You do such a wonderful job describing people so that we can almost visually see them, the little details that just make a person come alive in our imaginations. How do you keep from everyone blending together? Do you search for images? Do you just imagine that person? Do you people watch and think, that person looks like a __? You are more subtle than white hat good guy, black hat bad guy, but you are still able to get that across or not as the case may be, when it’s a character we go back and forth on, is he/she a good guy, a bad guy, a neutral guy etc.
The problem with describing people is that if you just stick to the physical descriptions, many of them will sound the same. There are only so many hair and eye colors and skin tones to go around. Augustine and Declan Camarine both are tall, blond, and green/blue eyed. So is Arland. To make the characters distinct, we have to reach past the physical descriptions.
Augustine:
Augustine nodded, his stunning face a picture of businesslike politeness. He was inhumanly beautiful. A prince, with his blond hair perfectly styled to complement his flawless features, elegant, confident, just a hair away from absolute perfection. She saw it for exactly what it was – armor.
Declan:
She stopped just before the ring of wards and looked at his face. Her heart skipped a beat. His features were carved with breathtaking precision, combining into an overwhelmingly masculine yet refined face. He had a tall forehead and a long straight nose. His mouth was wide, with hard narrow lips, his jaw square and bulky, yet crisply cut. It wasn’t a face whose owner smiled often. His eyes under thick golden eyebrows froze the air in her lungs. Dark grass green, they smoldered with raw power. She suspected that if she stepped over the stones and touched his face, he’d spark.
(Declan is from ON THE EDGE.)
Most of us have a protective figure in our lives. Maybe it’s a parent, or a spouse, or a sibling. Someone who loves us and protects us. Think about that person. Chances are, what you are remembering isn’t just a set of features but a feeling that person creates.
Writing characters is kind of like that. You are trying to evoke a feeling in the reader, and if you are successful, they will fill in the blanks.
Imagine a medieval setting, a city drenched with rain, and a long bridge.
Today after four pm a man called Lecke would cross the Estret Bridge. He was a scummy, sniveling prick, the kind of character that makes you wait an entire book for a rock to fall on his head and crush his skull.
You’ve pictured something. Zero physical description, but most likely there is something happening.
He was a slight man, with reddish hair and sharp features, and something about the unsure way he held himself reminded me of a possum. I had a feeling that if someone set off a firecracker next to us, he’d fall on the ground and pretend to be dead to avoid the danger.
If you tag the way the character makes the protagonist feel, it will go a long way toward keeping the characters distinct.
He was a slight man, with reddish hair and sharp features, and something about the sure way he held himself reminded me of a mongoose. I had a feeling that if a line-backer-sized attacker lunged at us with a knife, he would take them down with a single kick, take the knife away, and end up on top of them, pressing the blade to their throat.
Same description, different people.
They reached his office, where Lina sat at a pristine desk, presenting the last line of defense to the visitors. The desk was crafted from polished metal with a single white orchid growing from a simple pot. His secretary chose to match the orchid today. A white dress hugged her body, perfectly tailored and form-fitting, yet elegant. Her deep emerald hair, wrapped in a trendy twist, shimmered with peridot highlights. Her eyebrows were black and shaped with laser precision, and she had selected green and black to accent her eyes and mauve to tint her lips. As always, the effect was stunning.
Lina looks like a white orchid. We associate white orchids with elegant settings and often professional environment.
As far as the actual physical description, yes, image searches are your friend. Find an actor or a stock image of a person you would like to portray and write down the vibes. Less is often more. Most of the time authors tag age, hair color, skin tone, possibly build. But not always. There is a reason why Tall, Dark, and Handsome exists. Most people will picture someone when given that description.
Without an emotional connection, Bear is just a German Shepherd. With it, she is the Best Girl Ever.
What if I cannot picture images in my head?
You might have aphantasia. That’s what the image search is for. I probably don’t have it, since I have no problem recalling images of people I’ve seen or picturing random objects with life-like clarity. Nor do I have problems recognizing people and I’m often able to correctly identify two similar looking actors. But if you ask me to imagine a character from scratch, I will end up with a smudge instead of a face. It’s just not something that I can do without reference. It hasn’t hampered me any.
