Post by Zesha on Aug 31, 2016 20:42:12 GMT
So, I posted something on RPG-D a while ago asking about writing character descriptions. Someone finally gave me a roleplay application related answer. (Which I hadn't even known to ask for, so I want to hug them even more.) For those that don't feel like heading over to the thread (here) to read the whole thing, here is the specific post that Whoa typed up:
The question here is do you want to write longer descriptions? Do you want them to be detailed? If not, just avoid places that would ask you to write such and do what you want. If you do, then the answers you have gotten this far won't really help.
It's also fine to leave a lot to the reader's mind to do, short with few key words is usually better for books, because in those we don't really want to read lots of appearance text in the middle of a story. In roleplay you are allowed to write something longer if you have say, an app with an appearance section, so you can put the description there without ruining the flow. And it is very important for us to know how your character looks like, so our characters can react to them properly - we most likely will never see a certain character exactly the same without visual aid, but it would be good to know some key points like say, how tall they are, the color of their hair or eyes, some other features that might stick out like the nose... Nothing brings you out of it faster than someone assuming a quality your character doesn't have, or having to constantly skirt around the fact that you have no idea how the character actually looks, making writing replies a real hassle sometimes!
The examples in this thread say nothing about how these people look like. For a book, they are acceptable - only thing matters is how I see them, because all the action is happening in my head and someone else's different version won't affect it one bit. For a roleplay, without visual aid (and even with that it'll be difficult for some of us), it wouldn't be nowhere enough - even wrong in some cases. That woman looks nothing like "A face like a cat that brings you murder presents.", because that's what all cats do and they have very different facial expressions (and facial expressions don't describe how you look like, either...). If they're saying it's the moment of a cat bringing you a dead animal, well, that's nothing like it either? They are more wide-eyed and expecting, because they did you a nice thing and want praise, or a treat. "A cat that has just finished cleaning themselves after a meal and is content" might be closer, if you ask me.
Now that that textwall's out of the way, the actual trying to help part! Keep in mind what you want to tell others. Working from big to small or top to bottom to have some kind of a "natural" flow might help. Big things would be like, how tall your character is (a key point that is missing so often it's not even funny), their overall build and shape; muscular, skinny, fat, curvy, where, how? Wide shoulders, narrow hips, anything that sticks out? Anything that looks awkwardly big or small? What would be the thing that really sticks out? Their skin color? How old or young do they look? Any scars, piercings or tattoos? Lost limbs?
And of course, the face. Hair too but eh, the face. This is the most important part of a human character's description. Face shape, nose and eyes are very important - shapes, colors! Study, study, study! Learn words you might be able to use to describe certain parts, Google image search descriptions you don't understand - how do "droopy eyelids" really look like? Does my character really have them? Do I have the wrong idea? Look at enough pictures with a common description to see if you can find what it really means. But if you don't figure it out, that's fine! It might be vague and thus not very useful for you at all - maybe you'll find some other word to describe it? Usually something simpler and more obvious - why say "sharp jaw" when you could say the jaw is very angular, giving the character a very boxy, stereotypically masculine face shape? Some parts like the lips and eyebrows, or maybe ears or teeth are hardly required most of the time... But if something sticks out about those, do tell! Big ears? Very plump, full lips, real duckface look going on? Teeth that are way too white and unnaturally straight? Bushiest eyebrows you've ever seen?
Nothing here but studying. Learning anatomy is your friend, but avoid the very scientific words for various bits.
Animals... Well, I don't really play animals, so I don't really describe them either, hah. But I do have a cat and I can describe him for you!
I could say that he's a large, slender and muscular cat with a brown spotted fur. You can imagine how that looks.
I could also say that he's a rather long and tall cat with big, strong paws - but if you're thinking of a fluffy robust Maine Coon, you're thinking wrong! My cat's not at all fluffy, as his fur's actually rather short and silky smooth, very shiny and healthy. He's fit, that short fur only showing off his muscles and slender frame. He's a warm, lighter brown in color, his top darker than his underside. He's covered in round spots that are much darker in color, though they turn into stripes on his legs, the top of his head and tail. The bottoms of his paws are all also darker, and he has the cutest pinkish brown little toebeans that are just so soft and warm and squishy. Here's a secret though, he has some white in the middle of all his paw pads, a color fault that would keep him from shows and breeding - but it's fine, he's castrated anyway.
He's also 8, but doesn't really look or act like he was a day older than 3. His cheeks and neck have gotten a bit fuller through these years, but his face is still rather triangular, not very rounded. His ears are large and don't have much fur sticking out of them and his eyes are a bright light green, a very striking color in my opinion. His forehead is striped but he only has a few stripes on his face, the main ones those "mascara lines" you sometimes see cats having around their eyes. There's white on his muzzle that continues down his neck. His nose is also a cute pinkish brown like his paw pads - and it's always very wet for surprise pokes!
