I'm teaching characterization this week, so we're talking all about vivid, unique descriptions. We want characters so unique in our writing that they cannot be interchanged with anyone else. And we want descriptions that avoid any type of cliche.
Tomorrow, we'll write down a description of ourselves and see if everyone else can match the descriptions to their owners. The quirkier the better; we're all so completely individual.
I love thinking about the uniqueness of people. It's simply amazing that we aren't like anyone else on the planet. We are unparalleled, unique, and exclusive.
By the way, my favorite character description of all time is J.K.Rowling's Hagrid. She writes:
If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild--long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hand the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins.
Living with flair means we embrace everything unique and quirky about us.
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Do you have a favorite character description in literature?
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