"It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story".
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
DIGITAL
STORYTELLING
ADJECTIVES
Remember adjectives? What are they? Well, basically their job is to bring the fun to the party by telling us more information about the nouns. While thinking about the word “party” may be enough for some to think about a general party, others might appreciate the use of adjectives such as “fun”, “big”, “thematic”, “elegant” or “amusing” right beside the noun “party” so that they can picture it better in their minds.
Welp, it’s no surprise then that we would want to use them when creating a story! In fact, not using them would make the creation of a story not just difficult but downright impossible. Although the first level of the creation of a story implies that you describe many things about your main character and their setting, in no way does that mean that you won’t use descriptions ever again! However, here are some guidelines to help you get acquainted with these lil’ ol’ rascals called adjectives, aye?
They can be repetitive: there may be two characters in your story that are beautiful. But I’m sure they don’t look alike at all, now do they? How would the reader tell the difference between character A and character B if all you said about them was “they’re beautiful”? Answer is, the reader wouldn’t. Try to mix adjectives with metaphors that complement them, or to find a different word that acts as a synonym and associate it with different qualities.
Combine them with intensifying adverbs: words like “extremely”, or “impressively” or “annoyingly” go a long way when using adjectives, because they help the reader gauge the character’s qualities in their minds, allowing them to give the character a place in their memory.
Don’t pile them up: when giving a description of a character, try not to use a thousand and one adjectives for just one quality… Rather, do it the other way around. Try to have a decent number of qualities, while each is described by a well-rounded adjective. Examples of this would be something like “a big, amazing, incredible, fulfilling and beautiful place” (don’t) versus “a beautiful place full of incredible people, fulfilling quests, incredible treasures and big trees to jump around” (do).
Now you know more about adjectives and its friends, it's time you start thinking about how to properly describe the characters and the setting of your story. Pay attention to the following tips:
CHARACTERS
Creating a character for a story is a detailed process that needs a lot of thinking and explaining. The character can’t be just lines in the book or in paper. It has to have life of its own, and it has to feel like a real person. This is why many authors feel like their characters are friends or members of their family. The creation of a fictional character is determined by two factors: the physical description and the psychological description. You need to take both into account before you create any character at all. Let’s look at every characteristic of each aspect:
Physical Description:
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Description of the face. Remember that the more important the character, the more specific you need to be in that description. Eyes (size and color), mouth, nose, hair color and length.
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Height, body complexion and ethnicity.
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Clothing styles, including colors, brands and shapes.
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Any irregularities, for instance injuries, scars, missing limbs or shapes that are abnormal.
Psychological Description:
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Names, Age, occupation, religion or ideology.
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Personality, temperament.
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What are the relationships of this person like? Is this person friendly?
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Favorite colors, music, TV shows (if any)
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Regrets, moments or memories of this person’s life that they want to forget or change.
While describing characters following these two parts is important, it’s also important to remember that the character has to feel alive and real. It can’t just be a description thrown into the reader’s face. For this reason, you must follow the following patterns:
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Appearance: This gives your reader a visual of the character.
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Action: Shows what kind of person your character is by showing their actions, rather than simply telling what kind of person he/she is.
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Speech: Develop the character as a person, as an individual.
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Thought: Let your readers into your character's mind to show them the character's thoughts, fears, hopes, dreams, etc.
These aspects above help you design what we know as “Personality Traits”. These are basically the sides of a character that show us the layers and the complexity of their existence. When a character is given layers, or complexity, it feels much more real and therefore causes a lasting impression on the readers.
SETTING
Much like a fictional character, a fictional setting requires a good amount of real elements on them so that the reader can picture them in their mind. This means that describing a fictional character is an action that requires both observation and imagination. You need to ask yourself the following question: “is the setting important for the story? Or is it temporary?”
Depending on the situation, a description of the setting will need to be either short and sweet or long and detailed. For example, if your characters are in the middle of a pursuit or a battle, spending too much time on the description of the place might just take the adrenaline out of the said pursuit/battle. However, if your characters are visiting the place for the first time, and are likely to meet other characters in it, then rushing the description will make the setting easy to forget for the readers. The following are the details for a description of a setting:
Quick Descriptions:
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Weather conditions.
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Details around the setting of the actions.
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Don’t use comparisons or metaphors, unless they’re short and simple to understand.
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Smells, sounds and visual appearance.
Detailed Descriptions:
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In here, metaphors are the best tool. Imaginary and fictional elements are best added with metaphors, so that readers can imagine then more easily.
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The feelings and reactions characters get from the setting are very important here.
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Colors, lights, sounds and smells are also important, but not just on a physical level. On an emotional level too. Metaphors related to memories, people and events that happened in the past of every or some characters make a stronger connection between them and that specific setting.
