Remember,
This column has absoloutely no scientific basis, and is not supported by any particular school of english.
What always impresses me about any story, is a strong foundation of unique and interesting characters. Even if the story is based on the perspective of a single character in his/her narrative voice, the presence of contrasting personalities and variable psyches broadens the dimensions of the tale. The psychologies and motives of the main characters may not arise until the midlle or end of the story, however there are many ways to convey the complex and distinctive personality of a character, thereby giving your readers hints about what this character's end will come to. This makes the story even more exciting when said character pulls a perfectly ,contradictory-to-all-their-previously mentioned-traits stunt.Like the revelation of Severus Snape's true agenda.
When the story is just begining, a character sketch, no matter how brief can be used to make even the most mundane and unintersting characters seem bizarre and significant.
Here are a few tips on how to write a great character sketch/description.
1. Implent psycho-analytic tools in your description.
for example: He embodied self-loathing.His feet dragged beneath him, eyes firmly fixed on the ground at all times, and had a posture that was made to scare crows away.
In this description, the reader is meant to percieve the character as a person with mere fragments of self-esteem, who seems to have no interest in achieving a particular goal or purpose in life.
IN contrary to someone with ''A stride that challenged the earth beneath it.''
2. Don't stick to every-day adjectives, use interesting, even slightly bizarre ones.
e.g: He had boulder shoulders and porcuppine hair.
3. Describe your characters using words that transport their emotions into the readers mind.
e.g: She had tense shoulders, and a strange excitement in her eyes.
4. Don't be too descriptive. One thing that can be very irritating for a reader, is when the writer goes on and on and on about something, like the characters clothing, that they forget what was going on in the first place.
5.Don't be too vague and abstract, and please don't use the elements of nature in your description, especially if they have nothing to do with what you're talking about! Remember not all minds operate on the same frequency, you might know what ''a smile of rainbows means'' but to me it just sounds like someone had too many fruity loops.
6.Be brief, but important. Try to put as much meaning into small, coherent sentences as possible.
Here's a short character sketch I wrote for my friend, just for fun:
If ever positive energy could be emobied into a being, it would be embodied into Rana A.B. She had a slim athletic figure, to complement her active state of mind. She could probably make boulders smile if she tried. She had dark hair and eyes, and an olive-toned egyptian complexion. But there was a certain brightness and beauty that emitted from the purity of her soul. She was not one to back down or shy away, and had enough confidence to practice kindness to everyone.
That's all for now, please excuse my punctuation.
Join us again, for another episode of writing for idiots and bored minds! :D
image taken from: http://www.tubeonline.info/.
This column has absoloutely no scientific basis, and is not supported by any particular school of english.
What always impresses me about any story, is a strong foundation of unique and interesting characters. Even if the story is based on the perspective of a single character in his/her narrative voice, the presence of contrasting personalities and variable psyches broadens the dimensions of the tale. The psychologies and motives of the main characters may not arise until the midlle or end of the story, however there are many ways to convey the complex and distinctive personality of a character, thereby giving your readers hints about what this character's end will come to. This makes the story even more exciting when said character pulls a perfectly ,contradictory-to-all-their-previously mentioned-traits stunt.Like the revelation of Severus Snape's true agenda.
When the story is just begining, a character sketch, no matter how brief can be used to make even the most mundane and unintersting characters seem bizarre and significant.
Here are a few tips on how to write a great character sketch/description.
1. Implent psycho-analytic tools in your description.
for example: He embodied self-loathing.His feet dragged beneath him, eyes firmly fixed on the ground at all times, and had a posture that was made to scare crows away.
In this description, the reader is meant to percieve the character as a person with mere fragments of self-esteem, who seems to have no interest in achieving a particular goal or purpose in life.
IN contrary to someone with ''A stride that challenged the earth beneath it.''
2. Don't stick to every-day adjectives, use interesting, even slightly bizarre ones.
e.g: He had boulder shoulders and porcuppine hair.
3. Describe your characters using words that transport their emotions into the readers mind.
e.g: She had tense shoulders, and a strange excitement in her eyes.
4. Don't be too descriptive. One thing that can be very irritating for a reader, is when the writer goes on and on and on about something, like the characters clothing, that they forget what was going on in the first place.
5.Don't be too vague and abstract, and please don't use the elements of nature in your description, especially if they have nothing to do with what you're talking about! Remember not all minds operate on the same frequency, you might know what ''a smile of rainbows means'' but to me it just sounds like someone had too many fruity loops.
6.Be brief, but important. Try to put as much meaning into small, coherent sentences as possible.
Here's a short character sketch I wrote for my friend, just for fun:
If ever positive energy could be emobied into a being, it would be embodied into Rana A.B. She had a slim athletic figure, to complement her active state of mind. She could probably make boulders smile if she tried. She had dark hair and eyes, and an olive-toned egyptian complexion. But there was a certain brightness and beauty that emitted from the purity of her soul. She was not one to back down or shy away, and had enough confidence to practice kindness to everyone.
That's all for now, please excuse my punctuation.
Join us again, for another episode of writing for idiots and bored minds! :D
image taken from: http://www.tubeonline.info/.
This is goood! wow..I found it informative, even if it's your personal view upon the matter. I'll keep these pointers in mind next time I write.
ReplyDeleteI will surely come back to read the rest of your writing for idiots and bored minds =)!
I want writing for idiots :C !
ReplyDeleteAnyway :P
I can't agree more with what Dee said.
Well said despite the linguistic mistakes this time. The thing is you have to try it yourself and as they say it's easier said than done. lets have a short story written by you where you put your ideas about character sketching into words. I ll be looking forward to reading that
ReplyDelete