Sheriff May Berry - In Your Mind's Eye · 4:16am Jan 14th, 2014
I have mentioned my feelings about description. In the debate between purple and beige prose I lean hard towards beige. If description isn't purposeful, creating atmosphere or required for plot, I don't write it.
I probably go to far when I fail to describe a major character.
I still haven't described Merry Fairweather. No one has ever commented on this, but it remains that if you have an idea of what Merry looks like it comes from your own imagination.
Ooops, I've done it again. While she is the star and narrator of two stories, there is not a word of description anywhere of Sheriff May Berry.
It's actually worse this time. At least with Merry know what she looks like. I just haven't written it down. But not even I know what the good Sheriff of Eutaw County looks like. I have a couple of ideas, but they are only ideas. You would think she'd be tall and lanky, but we could go against type and make her petite (at least it's in print that Merry is tall). She might have a sandy coat, as many sheriff uniforms are (but they are also blue, black, grey, brown...). Does she wear a shirt or vest? Or is her badge pinned on her hat? Oh, that at least I know - the hat is a Stetson. Um...maybe it's tan.
I can also state that her mane is not blonde. That would be too Suzanne Somers in "She's The Sheriff" and not even I will go there.
If any of you know what Sheriff Berry looks like, could you please tell me? I'll need to know at some point. Thank you.
Um.. I think you may have failed even harder than previously thought... I personally imagined Sheriff May Berry as a moderately overweight, beige stallion.
I think you somehow managed to avoid ever describing his/her gender!
I guess I just never thought of it, as her character is a sort of homage to Sheriff Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show, so I just kind of imagined her as a female pony version of the character. Sandy coat, brown mane and tail, close cropped.
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Actually I think both stories had at least one character refer to Merry as a she. It is a sort of "blink and you miss it" thing though.
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on both our parts, eh?
Come to think of it, it is entirely possible I saw that, but wrote it off as a typo.
She has a coat to match the dusty earth of the desert, with a mane the color of rich chocolate and eyes of ocean blue or deep green.
A worn but well-maintained stetson sits on her head, a few shades lighter than her coat; she wears a vest the dark brown of a packed forest trail, bearing a sheriff's star to match the one on her flank, and upon her hooves are shoes of cold iron--because you can never be too careful.
She stands taller than most ponies, just enough to give her an air of authority, but not quite towering. And she's strong, even for an earth pony, though she doesn't show it: it's a compact power, explosive and sudden instead of the slow, ponderous weight the workhorses and miners like to throw around, and you won't know she's hit you 'til you're flat on your back and gasping for air.
Mostly, it doesn't come to that, though. She might've had to show the rough crowds who's boss a few times in the beginning, but she's earned respect, and Eutaw's not the roughest place to start with. No, it's her mind that serves her best most days; a keen eye, a quick wit, a nimble tongue, and you can talk most trouble right into a cell, and have it thank you for your help, too.
...sorry, that got a bit purple.
(and I swear I didn't just make a pun on purpose)
If nothing else, this shows why "Lavender Unicorn Syndrome" is not only bad, but completely unnecessary. I would bet a large number of readers never even noticed that they didn't know what the characters looked like. They just "filled in the blanks" unconsciously and moved on.
1717289 You realize I must shamelessly steal this now. But the stories are in first person narration, and there is no bucking way words like these are coming out of May Berry's head! Hmmm...maybe it's an editorial in the local paper...no, wait, Jenny Digger asked May to read little Timmy's composition assignment. Wait, I know, it's a fanfic!!! Imagine May's reaction when she finds out she's been shipped with Daring Do!!!
I'll calm down now.
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Please do steal it! I love it when people like my words, and to have them in one of your stories would be amazing. The only thing I've written that's remotely pony-related is just over 500 words, or else I'd have it up on the site.