Did your image of my cat change when you read my tl;dr about him?
It's also fine to leave a lot to the reader's mind to do, short with few key words is usually better for books, because in those we don't really want to read lots of appearance text in the middle of a story. In roleplay you are allowed to write something longer if you have say, an app with an appearance section, so you can put the description there without ruining the flow. And it is very important for us to know how your character looks like, so our characters can react to them properly - we most likely will never see a certain character exactly the same without visual aid, but it would be good to know some key points like say, how tall they are, the color of their hair or eyes, some other features that might stick out like the nose... Nothing brings you out of it faster than someone assuming a quality your character doesn't have, or having to constantly skirt around the fact that you have no idea how the character actually looks, making writing replies a real hassle sometimes!
The examples in this thread say nothing about how these people look like. For a book, they are acceptable - only thing matters is how I see them, because all the action is happening in my head and someone else's different version won't affect it one bit. For a roleplay, without visual aid (and even with that it'll be difficult for some of us), it wouldn't be nowhere enough - even wrong in some cases. That woman looks nothing like "A face like a cat that brings you murder presents.", because that's what all cats do and they have very different facial expressions (and facial expressions don't describe how you look like, either...). If they're saying it's the moment of a cat bringing you a dead animal, well, that's nothing like it either? They are more wide-eyed and expecting, because they did you a nice thing and want praise, or a treat. "A cat that has just finished cleaning themselves after a meal and is content" might be closer, if you ask me.
Now that that textwall's out of the way, the actual trying to help part! Keep in mind what you want to tell others. Working from big to small or top to bottom to have some kind of a "natural" flow might help. Big things would be like, how tall your character is (a key point that is missing so often it's not even funny), their overall build and shape; muscular, skinny, fat, curvy, where, how? Wide shoulders, narrow hips, anything that sticks out? Anything that looks awkwardly big or small? What would be the thing that really sticks out? Their skin color? How old or young do they look? Any scars, piercings or tattoos? Lost limbs?
And of course, the face. Hair too but eh, the face. This is the most important part of a human character's description. Face shape, nose and eyes are very important - shapes, colors! Study, study, study! Learn words you might be able to use to describe certain parts, Google image search descriptions you don't understand - how do "droopy eyelids" really look like? Does my character really have them? Do I have the wrong idea? Look at enough pictures with a common description to see if you can find what it really means. But if you don't figure it out, that's fine! It might be vague and thus not very useful for you at all - maybe you'll find some other word to describe it? Usually something simpler and more obvious - why say "sharp jaw" when you could say the jaw is very angular, giving the character a very boxy, stereotypically masculine face shape? Some parts like the lips and eyebrows, or maybe ears or teeth are hardly required most of the time... But if something sticks out about those, do tell! Big ears? Very plump, full lips, real duckface look going on? Teeth that are way too white and unnaturally straight? Bushiest eyebrows you've ever seen?
Nothing here but studying. Learning anatomy is your friend, but avoid the very scientific words for various bits.
Animals... Well, I don't really play animals, so I don't really describe them either, hah. But I do have a cat and I can describe him for you!
I could say that he's a large, slender and muscular cat with a brown spotted fur. You can imagine how that looks.
I could also say that he's a rather long and tall cat with big, strong paws - but if you're thinking of a fluffy robust Maine Coon, you're thinking wrong! My cat's not at all fluffy, as his fur's actually rather short and silky smooth, very shiny and healthy. He's fit, that short fur only showing off his muscles and slender frame. He's a warm, lighter brown in color, his top darker than his underside. He's covered in round spots that are much darker in color, though they turn into stripes on his legs, the top of his head and tail. The bottoms of his paws are all also darker, and he has the cutest pinkish brown little toebeans that are just so soft and warm and squishy. Here's a secret though, he has some white in the middle of all his paw pads, a color fault that would keep him from shows and breeding - but it's fine, he's castrated anyway.
He's also 8, but doesn't really look or act like he was a day older than 3. His cheeks and neck have gotten a bit fuller through these years, but his face is still rather triangular, not very rounded. His ears are large and don't have much fur sticking out of them and his eyes are a bright light green, a very striking color in my opinion. His forehead is striped but he only has a few stripes on his face, the main ones those "mascara lines" you sometimes see cats having around their eyes. There's white on his muzzle that continues down his neck. His nose is also a cute pinkish brown like his paw pads - and it's always very wet for surprise pokes!
Did your image of my cat change when you read my tl;dr about him?
I hope you the best of luck on that!
And sorry I took so long! I had some problems with a friend, and didn't really feel like getting on because of that, you know?