What Are You Wearing And Why

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING … AND WHY? In sure contexts, this query can be a little creepy. In other contexts it can be completely creepy. But this past weekend I spoke at the Writer’s Digest Conference West, not surprisingly with reference to writing fantasy and science fiction, and in that seminar, which is generally Q&A, a writer informed me she was having trouble getting past what her characters have been wearing. She’s thinking about that, however was starting to query if she might need been spending too much time, or too many words, on “style”â€"where to attract the road? Great question, and never just because this particular problem is frequent to plenty of authorsâ€"what their characters are carryingâ€"but it speaks to an even bigger level. Always, like this creator is doing, ask your self why? Why does this matter? And how does it assist transfer your story ahead? After all, the story is crucial factor, right? Characters first, battle second, all else third. My off-the-cuff reply was just about precisely that: Ask, “Why does it matter that this character is carrying that outfit?” But beyond that, ask your self how you need to use those garments as a story gadget. Nineteenth Century Spanx. The example I gave was along these traces: If you could have a character wearing a kind of ridiculous large hoop skirts out of Gone With the Wind, however then that character has to do kung-fu . . . properly, now that skirt becomes a device. I’ll refer you back to a earlier publish asking What Would Jackie Chan Do? If that hoop skirt becomes a prop, something she either has to beat, or somehow manages to use to her profit, now a lovingly rendered description of that outfit issues an excellent deal, and your story is richer for it, including a layer of curiosity and selection to the struggle scene. And clothes can also tell you numerous about how a personality interacts with the world. Remember the stilsuits from Frank Herbert’s Dune? I tried to make Dexter Willis’s smartsuit a character i n my brief story “Vignette.” When your outfit says: “I am the heartless thug of a genocidal madman.” Costuming can let you know an terrible lot. Imagine that you just had no thought what the Nazi SS actually did within the struggle years, but all you had to go by was a description of their black uniforms with cranium and crossbones emblems (see hat) and jagged lightning-bolt Ss . . . they appeared to be particularly and consciously dressing up as villains, main us into an interesting chicken-and-egg discussion. Does that uniform really feel like a villain’s costume becuase we now have come to associate it with the empirically villainous deeds of the SS? Or were these uniforms designed specifically to intimidate and scare individuals, utilizing pre-present symbolic cues? There are some characters who merely can't be divorced from their costumes. Darth Vader is that black cape and full-head helmet, but Luke Skywalker was free to change garments as different wants arose, spor ting a coat and hat on the ice planet and a flight go well with in his X-wing, and so on. So if Luke reveals up carrying a flight go well with, the audience will get a cue from thatâ€"he’s both simply come again from or is getting ready to leave on an X-wing mission. And in the true spirit of “show vs. tell” it’s higher to describe Luke’s flight suit then have another character ask him the place he’s going than to simply say, “Luke was ready to depart for Tatooine.” We expertise the world via a flood of non-verbal clues. We react differently to people based mostly on what they’re sporting. If I walked into the room sporting a Star Trek uniform you would have a different response to me than if I came in sporting a tuxedo. Both of those outfits might be a source of dialog. If I stroll in carrying jeans and a sweatshirt you in all probability wouldn’t notice, particularly if you know me and know that that’s just about my “uniform.” Phil in a swimsuit? That can be bizarre. In considered one of my worldbuilding classes I current a few items of fantasy artwork I pulled off the web and ask the category to look at what the characters are carrying and start making a list of what that tells us about that character and the world he or she inhabits. This is a type of reverse engineering of exactly what we talked about last weekend. So the reply to that writer is, sure it matters what they’re carrying, but only if it issues what they’re sporting. If you describe that big hoop skirt in loving element then it doesn’t matter one way or another to the story, you’re complicated your readers by giving them specific info they’re filing away, then not having to entry once more. This is a criticism that readers have, a perceived “wrongness” to your writing that they could by no means be able to particularly articulate, but believe me, they’ll really feel it. And they gained’t like it. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Thank you for posting this. I even have all the time had a troublesome time trying to figure out how much I ought to describe in what my characters are sporting. I tend to explain trademark outfits that they put on into battle, or serve a purposeâ€"often. Sometimes I find myself describing an excessive amount of. I remember when I was young and simply starting out I would describe everything from head to toe and it actually slowed the story down. I know some authors say to by no means describe what a personality is carrying as a result of its an newbie transfer. But I by no means totally agreed with that. â€"Jake Never say by no means! Use every software yow will discover, however use them properly. Brilliant publish! My mother (a huge thriller reader) and I were simply discussing this in the context of what makes Chick Lit a selected category. She was reading a thriller and located that the fashion digressions were piling up. She appeared up from her Kindle and declared the book “chick lit.” As I at all times seem to be writing between genres, however hover in the mystery, paranormal, suspense, romantic suspense arena, I’ve dipped my toe (or pen) into chick lit. I’m with you on the clothing descriptions, asking myself if it’s relevant (solely typically) or if it illuminates the character (sometimes) or if it refines the POV of the opposite character noticing the clothes (more often). Fill in your details under or click an icon to log in: