{"id":45617,"date":"2019-03-19T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/?p=45617"},"modified":"2019-03-23T08:25:38","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T12:25:38","slug":"describing-characters-without-a-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/19\/describing-characters-without-a-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Describing Characters Without a Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"

In DIY MFA<\/em>‘s “Ask the Editor” feature,\u00a0Elisabeth Kauffman fields a question on character descriptions. Is character description important and how can writers describe a narrator\/protagonist without having them look in a mirror?<\/p>\n

Some have argued that defining a character’s motives, history, habits, tastes, and failures will give the reader a greater sense of a character than knowing her eye color or clothing style. However, some idea of the character’s physical attributes is key to helping the reader immerse themselves in the story.<\/p>\n

Kauffman’s tips for creatively describing characters include focusing on exceptional traits – is the character unusually tall or have hair down to her knees? Mentioning these types of physical attributes will go a long way to creating an image in your reader’s mind.<\/p>\n

Kauffman also suggests writers consider their character’s insecurities – is the character self-conscious about their age or weight, their big ears or freckles? Using a compare\/contrast with other characters can define a protagonist’s looks and personality at the same time.<\/p>\n

Read the full post here<\/a><\/p>\n

Image by Ichigo121212<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In DIY MFA‘s “Ask the Editor” feature,\u00a0Elisabeth Kauffman fields a question on character descriptions. Is character description important and how can writers describe a narrator\/protagonist without having them look in a mirror? Some have argued that defining a character’s motives, history, habits, tastes, and failures will give the reader a greater sense of a character […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,468],"tags":[453,549],"class_list":["post-45617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-10-minute-workshop","category-fiction-101","tag-characters","tag-description"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45739,"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45617\/revisions\/45739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigpulp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}