trian's current WIP, I've paid more attention to the style of two characters. One goes through a drastic change which also affects his "style" (he shaves his head and starts to accommodate to the more practical, thuggish look of his new friends which is very different from his old choir boy look of ironed shirts and straight pants). The other one is a woman whose style reflects her taste in music, so she mostly dresses in black and wears boots and leather pants (loose, 'cause she has to be able to move). The only other reference I make to style is when my male MC (I have two main MCs) steals his bf's shirt, where I point out the color is peridot 'cause the guy doesn't just wear green, it's peridot. So I guess I do it when I feel like it serves a function, like shows something noteworthy about the character. But even then I try to keep it short.
I think clothing and style can have a lot to do in a story IF—and I do mean IF—it's not given as an aside from the writer to the reader. What I mean by 'aside' is: she has medium-length straight blonde hair, blue eyes, red lipstick and is about 5'2" tall and wears a blue-midcalf-length dress, platform sandals and is carrying a large straw handbag. That may be an accurate description, but it's not exactly an exciting addition to the tale you're telling. Instead, practice 'seeing' characters through other characters' eyes. In other words, when a POV character looks at the woman he is falling in love with, what does he see? What captivates him? Does he admire her sense of style? Why? What does he see? Is it because the colour she's wearing reminds him of something else he loves? Does he like the way her pared-down clothing style (think Audrey Hepburn) accentuates her slim body and clear skin? Does he long to yank that silly scrunchie out of her hair and see what her hair is really like without it? Is he eager to see what she looks like without gold eyeshadow and bright red lipstick? If it's the POV character you need to describe, let somebody else describe him or her. Simply by remarking on some aspect of the POV character's appearance, another character will let the reader know something about how the POV looks. Either that, or the POV character can reflect upon why he's choosing to dress the way he does, or something about his appearance that he either likes, dislikes, or isn't sure about. Keep every detail relevant to the story, and that can't go wrong. If you step out of the story to paint a picture instead, you can risk losing your readers.
I would generally agree - although in some case explaining why the character in your head looks the way they do can lead to insights (this happened to me recently when I finally figured out why a character always dresses in red and black). But in general clothes are there to show what's on the inside for the reader, not to help you as an author.
It was nice to write about how she felt the first time she put lace panties on! I think sometimes, you need to inject this kind of thought into your writing, you may not like it but I think it gives the reader something extra.
I used to describe my characters down to their socks. Part of the Babysitter's club girl in me and also I loved Desperately Seeking Susan. In that movie clothing was identity. When nice girl Roberta dons 'bad' girl Susan's pyramid jacket or sequined dresses she becomes a little more vocal and independent - and I love how Susan goes through Roberta's closet and finds a sequin jacket she likes. For me that was a little moment but a big metaphor; that Roberta always had it in her to be wild she just didn't notice her potential. I stopped over-describing when I began skimming my own stuff. Lol. But I think certain books allow room for more description. I would be disappointed in a historical romance with a dreamy dress on the cover if they didn't have some lovely fashion descriptions and in the late 80's and 90s I loved reading those Jackie Collins books and the rip offs because of the glamor. I think it depends on the book style and how well you can incorporate the descriptions. Action can stop for description which isn't a bad thing it's a little like a movie moment. A pause. Like John Garfield's lustful eyeing of Lana Turner. Sometimes though it can be misplaced. Going over my old first draft book I noticed I took the time to give an occasional exacting description of clothing but oddly enough only once for the main female character whose intro into the story is that she is found walking and dazed after being stabbed, and for some strange reason I describe her yellow camisole with white eyelet lace and matching panties. Probably not the best time for that precise of a description.
Unless you were making a comparison of the blood on her yellow camisole looking like an ugly stain on the sun ...
99% of the time, I'm insane. On the other day, I'm quite normal ... I'm also a Gemini which means I'm allowed to be indecisive (and two people at the same time) Now that makes me sound really mental!
That's ok - I used to have problems with the voices in my head, but now that I'm writing fiction we're on better terms (Calm down everyone - I'm kidding. Actually I can't even interview my characters like some people, wish I could. Tired of figuring out their issues myself.)
There's nothing wrong with having your character's voices in your head - happens to me all the time. A few month ago, I was woken up by one of my MC's screaming the same two sentences over and over in my head. That day I wrote about 8 thousand words which turned out to be the perfect last chapter to book two. I'm not sure I could interview them but I do like to let them tell me their own story. When I started the first book, bearing in mind the story had been in my head for roughly twenty years, I decided to change the character's names. It wasn't until the MC's mother came into the story some five month later on and told me where her son's name came from, that I knew myself why I'd chosen the new name.
Occasionally they make surprising decisions or develop themselves in unplanned ways - usually people I plan as weaker characters rebelling and asserting strength.
I think a good writer always listens to their characters. They might not always be right but sometimes, they come up with a gem of an idea.
I'm finding it slightly odd that people are wilfully letting the idea run that characters are somehow a separate entity from the author, despite the fact they know it is not true. It seems a strange bit of wishful thinking that one would want to consider their creations real. I strongly see myself as a puppet master. I outline a plot and steer my characters through it. I put appropriate (I hope) words in their mouth and give them appropriate reactions. My characters don't choose to react to the plot in an unexpected way, rather I identify an issue with the plot and a more appropriate solution, which I then implement. It seems odd to see things any other way.