Your supporting/side characters are always awesome and have raised my expectations of how clear and unique the side characters can be. I read another book recently where the main characters were distinct and well-developed but I kept getting the side characters mixed up because they were all alike and vague. For HA, what goes into developing side characters alongside (or compared to) your main characters?
We are all the main characters of our own story. Let’s take Barabas. In his own story, Kate is a side character. She is a friend and an ally, but his goals might conflict with hers. He has his own storyline.
This is a double-edged sword sometimes. The main character is our compass. We perceive their world through their eyes, and when our perspective changes, we are often overly protective of the view point character.
One of the interesting examples of this is Nick Feldman. Imagine the story from his point of view. You idolize your father and turn yourself inside out trying to get Greg to notice you, but no matter how hard you try, your father remains distant. And then your father shatters the family so he can go and take care of the daughter of some woman he apparently has been in love with for a decade and everything you know is a lie.
But you keep going. You follow in your father’s footsteps, despite his disinterest and abandonment. You join the Order, just like he did, and you excel. And then you find out that the woman he chose to guard is a monster with enough power to enslave an entire city. And her father is a bigger monster.
You confront Greg and ask him why, and he tells you that it is his duty. And then he dies, the bastard, leaving this mess unfinished and you holding the severed ends of your pitiful little feelings. Only later you understand that he was trying to influence this woman to keep her from becoming a living Armageddon that would cost thousands of lives. And you wonder, wouldn’t it have been easier and safer to just slit her throat and take out her and her father in the same blow? Why, it would be public service. If she gets a wild hair up her butt, she might enslave the entire country and there won’t be much anyone can do about it. Except that you are a knight and you have principles, but you do wonder.
Now she has a son. She wants to be friends. She says you are her brother and her kid calls you Uncle. Fuck this shit.
That is a completely different plot line. And you have to feel for Nick, who at one point was a little boy desperately wanting his father’s approval, but right now some of you are wanting to explain how none of this is Kate’s fault and Nick just doesn’t understand.
Hehe. My evil work is done here for the day.
First! And Ilona, you evil, evil little gremlin, you!
Certified protagonist! 🙂
OMG, poor Nick 🙁
Nick? Oh, no, no he’s got to not feel that much animosity towards her but argh from that point of view…well gosh.
Wow, I’m near the top! Love everything IA, as always. Love Desandnick! Another short st— novella — Wilmington side quest?
Love it!
Declan? Hmmm, must be the upcoming book.
He’s from the Edge series, the first book! He is 🤌
Declan Camarine is a character from IA’s The Edge series. Also a really great series. If you haven’t read any of The Edge books, do yourself a favor and read them!
The Edge books were my gateway to the world of IA. I read one and was hooked!
Declan is the male protagonist in On The Edge (Edge 1), published in 2009 🙂 https://ilona-andrews.com/the-edge/#edge
I guess I need to do a reread, it’s been years. If the Camarine sir name would have been dropped, at least I would have had a clue.
Lord Submarine 😂
*cries in Edge tears*
Aaaand that’s how you end up with people clamoring for a Nick p.o.v., y’know.. 👀
lol, wait for it…
Yep, that’s probably next on Mod R’s list to correct us for: BDH, she did not promise a Nick novel to you, she didn’t even promise a novella. She only used him as an example!
BDH: Yes, but when is Nick’s trilogy coming out?
🤣
I heard from Steve it’s a quintet. . .
Did Steve call the Hotline again? I thought they blocked his number 😂😂
It was a short story, so we can probably only expect a trilogy
Look at me, sitting here quietly, not making a sound, not uttering a word… 🐱
Ok, that got the Horde’s ears perked up. Hmm…a Nick trilogy within Julie’s books, or on their own? 🧐🤔
**Psst, Mod R, that’s how rumors get started.** 😉🤣
Maybe you’re hoping the power of the BDH will manifest the books like in KD, if we believe hard enough? 🤣
I mean, it kinda worked for Hugh’s………
I’m just saying that at one point the authors were interested in writing a Desandra story…wonder how we could sneak a certain handsome Knight Commander in there……… 😉😉
+100. I could feel the earth move as BDH came to attention. 🤣
Agree, 100%
BWAHAHA, makes grabby hands 🤣
Yes please!
