Tics and Trademarks, Part 1

As I've recently gotten back into the habit of writing (college is fiercely demotivational, I've discovered), I've taken to reading over some of my old projects in the hopes of reviving them. I have noticed several recurring themes in my writing that could be labeled "tics" by detractors and "trademarks" by kinder souls. These got me thinking about characteristics I've noticed in other writers' styles and how well executed or cliche they can be. (Occasionally, when I'm bored, I'll go to TV Tropes and look at the various entries on character development and pray that I don't follow them too closely in my own writing. Also, if you've never been to TV Tropes, it's a virtual compendium of "tricks of the trade" for us reality-makers. The elaboration of literally every possible way a story has been/can be written is amusing, dead-on, informative and sometimes disheartening when you realize that the adage "nothing is new under the sun" is accurate. Check it out!)

Anyway, without further ado, I give you the first in a shortlist of narrative tics I've either noticed or suffer from, personally:

1. The Hair, the Eyes. Anything. Pick a Feature.

Some authors spend a lot of time describing a character's physical attributes and refer to them repeatedly throughout the book. (Take J.K. Rowling, for instance. She refers to Harry's green eyes and Ron's freckles a great deal throughout the series.) Often, writers can get carried away with describing their protagonists such that readers are lost in paragraphs with more adjectives than nouns. On the other hand, some writers offer little to no detail about a character's appearance, save one or two features. I fall more in the second category than the first, preferring to leave the general physical attributes up to the reader's imagination. (Some people get crazy with the details...regal cheekbones, thin and delicate rosy lips, gently curving ears, an upturned but aristocratic nose, a strong chin, bushy and brooding eyebrows...It's a bit dictatorial and excessive, in my opinion.) The line between over-writing and aptly describing is sometimes a tricky one to toe, particularly for those of us who eschew heavy description. Fortunately, there are nice people who post helpful articles on the interwebs on just this topic. Click here for a great tutorial on character illustration from the Bookshelf Muse.

While I've been told I'm a bit too light on details, there is one feature I never fail to describe. I am a sucker for eyes. Not only are they beautiful, but they're also incomparably expressive. A person can communicate tremendous emotion in just one glance, especially when words fail. In my own writing, I supplement dialogues with descriptions of what the characters' eyes are saying. It makes the conversation more real, to me. I hate to be pedestrian and say that the eyes are the windows to the soul (aside: according to some, they're the doors), but I do believe they can reveal a lot about a personality. Example:

"The way he looked at me was as though he were surprised to be staring so deeply into my eyes. As though he didn't expect me to let his gaze rest so near. Normally, there's a modicum of restraint when it comes to another's eyes when you meet for the first time. You adopt that polite level of gaze intensity that penetrates just beyond the iris but leaves the person the privacy of his or her soul to dance gently inside the pupil. That didn't happen. It felt much more like he was looking into me with the force of his abilities and was either surprised that I offered no resistance or mystified that he couldn't help but do it."

Eyes. They're powerful stuff. If you don't think that's realistic, then maybe I'm the only one who sees the world that way. And I'm not being poetic. That quote is from my diary.

Look out for my next post in this series! Below, tell me what feature you like to describe.


The Awesome Points Game! Or, "How Good Are You At Spotting Obscure References To Things Kelsey Likes?"


This time, there are four awesome points for the person who identifies the two references I've made. They're rather subtle, which is why they are worth two points each. Good luck!