Let's Talk Fanfiction!! {Closed}

Appearances

Yeah. No creative title today. I'm fresh out of stupid jokes and witty puns and whatnot.

But hey, that means a little less torture for you guys, right?
Right!

Okay, so I've briefly covered this topic in my Mary-Sue rant which is by far one of the best rants I've written overall and there's no way I could possibly add more to it.

Except that was only limited to the basics of a Mary Sue appearance. And I really want to dwell a little deeper in this topic since it is a major part of any character profile sheet.

Sooooo without further ado (is that even the right word? "Ado" just looks weird...) let's jump right into this lil ole rabbit hole and hopefully still come out with our sanity intact! Or...y'know...what's left of it anyways.

OKAY—
You should at least know by now from the thousands of Mary Sue scanners and rants on Wattpad alone what a Mary Sue looks like. Most people try to avoid making a Mary Sue/ Gary Stu when it comes to looks by limiting how wild and crazy their characters seem.
But..is there such a thing as being too limited?

I mean, if you just say "brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin" like I did most of my characters as a dopey 11 year old, then how original does that sound? It's certainly not Mary Sue-ish in the slightest, but it's not exactly as great as it could be. The majority of people out there have brown hair/brown eye combination, and where I live tan skin is practically a given.

The problem is there isn't much detail given.

I don't mean details such as," She has dazzling diamond blue eyes and beautiful brown locks."

We don't need to give complimenting attributes to make a character detailed. Maybe instead of that clearly Mary-Suish description, it could be written as:

"Her eyes are a deep blue with bits of a much lighter blue showing on the edges. Her hair is a dark brown the comes just below her shoulders and is always a tad frizzy."

I mean, I've never come across a profile that's made a Mary Sue description, so that all was kind of unnecessary.
BUT
(And this is a really big but)
I've seen it a lot when describing the character in a story.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a character needs to be detailed, but not in a way that makes it sound like you're some poor obsessed stalker boy trying to explain how his "senpai" or whatever looks.
M'kay?
Moving on!

So the next thing about appearances is how they never seem to change in stories, when in reality doesn't our appearances change all the time?
We dye our hair.
We get bruises and cuts.
We get bags the size of donuts under our eyes from lack of sleep.
We lose and gain weight and our heights change with time.

We're not all the same, and our past selves look different from our selves now.
Me from five months ago looked a lot shittier than me now.
Me from five days ago probably weighed a lot less than me now (curse you Mexican restaurants and Christmas parties....).

And the changes aren't limited to just those examples.
How come the only physical changes I see in books are when the character is blushing or crying? Or sick?

Lastly, I'd like to point out how often looks can be deceiving. It's not often used in stories except when talking about the really short girl who could probably kick ass. But there are plenty of other ways to use this.

For instance, if any of you ever met me in person or even saw a picture of me, you wouldn't believe I was the same girl writing this shit down. I have several Chinese buffets and Red Robins who can back up my point when I say I look like a ten year old.
Seriously. A girl can only be given so many children's menus and kid cups before she's had enough.

I have a friend who most people would rather avoid because he has a rough looking appearance and he doesn't talk much. But he's a real gentleman and is always looking out for others.

So why not add in this twist to your characters? Because a character's personality doesn't always have to be blatant.

So that's it, I do believe. And I've been procrastinating a lot, but what's new, right? If I promised you a review, I promise it's being worked on as you're reading this. Hopefully, anyways.

Question of the day (since this is something I now do, apparently): What's your thoughts on character appearances? Has there ever been a time when you've came across one that completely took you off guard (like most Mary-Sue appearances)?

It's a sucky question, I know. But hey, these rants and shit can't always be great (when are they ever?).

So VOTE!
COMMENT!
And I will see YOU in the next rant!!