Thought dump 1

In an act to grow motivation to actually write and post a story fearlessly for once, it seems as if Zeal Crown has taken to writing whatever seems to be on her mind. Will this plan prevail, or will her fears and distractions overtake her once again? Let's find out.

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I have a mind of an analyst. That doesn't mean I'm too good at it. Simply put, I like to delve into stories I love and find what the author did to make me enjoy them, or delve into stories I despise and find what I believe could have been done better. It helps me construct my own ideas for my stories and allows me to notice when I write something that could be written in a much different way. This is a practice I would encourage every growing author to perform, as I believe it's a practice that could help everyone! (But don't let it stop you from enjoying what you enjoy.)

Through this practice, I have come to think about something that perhaps someone who's much more professional could elaborate on at some point in the future, which leads me here.

"Why do our characters look the way they do?"

To put it more not-loosely, why do authors choose to explain certain parts of their characters' looks in context to the story?

There's two cases I want to interpret. The first one is when the author expresses the absolute minimum of a character's looks, and it's these cases I've found to work quite nicely. There's a quote my friends surely must hate hearing at this point, but I think it explains my point very well.

"If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." From Gurlyand'sReminiscences of A. P. Chekhov, inTeatr i iskusstvo1904, No. 28, 11 July, p. 521.

I believe the same thing can be applied to the looks of a character as well. Sure it's nice to give the reader the image of who your character is, but if it doesn't explain any details in the story, then readers will have very little motivation remembering the design. If the design serves no other purpose but for the author's image, should it be mentioned at all?

I like to think not.

It can be an easy habit to do, especially in the case of writing pony fiction, as the pastel-colored ponies are fun to remember and draw, but if the outside design has no effect on events, then in the hardest trust, there is no point in explaining the design. It's never something serious enough to be addressed most of the time, and in simple fanfiction it often is the case of the author being emotionally attached to the friend they had made in their head. And this is exactly the second case I have found to accept, even if it may not be correct to do so.

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I'm writing when I'm ready to fall asleep, but I believe that is when my brain is at it's most ready for posting. There is very little intention for me to make this blog post besides a form of a warm-up, so I believe it should be left here for me to cringe at in the following years. Now I shall end with a hope that my fear won't get to me, and motivation shall be at the ready.

Wish me luck,
Love you.