Lol I was just going to say the same thing!
Oh that was good! Thanks for the ending chuckle in particular.
I was flabbergasted to read in the Author Notes at the end of a set of Tamora Pierce books that one of her characters was based (physically) on Jeff Goldblum! It was kind of mind boggling.
She mentions a few other famous or not so famous people that she used as references for other characters as well.
Can I ask which character?
I have a fun one: when I first read Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, I imagined the father character Mo as Brendan Fraser. I don’t usually imagine celebrities for characters but he was very Brendan Fraser to me. A few friends had recommended the book to me and when I told them, they all were amazed because they ALSO had imagined him as the character. Then my flabbers were COMPLETELY gasted when the Inkheart movie was coming out, and not only was Brendan Fraser cast as Mo, I read an article that stated Funke had written the character specifically with him in mind. I kept thinking, could I have read somewhere that she liked him and imprinted it somehow in my mind, without remembering? But I know I didn’t. I went into that book totally blind when a friend lent it to me, and I’d never heard of the author before that. It was WEIRD.
You were chanelling the proper Mo! 😄 I’ve never read that one, I don’t think anyway, so now I’m off to look it up.
It’s very understandable that your flabbers were gasted on that (btw, I LOVE that! 🤣), mine would’ve been too! 😁
I didn’t realize the movie was named Inkheart, too. The cast is amazing. I can hardly wait to watch it. No idea how I missed it when it came out.
Tamora Pierce based Numair on Jeff Goldblum. He was still fairly young when she was starting to write her novels.
In a strange piece of synchronicity, Farmer Cape from Mastiff is also based on Brendan Fraser!
TIL!
……Thank you!!
Thank you for this insight, illuminating and entertaining as always. While I have no ambition to write fiction myself – much rather read – I do love learning about the process.
T,D,H: Colin Firth.😁
This is why I enjoy your stories.
“Hehe. My evil work is done here for the day.”
Someone is really enjoying their evil work.
So true! 😂
But it was also very interesting. I tend to picture a more of a vague face with only the characteristics described and go with more of a feeling about the type of person.
dammit, you got me again and now I like Nick even more and I want more KATE!
That was a lovely post! Thank you for all the mini images that you provided in such a short amount of time.
Thank you, muchly.
Your descriptions also help me, at least, when I try to picture who might play that character in The Movie.
(Surely at some point, the media guys will find out about Innkeeper or Kate’s World or Hidden Legacy!)
“PlaY”
Not plat. Arghgh
And “SurELy”.
Not “surly”
Sigh. Obviously, proofreading before excitedly posting is not my thing.
Fixed both 🙂
😘😘😘
Let’s hope it’s someone from the BDH, or someone like Peter Jackson (LOTR), who knows how to change a story for reasons of pacing and narrative but not so much that it loses the original. Otherwise, we’d get something like the Star Wars prequel trilogy…or a too-faithful adaptation that makes a lousy movie.
Ty Ty I love all your side characters! Describing Nick’s POV is something i’ve thought, which demonstrates how good y’all’s writing is – you were able to convey that without ever showing his POV. I really love a short story about how Nick and Desandra fall for each other. That’s how good your characters are! (so glad we are getting Augustine’s and Diana’s setup).
So freaking evil! Now I need that book! LOL
And you wonder why we are so chalant!
Its really funny because for me its not just the physical descriptions, sometimes its the characters behaviour that shapes the visions in my head.
For instance, Aunt Bea reminds me of my mother. They are physically nothing alike. But my mother was the wrangler of her siblings (11 younger) and her fights were so legendary that one of my high school friends asked me about a few of them 😅. Her parents witnessed them and apparently they still talked about many many years later. And thus Aunt Bea’s death hit me like a ton of bricks.
