I'm sure I've definitely done that at least once; my characters were always changing outfits mid paragraph because I forgot what they were wearing in the intirims between writing.
I just wanted to share this silliness because I thought it was funny...
So I've been working on the second part of my Mermaid Metamorphosis Story for quite some time now, and I came to a realisation...
So there I was, writing an adorable scene between Piper and Shelly, Piper gazing up lovingly at Shelly, when I asked myself "Wait, what colour did I make Piper's eyes again?"
I looked back though my writing, I looked back through the first story, swearing that I'd described Piper's eye colour somewhere... I even used the navigation tool in Microsoft Word and the closest thing I got to eye colour was "Dark eyes" or passages describing loving gazes into eyes or tears in eyes...
And then it hit me... I'm such a complete perv that I'd written just under 20,000 words, many of which are devoted to describing Piper's glorious "flotation devices" without actually writing down what colour her eyes were!
I'm so sorry Piper! You deserve better! Like, I know this is technically erotica/ fetish fiction, but most writers at least have rough idea what their protagonist's eye colour is!
Talk about "Excuse me, my eyes are up here..."
Please don't post my writing to r/menwrtingwomen, they will roast me.
Wed, 11/09/2022 - 08:24
#3
Mon, 11/21/2022 - 08:17
#4
biff977
For what it's worth, sometimes it is useful to not be so exacting in detail to the reader (although you may have specifics in mind when you 'sketch out' a character). Not always, but sometimes.
If a reader lacks some details (case in point, eye color) they'll often unintentionally superimpose their own preference on the character. If the reader likes, say, red hair or green eyes, when left to their own imagination they'll make the character conform to their own particular fantasies, and the story ends up more relatable to them. Of course, make a story too lacking in details and the reader's imagination has nothing to take hold of, so it can be kind of a balancing act. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Tue, 11/22/2022 - 11:58
#5
doubleintegral
Yeah, I actually don't know off the top of my head if I've ever even visualized what my characters' eyes are. I don't always specify hair color, and I've even gotten away from specifying skin color most of the time.
As I've gotten older and written more, I've realized that unless I know going in that they have a defining physical trait (something more unique than just "OMG BIG BOOBIES"), I tend to write my characters from the inside out, focusing on who they are vs. what they are.
Wed, 11/23/2022 - 15:29
#6
SvenS
Agreed. Unless a physical trait directly relates to a story's plot or a character's personality, I find that it is better to let the reader's imagination fill in as much as possible. Some of the best writing in any genre or format that I encounter is often very sparse on such details or, at least, doles them out in drips and drabs instead of in an exposition dump upon first encounter.
Mon, 11/28/2022 - 21:07
#7
loradayton
This is the way! It's also, honestly, less work. Focusing on the story, event, etc... and the other details will surface on their own.
I had a similar situation with the mermaid in my stories. You think authors would know how to spell their character's name, but Opalescence had hers misspelled at one early instance in her debut. Years later when I used her again, I had a tunnel-vision moment where I didn't even name her until four paragraphs in, perhaps overassuming readers would know who I was describing.
Similarly in the same story, I almost published it without describing her outfit, because I made that mistake in a previous vignette where I was forgetting that in my mind's eye, she's wearing a different, more-human top than the seaweed bikini in her debut. Instead I focused on the suit she wears on her tail. It was only in the follow-up piece that I put her in a canvas jacket to weather the autumn chill, and subsequently took away any explanation why the tailsuit is important. >.< At least I remembered she can't read.
In the end I missed and nearly missed these things because I cobbled together both vignettes in an hour flat, each...!
In some ways it's risking getting one's readers confused by leaning on their past knowledge, but in other ways it's sometimes better for them to fill in the blanks for themselves how they'd want to see things, and prevent bogging them down in the details.
Check out my stories that I've written...!