A reminder about writing character descriptions

Started by Niamh, November 05, 2010, 10:21:00 AM

From http://www.armageddon.org/intro/intro.html#main

QuoteDon't be subjective. It is much more interesting to read a detailed description of a beautiful face, than to read "this is a beautiful woman". Let the reader make the judgements -- write it in a way that makes people think "she must be beautiful" or "he must look like a mean bastard" rather than writing the subjective remark itself.

Do not describe how your character moves or speaks, since the viewer may be looking at them while they are asleep or knocked out, and wouldn't know how they customarily move or speak. Similarly, don't have your character performing actions in the description, such as nodding or whistling, unless it's an action they perform constantly, even when asleep. Don't force actions on the viewer as in 'You wonder what she is doing here' or 'You blink and look away, cowed by the intensity of his eyes.'

Avoid using words and concepts unknown in Zalanthas, but feel free to use imagery unique to the game world for flavor.
For example, "the agafari-haired woman" or an elf with eyes the "color of dusty pymlithe blossoms." A lot of people want to have unique-looking descriptions, and for most races, the sky is the limit -- use your imagination, variety is fun. But try to keep the words and phrasings within the frames of the game world. In other words, referring to large amounts of water, or animals or other things non-existant in Zalanthas, is not recommended.

Lately I have seen quite a few mdescs being submitted that contain subjective descriptors that force opinions on the reader, things about movement or motion, or descriptors that includes things that aren't found anywhere on Zalanthas.  Please remember to keep these guidelines in mind when writing up character descriptions.
Eastman: he came out of the east to do battle with The Amazing Rando!