desc2



	Part 2 of 2 How to write a description!

	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ 70] Syndre: What do you see when you look at me? (cont) Tue Jul 25 16:03:06 2000 To: grokle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) In the waist to neck you want to focus on two different things, girth and size, both for female and male. Make sure they match your general description again. You are not fat or muscular if you are fragile. These can go a long way to fitting stereotypes or breaking them for your character. If you are fat you would probably not be a warrior, but do you want to be the typical warrior or not? In women, breast size does and does not count, I tone them down, others tone them up, make it a quick 5-7 word mention of breast size and then don't touch it again. Also picture the style of gear you are going to be restringing to later. Can I tell your breast or chest size under a suit of full knight's plate? Under a loose fitting gown that goes from shoulder to ankle? 6) From waist to knees you can hit the height without giving away the exact size. Knobby and stumpy legs mean short, gangly and lanky mean long. In other words try to use descriptive words, both in this area and waist to neck to give away height as opposed to setting a number figure. Do not forget the feet. Your feet can give you character. A barefooted maiden is not a warrior usually, while a person wearing thigh-high, black, flashy leather boots is probably not anything but a swashbuckler or a prostitute (or both?) . Oh, and don't forget those toenails if your feet are bare. 7) Now, why arms and hands separate? Because, you can tell a lot about a person from the makeup of their arms. They can boost fragility, or enhance the hard-working blacksmith image. They can be missing fingers belying a fighting trade, or be soiled and calloused befitting a gardener's profession. Your arms again can belie your height as long armed people tend to be tall and short pudgy armed people tend to be short and pudgy themselves. Again as with feet, don't forget your fingernails and fingers as they can enhance age and cleanliness. 8) Clothing, armor, and weapons means exactly what it says. It doesn't mean you have to change your desc every time you get new eq. However, if you are a level 51 and too cheap to restring your eq to match your desc, then change your desc to match your eq. These again can give away a lot about you and what kind of person you are. Worn and soiled clothing can mean poor or it could mean very miserly. A knight wielding a rough and chipped axe may mean he cares little for his weapons and armor, or it might mean he is constantly involved in battles that he dos not have time to care for it. The best thing here is to have some idea of the restrings you will be wanting on hitting 51 as a reclass. Then, upon hitting 51, look over your desc and decide if these are still the items you wish to use to enhance your character. 9) Accessories are just what they say, they are little bits and pieces which can help to define your character. A priest who is dressed all in gold silks, wearing 10 platinum rings, and wielding a diamond mace is not someone you would readily give money to for you can see where it goes, but a simple druidess who has no accessories save for an herb pouch, two carved wooden rings, and a talisman made of malachite is one you could visibly see has no care for possessions or no need for them. Accessories can also denote status. Expensive and plentiful ones could mean a noble or a jeweler, and lack of any could mean almost anything. Accessorize carefully, as you can fill out your character too much or not enough with the wrong accessories or ones which be to plentiful. 10) Now, what to do when you have these areas broken down? Work with them, the way you would a piece of clay to shape something, that something being your character. I sometimes spend an hour on a single sentence just trying to get it right. Use a thesaurus and dictionary to find a variety of words and make each sentence as best you can. Once you have each category broken down, then build each one. The face might take 10 sentences, but the body might only take two, this is to be expected. 11) Now form them together, find ways to make each sentence flow into the next as if you begin looking at someone's head and finish at their feet or vice versa. Make it flow like you glancing at someone would flow. You don't look at a hand, then an eye, then a knee... You move across them in a linear format. Make it this way with your character. 12) Update your desc as often as necessary, and stay on top of it.

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