Ellen Kushner's LJ (RSS Feed)
01-31-2008, 08:51 PM
Following the excellent leads of colleagues like Justine Larbalestier (http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/?p=1007) & http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif (http://kateelliott.livejournal.com/profile)kateelliott (http://kateelliott.livejournal.com/), I post a question about writing that someone recently sent me:
I am finishing a story for Friday and it's written in first person present tense. I just realized yesterday that my main character being an "I", I haven't described him physically at all. I know, it's the old same problem again, but how do you cope with that kind of problem? What do you actually do? Have him look into a mirror? Too obvious! Or something like: "You really are the way I imagined you." "Ah yes, what do you mean, my blond hair, big nose and small eyes?" I am just kidding, of course. :-)
Thanks so much for any quick tip.
My answer:
Why does it matter what the character looks like?
What's yours?
(Original Post) (http://ellen-kushner.livejournal.com/153381.html)
I am finishing a story for Friday and it's written in first person present tense. I just realized yesterday that my main character being an "I", I haven't described him physically at all. I know, it's the old same problem again, but how do you cope with that kind of problem? What do you actually do? Have him look into a mirror? Too obvious! Or something like: "You really are the way I imagined you." "Ah yes, what do you mean, my blond hair, big nose and small eyes?" I am just kidding, of course. :-)
Thanks so much for any quick tip.
My answer:
Why does it matter what the character looks like?
What's yours?
(Original Post) (http://ellen-kushner.livejournal.com/153381.html)