But all this to say you guys create wonderful in depth characters!
+infinity. Right now reading a series that’s really well-written in lots of ways, and very entertaining, except…the MC does things in ways that are not credible for the character as written. Not just occasionally – regularly, because the plot requires it. It appears to be a lack of experience on the author’s part about the background and maintenance required for the kind of things the MC is doing within the story, and how those would actually affect the MC’s behavior.
HA has a depth and breadth of experience that is unusual, partly because HA is two people, and partly because HA appears to do tons of research in areas where they don’t have personal experience or knowledge. That gives their characters an authenticity that keeps me solidly in the story. I still enjoy the other author’s series; it’s just not as seamless as it could be.
Ha! You’re right.
That was a very interesting post! I usually don’t stop to analyze what you are writing…I just inhale wholesale. But every now and then, you make me stop and wonder at your skills. Amazing! Thanks!!
Nick, aka Uncle Stupidhead, is one of those characters that floats in and out of Kate’s life, but it was always clear he was a conflicted good guy. I was so glad that he and Kate had achieved some kind of normal (Kate normal anyway) by Magic Triumphs.
Yeah, that one NEEDS explanation. At least we got some backstory for Roman…and a possibility!
Nick? Enough said. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for the insights into the characters and the snippet about Nick! Also a perfect example of your evil genius as a writer! Not only did you get a great blog post, you got to ramp up the BDH! What fun! Nice beginning to the week!
This was wonderful! It gives me another level of appreciation for your writing!
Well, now you made me want to read Uncle Nick’s origin story…what went on during his time with Roland and Hugh, and how he views Hugh now that Kate and Hugh are family….I did have a crush on Nick when he was a Knight Crusader.
I used to picture Linus Duncan as Ray Wise who played the Devil in “The Reaper” TV series.
I pictured Linus Duncan as the late & great Sean Connery
And sometimes the side characters become so real that they need to be rounded out because the reader will wonder about their perspective (Nick & Luthor), or even to the point where they deserve their own story (Roman & Augustine)
Plus, if my writer friends are to be believed, some characters will even start arguing with the author about what he/she needs them to do.
“We are all the main characters of our own story. Let’s take Barabas. In his own story, Kate is a side character. She is a friend and an ally, but his goals might conflict with hers. He has his own storyline.”
^this^ IRL too.
I like a good description so I have better idea of what is going on but, I didn’t know I had Aphantasia until I started meditating. The guy said, “picture an apple, tho some of you may not see pictures in your head…”. What?
Elegant orchid …. But with hot dog lips
😆😆😆😆😆😆
😂
Damnit, now you have me feeling sad for Nick again!! I felt bad for him when we learned what his surname was, but now I feel it all over again! So glad he has Desandra and the kids (and if you ever want to tell us just how that happened, we’ll read it…)
Yes, if you ever want to tell the tale of how Nick ended up with Desandra, we will read it!
“Hehe. My evil work is done here for the day.”
And this is how we end up with Hugh as the hero of his own story. Of course, I quite enjoyed the first book and am impatiently hoping the next one comes out before my grandbaby’s age reaches double digits.
By the time Nick takes a deep enough breath for Aurelia to get a word in edgewise in the face of his conspiracy theory, it’s become pretty clear that with Roland out of the way, he’s fairly fond of Kate, however conflicted he is about her power levels – and he was blatantly fond of Conlan in Magic Triumphs.
I do think being involved with Desandra and helping raise her boys mellowed him a bit.
+1 Kate managed to win him over, despite his best efforts to deny her 😂
This is why I love House IA. All the “supporting” characters are actually protagonists in waiting…. They are so richly filled in that each and every one of them can have their own series! The worlds have complete people, not just fillers.
+1
I have aphantasia. Thank you for giving me the name of ¨I cannot see pictures in my mind.¨ I can hear scenes. I never think that person looks just like I imagined. Instead, I think – wow, that character sounds right. My hubby was the opposite. FYI: I can hear your characters and often laugh at their snarkiness.
