Can You See Them?

I have a confession to make.  When I write a story, or even when I read one, I can't see the characters.  

I don't think my brain works that way.  Maybe it did before it got crumpled, but it doesn't now.

Oh, I hear them fine.  And I do have a general impression of what they look like.  But I couldn't give their descriptions to a sketch artist and have them draw these people so they'd look like what I think they look like.  I couldn't pick them out of a line-up.  Because I don't think they look like anything more than an amorphous blob.

Looking for models for my book covers was the hardest thing.  My cover artist gave me a link to the site she uses and had me go at it.  I scanned hundreds of photos to find the best approximation of what Jo Mayweather and Jeni Braxxon look like.  I must've scanned hundreds more to find images for Accidental Death and Natural Causes, and those aren't even full face.  All I had to do was find a general shape.  

Once I'm made to go look for a character's face, then they have a face forever after.  Jo will always look like the cover model to me now.  So will Jeni.  Before that?  Not a clue.  Once I went looking for an image of Zeke - because I think someone asked me for it - and Zeke now looks like that dude.  (I'd show you, but the link to that model is broken now.  Oops.)

I have author friends who are all like 'this is what my character looks like' and they'll show a picture they found.  I'm a little jealous of those folks.  I want to see my creations in my head, but I can't.  

Thinking about it now, I can't really hold the images of someone's face in my head either.  Real life people are amorphous blobs, too.  :shrug:

As a result, I'm probably not the best at describing my characters in writing.  At least, I don't feel like I'm the best.  My readers are probably a better judge of that than I am.  The image the reader has in their heads probably isn't anywhere close to what I would have, if, you know, I had an image.  I guess that's okay.  I want the reader to picture the characters as they see them.  I guess what I do write as description is sufficient for that purpose.  

Like in Untitled Fantasy... Captain Vere, the head of the Academy, is tall and wiry with silver hair (not silver as in old, just silver) and a scar running down her cheek.  She's a battle-hardened lady and obviously tough enough to run an academy full of kids learning magic and skills for battle, but there's a sadness to her as she never really had a childhood of her own and her twin was killed in battle.  Can ya picture her?  

But let's take Aryl, the main character.  He's average height/weight for a 15-year-old boy.  He's a farm boy, so he's got some physical strength, but he's also way smaller than his friend, Galin.  Black hair, violet eyes.  And that's all I've got for him.  Can't picture anything else, so there he is.  And I need to go find a model for him so I can do the freakin' cover.  Derp.

His sister, Lyra...  White hair, violet eyes.  Pretty.  Or at least pretty to Galin.  I guess she would have a similar facial structure to Aryl... they are twins, after all, even if it's fraternal and not identical.  Since I can't see him, I can't really give you her either.  She's a wisp of a dream of a drawing of a person.

Galin... Aryl's best friend and sweet on Lyra.  Big dude for his age.  A 'pull the plow when the horses get tired' kind of guy.  

Anyway, I don't want to talk about every character here.  I have the basics, but I can't SEE them.  Wish I could.  Can't.  

What about you?  Can you see the characters you write or read?  Are they fully-formed or just blobs?  Does having a picture help?  Or when you see a pic of the characters do they totally harsh the image you formed on your own?

Details Details Details

I came across a post in one of the book groups I follow, wherein the individual asked if readers preferred books with maps included so they could get a real sense of where the book takes place.  And he wasn't talking about fantasy.  He was asking because the book he's reading is set in Switzerland and he'd like to know the layout of the particular town.

My thought was: NO.  And I expected to see a whole lot of people saying the same.  Wow, was I ever wrong.  

The majority of the comments - 30 when I wrote this - wanted a map of some kind if the book was set in a place they weren't familiar with.  Some also wanted family trees.  Others wanted deeper explanations of food and customs and clothing.

Many of them use Google maps to check out where the story takes place.  And they'd still prefer a map in the book.  Not a detailed one, but one that shows them the key places where the story occurs.

Ummm...  Yah...  I totally don't do this.  As a reader or as a writer.  I fill in the details in my head.  And I had assumed other people do that, too.  Which was rather shortsighted of me.  Oops.  One reader said that's what he does - fill the details in himself.  Another person, a writer, said he never thought about it.  Which is where I was with it.  A third person said she'd only want a map if it was necessary, and I can see that, too, but how do you decide what a reader thinks is necessary?

Personally, I'm not big on details.  I spend a lot of time scanning past the details to get to the plot.  I'm very plot motivated.  So that's the way I write.  I sprinkle in details and descriptions with a very light hand because that's what I want to read.  But I'm weird, I guess.  

Now, this particular group is international, and they're reading widely - stories set in the UK and the European continent, Asia, Australia, etc.  As well as US stories.  So I'm not sure how that translates to readers of US fiction here in the US.  And it's a crime fiction group, so I'm not sure how that effects the answers either.  And maybe the dissenters didn't feel the need to comment because the subject didn't pertain to them.  :shrug:  I'm going to go out on a limb and figure this group was a pretty good slice of readers to poll and they want more detail.

Which means I'm screwed.  Oh, henceforth, I could try to put more details in my novels.  But the sixteen that are already out there are what they are.  And if I suddenly start being all detail-oriented, those older books are going to be weird and set the readers up to expect I don't do details.  Maybe I could slap a sticker on the new books: NOW WITH 42% MORE DETAILS!

I guess I'll just have to be satisfied sitting here and waiting for readers like me to find and enjoy my sparsely detailed books.  

How about you?  Do you prefer loads of details and descriptions?  Or are you like me and insert those yourself as you're reading along?  Can you go either way if the story is good?  Is there hope for me?

I Won't Do It

I hate when authors front load a description of their book in the book's title.  I just stumbled across one that was like "TITLE: A chilling psychological thriller, that will keep you on the edge of your seat."  (Yes, the misplaced comma was theirs.)

Seriously, folks?  This is how you're going to pimp your books? 

Have readers gotten so lazy that if the description isn't in the title, they won't read further to see if the book is right for them? 

:shudder:

Anyway, I won't do it.  It feels sleazy to me.  And I have a really tough time buying books that use that marketing scheme.  Cuz... sleazy.

Imagine if other products started that crap...

Cheerios: A tasty, heart-healthy cereal that will make your family smile.

Umm, yeah.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't want the commercial right there in the title.  If you can't grab readers with your title, your cover, and your blurb, sticking the description in the title probably won't do it.  Although in this 'short attention span theater' world we live in, maybe that's all the time you have.  :shrug:  I still don't like it.

And if I don't like it when someone else does something, I won't do it myself.  I keep hearing Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in my head talking about hypocrisy. 

What do you think? 

And for a bit of fun, write a NAME: DESCRIPTION thing for a product like the Cheerios example up there.  (Mine was lame.  Can you do better?)