No, if I've had a few beers I might sit and write some tear jerker passage (then delete it in disgust the next day). That is me being a self-indulgent wanker, it is not my characters leading me down some emotional path.
OK, I'll re-phrase. Different writers, write differently. Simple. I do it my way, you do it your way and neither way is exclusively right. Or wrong.
Yeah, I wasn't actually intending to argue that one was right and the other wrong, I just got a bit carried away with the point I was making.
The only other time I use detail (I forgot to mention in my original post on this thread) is if the article of clothing or the accessory (necklace, pin ect) is important to the character or the story. Like a character's leather jacket once belonged to their father or they've adopted the same style as their father. Necklaces and other accessories, for the most part I go into a bit of detail anyway, even if they're not essential "she wore a bronze scarab around her neck" or "on his blazer was a pin with the words "Vote Baker" in big red letters" People reading it might wonder who Baker is and why the character wants to vote for him. Let's say that in that particular story Baker plays some kind of role, or he's mentioned a few more times like a newspapers headline reading "Baker ahead in polls" or "Baker wins seat". In the story, Baker could even be part of the grand scheme or a puppet controlled by the villain. Maybe Baker is like Harold Saxon (aka The Master) from Doctor Who and it turns out he was the villain all along. As for the scarab, let's say that the particular character wearing it has some kind of interest or obsession, even in ancient Egypt or perhaps it was a gift and the character knows bugger all about ancient Egypt, let alone scarabs apart from what she may have been told by the person who gave it to her as a gift. Something she maybe explains later that's a part of her backstory, perhaps?
Aww that's pretty sweet! Even though I don't even like the name Gabriel lol. My sister very nearly named her son Gabriel - I was really glad when she didn't hahaha. Somehow I have it stick in my head that it's a girl's name. I know for sure by now it's definitely a boy's name - only it still sounds like a girl's name to me. Much like the American name "Angel" does to me... *shudders*
I like little physical characteristics that show something about the characters. E.g. in our current WIP @KaTrian already mentioned, my MC is very athletic, 6', and she doesn't use any make-up, has short hair, sporty, practical outfits (when she's in civvies instead of her usual uniform/armor) etc. Of course I dribble that info around bit by bit here and there instead of the rather tell-y "she was 6' tall, had blonde hair blah blah blah" because reasons. I mention details about her looks when it's somehow pertinent to the scene and shows something new about her looks or abilities. Or gear (since she's in the military, there's some "gear porn" included). And yeah, her style, physique, haircut etc. all reflect her values, lifestyle choices, preferences, even hobbies and interests etc. I do like to know what the characters I read about look like because I've observed that things like looks/body composition/outfit choices etc. tend to reveal more about the person than a lot of folks believe (things like certain lifestyle choices, values, priorities etc). I can stomach some tell-y description, but I really appreciate it when the author knows how to show the character's looks/style to me in an interesting and entertaining way. Also, being a fan of realism, I appreciate changes in characters that make sense, and that their surroundings react to those changes in an appropriate fashion. I'm not particularly good at this, but I try my best. E.g. in the aforementioned WIP, one MC ends up with a faceful of shrapnel, so the other characters notice it when they meet her again and see the scars on her face. Little details like that. Just my 0,02€.
Lord I used to be guilty of this. I remember handing in a scene for my fiction writing class where at least twice I stopped the flow to describe what my characters were wearing. I guess I reasoned that since the readers can't see the clothes, it'd be best if I described the color and design of the outfit. But looking at it now, I'm honestly surprised my teacher didn't tell me to cut them out/edit it out.
I liked that I could shorten it to Gabe. Is Angel the male version of Angela? I love looking up names and quite often browse a website called nameberry which is more than just a list of names. They have a fb page and run polls for favourites. I recently had to have a little laugh to myself when a post popped up on my newsfeed proclaiming 52% of nameberries preferred Gabriel to Gideon (the main character in the Cross Series erotic fiction books, is called Gideon)
Haha I don't like Gabe either... sounds odd. Funny how certain names just "sound" weird, right? Recently I realised if you've travelled and/or speak more than one language, it's likely to affect how you perceive names due to hearing them differently from a native speaker. (or perhaps neutralised through sheer exposure) Regarding Gabriel, I know why I think it sounds like a girl. It's because somehow, growing up, angels have always looked female to me - even in little cartoons. They're always in robes and dresses, their faces tend to be pretty asexual but in a simple cartoon, it sorta just depends on the kinda hair you give them, and the hair's always long enough to be mistaken for a girl's short hair. So, in my head, I thought "Angels = female". Since I was raised a Christian, obviously I've heard of Angel Gabriel, and whenever I used to draw little scenes from the Bible I'd draw Gabriel as a girl - no one ever said a thing about that. Result: I thought the Angel Gabriel was also female. Until I was much older and started noticing Gabriel was referred to as a "he"... Nameberry is a cute name for a website btw Never heard of the Cross Series.
It's a great site for researching names. And yes, I do think pronunciation (even regional) has a lot to do with it. Sylvia Day wrote the cross series of books, was supposed to be a trilogy but turned into a five parter. I used to love place names as names but as I've gotten older, I've really gone off that idea. I was raised Church of England but not practicing. As it happened, when I was writing the origin of Gabriel's name, I had to stop and check that she was right!