I always liked your character descriptions, and I find your characters easy to keep distinct in my mind. And now I understand how you do it! Thank you for showing us a little of the work behind the curtain. Also thank you so much for Nick’s POV. Kate has explained some things about Nick along the way, however it was awesome to get the details put together into a character portrait. You have so many interesting side characters, I would happily read anything you care to provide about them!
“I find your characters easy to keep distinct in my mind.”
yes! i agree with this so much!
i’ve read too many books where side characters blended together and i’d get them mixed up. i hate having to flip back in a book to try to sort out who person x was because i thought they were person z. i’ve never had that problem with ilona andrew’s books.
When I first read Lois McMaster Bujold’s “Shards of honor”/”Barrayar” I kept thinking that hero Aral Vorkosigan reminded me of someone. Then I read that LMB took Oliver Reed as Athos in the Richard Lester “Three Musketeers”, sans beard, and based Aral on him.
You are Masters. I had no idea (since I’m not a writer), how much craft is here. With amazing imagination. Love it!
Ohoho. That’s a can of worms opened. Now imagine a Nick POV of going undercover as Hugh’s underling… Becoming the head of an Order chapter of misfits… First, second, third time meeting DESANDRA…
Nick is not my favorite, but I never had a problem understanding why Kate, the marshmallow, is simpatico towards him.
Wow, love the explanations. I have a vivid imagination and have no issue envisioning characters (usually.) I love your writing, by the way, and part of that is your descriptions of places, people, things and the internal thoughts of your characters. Thank you!
Here’s a puzzler — I’m writing Book 2 of a planned 2-3 book+ series. Do I lean heavily into the same kind of character descriptions for repeat characters, or go easier on it presuming readers have read Book 1? 🙂
Thank you for sharing your insights as always! We aspire to ever achieve your level. <3
You still need to describe people even if it seems repetitive. You audience usually has at least a year between the releases, less if you are selfpublished, and they will absolutely forget the way people look. But instead of meeting them for the first time, the description cane be shorter and more to the point.
This was incredible! Thank you!!
You have thicken the plot! What a little Nick tidbit😍
Yes, I did see Nick’s POV when reading the entire KD series again.
It’s a talent that HA has making us so invested in these people, um characters. See I am super invested in all the things HA😂
Thank you for the extras and the masterclass in character development.
Ilona, you are AWESOME! 😘
As someone who DOES have aphantasia, I have always appreciated the way that the characters are created by feelings and vibes.
I have no clue what any of the characters look like, even if there has been art of them, but I know how they feel to me.
The good part about that is that I’m never upset about adaptations and casting and actors not being as otherworldly beautiful as the characters are. No human actor could ever make us feel that they are as alien and predatory as Sean or Arland. If an adaptation misses the vibes though!
IA team has two very amazing attributes that prove that they are one of the greatest authors of all time. One that most characters (main, side, villain, distant side) are memorable enough that when mentioned by name they stimulate a reaction from their readers (enough that we generally have a feel for them without looking back in the books). This should be impossible with the number of characters needed to make thriving stories filled with cities of people but they make it seamless. In such a way that you have no idea the connections are forming until they are brought up again and it triggers the response. Social interaction occurring at a mental level through books is amazing to behold and not many authors are capable of creating that kind of emotional investment in multiple characters.
Second, I whole heartedly believe that it take a true talent to take a “villain” or “antagonist” and write a story that changed the fundamental feelings that those characters have established. From mild annoyance (Aunt Bea with the difficulties she caused early on) to moderate distaste (Nick for being a PIMA) to shear hate (Hugh for the suffering he caused). Everytime IA team writes; its pure gold. Over and over they prove there is no one way to look at a character. That their characters are so complex that they can change the trope or label that they have been given and make it work. The fact that in real life most people are not one thing (good or evil but in between) and that IA team are able to reflect that level of realism in their work is breath taking. I wish there was golden globes for writers because you guys deserve one.