Lol this goes back to my original criticism - if the word "dirty" wasn't embedded in so many other adjectives, perhaps I would have interpreted that to be a shade of blonde. As it is, it's simply not clear anymore, esp as "dirty" can legitimately just mean "dirty" with regards to hair, unlike words like "platinum" or "strawberry" or whatever. As for the guy in the photo, if I were really asked to describe his hair, based on my personal style of writing I would never list it as adjectives either way, regardless of the legitimacy of that way of writing. Let's see... His hair was slicked back and styled into that magazine wind-swept look. Just the perfect shade of dark and blonde, old gold gleaming with the light. Btw while there's no way I'd ever enjoy the adjective cluster, I'm not saying this is necessarily how you should write. (and I'm sure if I tried, you'd tell me where to go ) This is definitely just the way I would personally write it It goes with my dislike for listing concrete details one after the next. Edited to add: might be worth hyphenating "dirty" and "blonde" for clarity. Not 100% sure on this one though. I am aware dirty blonde is a particular shade but I can't say I've seen many books actually use it, and I do read books written in first person, including those written in very casual language.
I'm totally with you on this one. I never understood the writer's mantra of "talk to your characters". I've tried talking to myself as multiple personalities once when I was tasked by my boss to populate a newly formed forum with multiple accounts (all of them me) and it drove me frigging bonkers. However, as time's gone by I think this is how I interpret writers to mean when they say characters go off on their own accord: I think they mean that sometimes you don't fully understand the situation or how someone might react until you come to writing the scene. You know how you've planned out something but when you come to writing it, you realise another path is far more natural, and somehow can't seem to get your character to react or say what you'd intended simply because now it's become apparent it's simply not suitable or in character? I think that's what people basically mean. How you've created the character comes to life at that moment when you're writing them for real, and sometimes the personality you've already given them means they'll react in a way you hadn't quite forseen. Simply because a story is so big and so complex that you can't always see every intricacy until you finally come to it. Or that's how I make sense of it anyway - those are the occasions when I can say my character "refused" to do as I wanted/planned. It's simply a case of when I actually get to that point in the scene I finally realise what I'd planned wouldn't happen at all, that something else fits far better, but as chain of events go, that tends to lead the story down a path I hadn't planned either.
It wouldn't do if we were all the same. I do honestly sometimes feel like my characters are real people, whether that's because I write in a genre that deals with 'real' places and 'real' situations as opposed to fantasy worlds and sci-fi settings, I don't know. There have been times when the situations I have put them in, reduces me to tears. There have been other times where I've wanted to tear my hair out because they refuse to go in the direction I had planned for them and there are times when they disappear completely for a week leaving me feeling quite bereft and abandoned. Writing, in fact, any art form, is so diverse and crosses over so many people that there cannot be a right or wrong way to do it.
I wouldn't tell you where to go. And if I did, I would do it nicely! BTW, at the time of the description, he's on the floor in a dark nightclub with a broken nose after he tried (and failed) to rescue a girl from a drunk asshole which resulted in him being punched!
If he's on a floor of a dark nightclub with a broken nose, I think you should definitely not use "dirty" for your shade of blonde lol - given the context of the situation, it would be far, far too easy to interpret it to mean literally dirty, rather than a colour! I concur that given that situation, my description would certainly not fit However, I'd probably be thinking about the broken nose rather than the hair lol - something like: Despite his broken nose, he doesn't look half bad, especially with that hair that's somehow managed to look gorgeous even in a pool of muck. Haha I think now I'm just having fun writing... but alas, my husband's dragging me off to bed because it's 11.30pm here Zzzzz...
That is exactly it! Quick example. As I mentioned, I changed the name of my character when I sat down to write the book. He was originally going to be called Nick. (he lives in New York, he's the Chief Asst. DA for NY and his parents are both Family Court Judges, 'Nick' was just, totally wrong.) I changed his name to Gabriel. Don't ask my why, it just popped into my head and wouldn't leave, so I ran with it. Months later, I was writing a scene where he suffers something bad and his mother turns up to support him. He tells her that he feels he can't fight anymore, he's ready to give up. So she tells him that not long after she'd given birth to his sister, she fell pregnant with a baby boy, but lost him. It happened again and then when she fell pregnant with Gabriel, she feared the worst, especially as he decided to arrive weeks early, but, he survived and fought for his life, she felt like this baby was her angel from heaven and so she named him Gabriel. I knew none of this until I was actually sat typing away (and blubbering like a fool!)
Yes, this happens to me a lot, I realize that a piece of dialogue or a given reaction seems unnatural for certain characters and I adjust the plot to suit. My character isn't making the choice for me, rather I have developed the character in a different direction than I had initially anticipated. There are certainly times when I react emotionally to certain situations, but that is because I have created the situation purely to have an emotional impact, and the emotions I am judging it by are mine, so if it did not pull at my hear strings it has little hope with anyone else's. I think writers just tend to get a little precious when describing these things; my character's are living entities that make their own decisions. No they aren't.
