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Character Discription

7 years ago

I'm stuck on the storygame im writing. I'm trying to describe the main character, but am having issues. This brings me to my question, what's the best way to craft a description? What information is pertinent, and what information is going too far? How do you decide where that line is?

Character Discription

7 years ago

Well, start with visuals. What color is their hair? Eyes? Gender? Then continue on from there.

Character Discription

7 years ago

I guess I should have clarified this in the op. The part of the description I'm stuck on is his personality. What's the driving force that compelled him to be where he is now? Not only in what to include, but how to include it.

Character Discription

7 years ago

What im trying to do is set the scene for the rest of the story. His personaly and what drives him are very important to the story, because he is going to be at war with this through the entire narrative. A war between two sides of himself.

Character Discription

7 years ago

Hair and eye colour really aren't actually relevant, or rarely are. I mean, I have no idea what the eye and hair color of any of End's protagonists are. Only one I can think of is Alpha Wolf, where the hair color (grey) actually conveyed other information other than just appearance.

Character Discription

7 years ago

Describe the bare minimum of what they're wearing if it's practical knowledge. (I.E., it'll shield them from something or they'll hide something in it later, or it's relevant to who the person is.) One adjective for each article of clothing at most. If there's something particularly remarkable about them that you'd pick out at a glance, pick one or two things and then roll with it. Only describe things as they become important, don't set a paragraph aside in the middle of an otherwise reasonably flowing story to describe what the guy looks like. People don't care about that kind of thing anymore, unless they're CoGsuckers.

Character Discription

7 years ago

like i said im not trying to describe what he looks like. As steve mentioned it isn't important to the story. 

Character Discription

7 years ago

It's usually better to show personality rather than tell it. Saying, "Bob was generous," isn't really going to get your point across like telling a story about Bob going to a charity and volunteering would. Some information isn't vital right away and it better to give later. Readers tend not to enjoy too much exposition at once. Give information vital to moving along the plot at the beginning and other tid bits here and there throughout the story. 

Character Discription

7 years ago

is it possible to do featured comments or something because orange, ogre, and penguin's comments were extremely helpful

 

Character Discription

7 years ago
I stole this from some website somewhere (I forget where):

Name:
Age:
Job:
Ethnicity:
Appearance:
Residence:

Pets:
Religion:
Hobbies:
Single or married?
Children?
Temperament:

Favorite color:
Friends:
Favorite foods:
Drinking patterns:
Phobias:
Faults:

Something hated:
Secrets:
Strong memories:
Any illnesses:
Nervous gestures:
Sleep patterns:

Imagining all these details will help you get to know your character, but your reader probably won’t need to know much more than the most important things in four areas:

Appearance. Gives your reader a visual understanding of the character.
Action. Show the reader what kind of person your character is, by describing actions rather than simply listing adjectives.
Speech. Develop the character as a person — don’t merely have your character announce important plot details.
Thought. Bring the reader into your character’s mind, to show them your character’s unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes.

The character’s name:
A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline:
The character’s motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?):
The character’s goal (what does he/she want concretely?):
The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?):
The character’s epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?:
A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline

Character Discription

7 years ago

thanks for all of the information guys this should help me move forward with the story. now i just need to figure out how to implement it.

Character Discription

7 years ago
I would suggest that with my character outline, you need to completely fill it out (as much as possible) before you write the story. Then you will have a much more clear idea about your main character (and other characters, you can do this for everyone). As you write the story, since you know all this information about your character, you will have a better idea how the character will act and react.

Character Discription

7 years ago

I'll keep that in mind. Thankyou.