One last thing…I am sooo glad Spider from the Edge series is dead and gone because my womanly constitution could not take his pov that made him likeable. You have changed my views on alot of characters but I prefer him be a super villain with no redemption.
Thanks for the Nick snippet even if you fundamentally changed my view of him. Now I have to reread Kate series with his perspective in mind to better immerse myself in the awesomeness that is your guys works. 🙂
As someone who learned about aphantasia a year ago, it’s totally an obsession. I always thought visualize was a metaphor for thinking about how things looked. I still think it’s absolutely bonkers that most people can think with pictures. all that to say, I love your descriptions amd hoe you paint a scene. I don’t ever see it (in a literal sense) but can imagine it clearly.
I love how this blog sometime teaches me more about writing that tons of books!
It’s mind blowing. And mesmerizing.
And this is why IA is my favourite Author.
People like me don’t sleep much. We don’t sleep not because we are abnormal but because when we sleep we dream. We live complete lives that often resemble other worlds, worlds like you write about. We don’t sleep much because we know, some of these worlds we dream in are better, sharper, there is magic there that does not exist here and we are happier there. And sometimes when we wake up we have forgotten this life because while we slept we lived years or decades in these other worlds. We don’t sleep much because we know one day, we will choose to stay in those worlds instead of waking.
I often wondered if you two were like me and dreamed of worlds beyond this one, worlds that have a magic of their own, worlds that you two share with others through your books. There is magic in every world, every universe, every moment. You provide this world with the magic it needs through your words and the world is a better place for it. In this universe magic is the source code to open the doors, and unlock the minds of others. Writing is one way, music is another. Maybe one day you will write of the songs your characters listen to when driving around their cities, or hum when they are working.
Somehow the posts I love the most almost always have an evil laugh in them. I appreciate the side character info as yeah HA has such good ones I wants books for all of them
This snippet is wonderful, but alas I am drawn to the comments this time. I need to reread The Edge series.
Wait; have I completely missed a Barbarus story??
No, but I like the way you think 😀
Barabas is given as an example of side character who isn’t aware he is a side character. We are all the protagonists of our own lives 🙂
That’s what I got from Aunt Bea when I would read about her in Kate’s books before she died. She’s not aware she’s a side character either. 😊
Yes, and we have to remember that those around us are not merely our supporting characters. Protagonists, every last one of them.
I have aphantasia. BBC had an article about 6mths ago and CTV this week. Now I know it was has a name and why I like and dislike various writing styles. Why I write detailed lists, journal, math was easy, biology impossible, why I recognize but don’t memorize. You spend a lot of time on characters and battles and I don’t read any of it. Hugh is the only audio book I have listened to without reading the book first. But it’s not as detailed and character oriented. Kate, I just give up on yet I like the dialog sections.
Now I know why.
For me a book should tell the story with the dialog the rest is just “window dressing”. Looking at my favorites in my goodreads lists…. now I understand why those are my favorite style of books.
Who cares how pretty a character is when I can’t even describe my son’s features.
You know this post will just fuel our desire for new stories from fresh POV’s!! I’ve loved reading the Dali & Jim shorts, Andea’s short stories & novel — as well as Hugh and Julie’s own stories. A great testament to how wonderful your “side” characters are — they are ALL worthy of their own stand-alone projects. Excited to meet new folks too though — excited to meet Maggie!
Love the blog, and thanks for the snippets! Can’t wait for Maggie, but can I just put in a plug for more Derek & Julie, Hugh, Wilmington, all the wonderful characters we already know and love?
BDH forever! (Mini battle cry, while sipping a latte with pinkie extended).
All of those storylines are still very much alive, and House Andrews haven’t forgotten about them!
Right now Maggie is the project sparking the most joy and inspiration to our authors 🙂 Creativity works best when it’s fed, not forced, and the wait always pays off in better books for us.
