McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
1st Person
LizW65:
Well, I was trying to make it sound like bad fanfiction, so thanks. :)
narphoenix:
--- Quote from: LizW65 on October 25, 2012, 10:07:43 PM ---Well, I was trying to make it sound like bad fanfiction, so thanks. :)
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Well, it works if the character is, for example, a fashionista whose livelihood is focused on her appearance. But since my character is slightly a male with a huge obsession with books, it wouldn't work as well.
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: narphoenix on October 25, 2012, 10:25:36 PM ---Well, it works if the character is, for example, a fashionista whose livelihood is focused on her appearance. But since my character is slightly a male with a huge obsession with books, it wouldn't work as well.
--- End quote ---
Then he needs to be thoroughly disgusted and mentally crap all over other people and their fashion fixations, and then he can imagine how others see him and crap all over them for that too.
As a worst case example.
the deposed king
OZ:
--- Quote ---One option is to bring it into the reaction your narrator gets from other characters, e.g. "The guy at the end of the bar had been staring at me for a quarter-hour now. Either he was really into tall, flat-chested blondes, or I had some broccoli from dinner stuck between my teeth," or "I did my best to keep up with Larry, but his legs were a good ten inches longer than mine, and at twice his girth I was tiring fast."
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This is usually the best option. I like when I get a few of the most important points pretty quickly and the rest come a little at a time. Some would depend on the type of story you are writing. If your character is someone that spends a lot of time in front of the mirror and this is born out through the rest of the story, a mirror might work. (someone that is very conscious of their looks such as a model, an actor or someone in disguise might be examples of this ). Someone like a fugitive or famous politician might actually see themselves on TV or read a description of themselves somewhere. Meeting someone that the main character knew in the past but hasn't seen for some time can also lead to remarks about how a character looks as well.
Starbeam:
--- Quote from: narphoenix on October 25, 2012, 05:51:24 PM ---OK, I've started writing original fiction, when I hit a big snag. I'm writing in the first person, and I'm trying to figure out how exactly to work a physical description of my narrator in without it seeming contrived. I tried finding out where Harry is first physically in Storm Front to get ideas, but I can't find it. Does anyone have any ideas?
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Harry's first description is in the beginning of chapter 2--it's done in contrast with Murphy--height, hair and eye coloring. It's done the same in several of the other books--Harry describing himself in comparison to one character or another, most often-that I can remember-with either Thomas or Murphy. In other places, he just describes himself.
Description by comparing to a main secondary character is pretty common, with what I can think of off the top of my head. Another way is how it's done in the Toby Daye books--and I might be a bit off with this, going by memory--Toby describes herself in how she doesn't look human and what she does with glamour to make herself look human. And I'm pretty sure there are some books where the character just flat out describes what they look like--I think the Anita Blake books do that, but I haven't read them in years so can't be certain.
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