My Problems with Description.

This seemed timely, as the same problems are cropping up again and again. So I thought if I explained things through to everyone else, I might explain it through to myself at the same time.

I have read books for such a long time. And I read fast. Super fast. Never, once, in all that time, all those books, have I ever had a book play itself out in my head. Ever. I don't get images from prose unless I'm really concentrating on it. Details matter little to me unless their wrong (funny that it works one way and not the other). When I read, I somehow skip the "seeing the book play out in my head" bit, and just absorb the characters and the plot. That's it.

When I write, however, things are different. I see things play out in my head - but they are still very shaking images, very much things made up as I go along. And that is all I need to be in the head of the character - shaky images. You tell me I'm in a room, or a fort, and that is all I need to be drawn into the character's stories.

Turns out this is quite uniques. One Beta who read "the Manda" put it as "You under-desribe as opposed to over describe. I can't tell what's happening." Another Beta put it as "this feels like a first draft - I'm not being drawn into the story."

Now. I logically understand their problem. But having never experianced it myself, I find it incredibly confusing as to how to know when it's too much, and when it's too little. I just don't get confused when I read through my stuff, because I don't need that sense or orientation of place that other people need. I just don't.

So, how to deal with it. Well, the first thing I did was find the most descriptive books in my genre I could find, and read them. Multiple times. Then I listened to a bunch of podcast on descriptions. And I have finally come up with something that may help.

• Set the scene
• point your descriptions to what is important.
• Don't leave out the outside bits (the bits outside the action). Describe them as succinctly as possible. Choose only certain details.
  
• Imbue your world into those descriptions

Will this work? No idea. But it can only be tried.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

On Heroines

I've been thinking about his quite a bit lately. What makes a good character? The reason I've been thinking on has to do with my own leading lady, Kira Hilta. Kira is withdrawn, she's lived most of her seventeen years out with only three people to deal with, (her mother, her grandfather, and her mother's fiancée.) She doesn't like outside interference. She's kind once you stop being an "outsider" to her. She's observant, smart, but she makes silly decisions sometimes and she is sometimes naive despite what her life's been like. At the same time, she's manipulative - once she decides on something, she will go to extraordinary lengths to do that thing. If you anger her enough, break the wall that she puts up around herself with violence, you will find that she has no moral line in her response.

I've had different responses to Kira. Some have liked her. I love her (for me, anyone who combines naivety with retribution is interesting.) Some haven't warmed to her at all.

I finally figured out the reason why. I don't show any of her good attributes until about a third of the way through the book. It's still all there, but she never gets a chance to show any of it.

But regardless, all this got me to thinking about what I like in a heroine. I'm a fan of complicated and morally ambiguous heroines, sure. Katniss, Lireal (garth Nix if you're wondering), Elspeth (Obwernyton by Isobelle Carmody). These characters have their complications, and their faults.

But the characters I love the most are those I wish I could be. Anything written by Tamora Pierce has these sort of characters. Powerful, smart, loved women who will flatten anything that comes in their path.

The thing that makes these books interesting is not the "will they/won't they" succeed, it's in watching how they do it. There is never any doubt in my mind on whether they have the competence to overcome their obstacles. Whether they can do it with everything they hold and love intact in another matter.

As always, unless you're trying to make a point, balance is key. But it makes me wonder if the rounded character does require big faults. Or just small ones.

Sian~