writing advice
I was inspired to write a short story, but I'm not sure how to introduce the main character's appearance.
How do you introduce how someone looks, without it feeling awkward?
writing advice
@lizardsquid Less is often more, and readers can intuit a lot from a few key details, like how a single article of clothing can summarize an entire ensemble.
writing advice
@lizardsquid Got some examples stuck in my head. Consider how visceral of an image come from these short descriptions:
"He wore a mud brown trilby, though he would have insisted it was a fedora at well before the first opportunity."
"She wore a sun dress so lightly that you half-feared that the next breeze would catch her wholly up into the sky just to show it a pair of eyes as blue as itself."
writing advice
@lizardsquid I often drop details in over the first couple passages/pages. Stops it from feeling like an infodump.
writing advice
@lizardsquid that's hard! usually what i do is i write details in as they become necessary, like mentioning offhand that someone's hair is brown when it gets ruffled, for example. in microfiction (or any fiction, really), the law of conservation of detail is key!
writing advice
@lizardsquid I introduce details as they become relevant to the narrative (i.e. mention eye color when they're making eye contact). It's also okay for readers to have only limited info on a character's appearance, especially in a short story.