P*tience is definitely a team sport around the Horde fires! Thanks for sticking around 😀
For all the joy House Andrews brings us, they deserve all the p*tience. We will love Maggie just as much when she gets here. 🙂
(BDH forever!! Okay, more coffee…)
😂 🤣 I loved this and the BDH comments. Evil Ilona, crafty Mod R, and all the BDH. You make my day.
I have a problem with side characters with similar sounding names (sometimes not even similar sounding, but just beginning with the same letter). The author will bring someone into the scene, and it will take me a bit to even figure out who they are talking about. They’re kind of just a slide blob with no features. I feel like IA is soooo good at secondary character development they can give multiple characters in the book the same name (Michael) and I will still know the moment the character comes on the page which one he is.
Oh dear lord supporting cast with names starting with the same letter _slay_ me. I once read about a third of a decently sized fantasy novel thinking “well that is a very weird way for this character to behave in this second book, he wasn’t like that in the first at all!” only to the realise when the actual character I was thinking of also showed up and I realised they just had similar names but weren’t the same at all… Like, both started with an S, were 3 syllables long, and fantasy-y (as in: not common names but made up to fit the setting). Ugh. So annoying…
Same. It took me ages to distinguish between the two LD’s, Lional Duncan and Luther Dillon.
Within the story, no problem.
But if one of the names was mentioned in a discussion or on the blog, I had a hard time remembering.
Also Curran and Conner.
I always forget Rogan’s first name is Conner. Mainly because most of the time he’s Rogan.
Oh, that last point you made, we’ll done.
OMG, thank you! That was really helpful to fully see Nick’s perspective fleshed out like that. I had inferred some of it on my own because you both are also skilled at writing with showing and not telling AND it still filled in a gap I had been missing about how truly emotionally complicated it’d be for him.
It’s fun to see in practice how much we do root for the main character’s perspective.
I enjoyed reading about Nick’s POV, too. It’s understandable that there is so much resentment and jealousy there. But what if instead of just trying to prevent the apocalypse that Kate could have caused, it was pointed out that Greg was trying to bring her over to the not-quite-so-evil-and-crazy side. Get her to use her powers for a much better cause, which she chose to do anyway.
And now the BDH are collectively screaming for a Nick book.
You have only yourselves to blame…. sigh.
wow! just wow!
Damn, you guys are good.
Hi Ilona!
I do have aphantasia! And it can sometimes be hampering when reading a book, it depends on the writing. If find books without a lot of descriptions can leave me convinced, but books that are overly descriptive also made me confused.
Examples:
An author who is heavy on dialogue in their books, but will often not tag who exactly is speaking will cause me to re-read a pages so I can figure out who is speaking. If are say three women and two men in a conversation and the other leaves out names and just says ‘he said’ or ‘she said’, I will have to go back to the conversation a few times to figure out who is speaking.
But on the flip side of it; if an author decides they are going to describe a house in full detail but never once use the actual term for the house. I get confused as well. They might describe it like:
This two story building features rust colored brick walls that are covered in clinging ivy, so the windows are obscured. A simple dark wood door features square in the middle of the front of the structure, the flat roof holds no chimney. A simple expanse of neglected grass stretches in front of it, interrupted with a simple walkway of broken pavers.
—
I have no idea what this building is. Is it an abandoned business? Someone’s house? I have to re-read to get an idea of where we are and what is going on.
That being said most authors strict a balance where they give me just enough to know what is going on and not be confused. I love reading b/c to me reading is like listening to an audiobook.
I “hear” everything I am reading– I also hear what I am writing! As I write this out I am narrating my thoughts in my mind. Human brains are wonderful things! I have heard from other people with aphantasia who process all their thoughts in text. Or a combination of sound and text. Mine is all sound. I hear my own voice for every thought I have.
Ashley, that is all very interesting.
I too have aphantasia but never knew it was a thing until recently. And since I am one of them that can see images when I dream I really didn’t recognize that I didn’t see them when awake.
It was always difficult when I was asked to describe someone. I usually could say their height and build but hair color or anything else not really. I remember often saying their hair might be darkish?
