Today we're going to build on the Skeleton from Heat #6.
This is not a judged event, but everyone who comments about it will be entered into the prize drawing.
You already know your new character's age, gender, social roles, and mannerisms. Today, your job is to use that information to build a physical description of the character. Think closely about how these factors might influence physical characteristics. Your aim is not to list the merely visual, but to understand how a confluence of factors might allow you to create a visually coherent character. For example, does your 16-year-old fry cook have bad skin? Burn marks on his hands? A slight paunch from all the fries he sneaks? Or does your 16-year-old fry cook have a serious light to his brown eyes and a bankbook perpetually tucked into his back pocket?
You can take the same set of facts and slant them toward very different descriptions. Your goal is to find a description that is meaningful.
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7 comments:
No comments yet? Huh!
My 85-year-old retired barber always makes sure his hair is perfect, although he's worn the same basic style since the late 1940's, including a pencil-thin moustache. When he gets excited, he tends to revert to his native Italian.
Everybody sing...
I wish I had a pencil thin mustache
The Boston Blackie kind
A two-tone Ricky Ricardo jacket
And an autographed picture of Andy Divine.
(et cetera)
Did anyone else here ever have a crush on Sky's niece Penny? She was such a hottie... LOL
I've been using my skeleton all week. I took the archetypes I used for the ideas for my H/h mannerisms to also give me ideas for their appearance. And in addition to visual characteristics, I came up with their smell and touch.
Jami G.
The timing on this was perfect. I've been writing my new character into his scene. He doesn't have much but because of the exercise, I've made him as detestable as he needed to be.
Geez, I almost missed this one.
to find a description that is meaningful.
Got it!
Murphy (insert my wheels turning here :D )
I'm falling behind!
I've done some physical characteristics but my descriptions kept slipping towards what he is like rather than what he looks like. However, I did "find" a number of details that I'd missed before, including that he wears glasses.
After I did the skeleton, I increased his role in the outline of the story, so now I really *do* have to finish fleshing him out!
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