As to describing things like your house description I totally agree. There is no combining of all those description bits into a whole. They are just a pile of random facts. My favorite description of a house was one I read by Bujold. It was something like she entered through the carved wood door. This was enough because carved doors are only in fancy old buildings so this gave me the vibe which was enough to set the stage.
I also found very interesting your description of hearing what you read in your head as though you’re narrating it. I actually might do this too. I know that if I’m really trying to understand something I will read it out loud. Thanks for this insight.
I personally have really good spacial awareness which means when reading I can often tell you where characters are in relationship to each other even though I can’t see them. But, when I first was trying to write a story I kept trying to see the scene, which only worked if I was falling asleep. I’ll have to try writing some more now that I realize that I will never really see them, but instead I can use my spatial awareness to move people around the scene.
These are both really interesting comments, thank you for sharing. It’s good that we’re getting more savvy about wiring differences nowadays, so we can be more efficient at building effective workarounds.
Yeah! I am the same with the house— they are a pile of facts and I’d kind of vaguely imagine the individual pieces but not be able to put them together.
A lot of the “images” I get are memories, contextual examples I’ve physically seen before.
If you ask me to picture an apple, I’ll have a memory of an apple. If you ask me to picture a cat, I’ll remember one of my cats. But I don’t really *see* it in my brain, it’s kind of like a mostly transparent overlay than a full picture or 3d model. I’m not really sure how to put it in words.
As for spatial awareness? I’m terrible at it! I could not estimate an inch let alone a foot.
But on the flip side I can “feel” sound. Music, pound noises, etc activate my nerves in strange ways where I will have physical sensations with them.
I’ve never visualized fantasy characters as real people/actors. I always draw them in my mind. Kate, Declan, Dina, and the others are all stylized cartoons/anime drawings in my mind. I often use the artwork on the blog and draw the other characters in a similar style. I don’t picture an actual person unless the story is about a real person. Are other people like me, or am I the only one?
Curran and Kate and the entire crew of her series including Julie’s which I need more of because my heart for Derek needing his girl just needs to be filled. I own all the books, own all the e-books, and own all the little novellas, and own all on audible I think we need Nick’s book series too. I love Nick and how he enjoys riling up Kate.
I’ve always pictured Curran as a younger Daniel Craig. Not huge but gives a sense of power and rougher but attractive features.
Aphantasia. That’s what it’s called?!
I knew I couldn’t form pictures in my head from words or remember more than flashes.
I’ve always characterized it as having an auditory memory. I can remember what things sound like, and I’m an auditory learner, but I can’t remember like seeing a movie or even a fuzzy picture.
My vision is fine, and I recognize people and places, and I rely on it, but I can’t visually remember things and cannot “picture” them as anything more than a vague resemblance to things I’ve seen before.
There’s a word for it. Thank you!
Wow. What a WONDERFUL explanation.
thank you for this insight. I have always hated how some writers stop the plot to give me four paragraphs of what the MFC looks like and how her dress was made. I’ve never kept those details. but as I read this I very much pictured Barabas and his spiky hair. I could see his face when he said he didn’t need to see Christopher in a suit. and I never realized (in the front of my brain) it was because you gave me just enough and let me fill in the rest
also I hate hate hate it when a writer tries to describe the MMC with a patrician nose (which means absolutely nothing to me) and a face of hard planes and angles. truly I see a Picasso painting with the eye where the ear should be. smh. LOL
Evil, evil. I was indeed rethinking what I thought was real of those two. I thought oh, this is an interesting way to think about this. I didn’t know, did I miss this from the book? Or is this new info? Very good, you.
Is it evil when the result is me throwing money at you in return for Barabas’ and Nick’s books or is that just smart business?
Cuz it sounds like smart business.
I am wondering about Julie and Desandra meeting up some time and discussing what a pain it can be to love a prickly guy so much. I’d love to see Dali explaining the best ways to flirt/fight with Barabas’ daughter. I even would like to see Luther patching up the sheriff after a too close encounter with a cursed weapon! the thing I like best about House Andrews is that I actually have an idea about what the secondary characters might do or say.