{"id":3116,"date":"2008-08-15T16:17:38","date_gmt":"2008-08-15T20:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3116"},"modified":"2008-08-15T16:20:50","modified_gmt":"2008-08-15T20:20:50","slug":"nondescript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3116","title":{"rendered":"Nondescript"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jane Espenson on character introductions<\/a>:
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

I know you see the difference. The second description is highly physical. In fact, it uses visual characteristics to try to convey things about the character. This is a very good way to quickly convey character in, say, a novel, but it’s not especially helpful in a script.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, I think I’d extend that and say it’s significantly worse<\/em> in a novel. I think she’s absolutely right that “if you describe that character too precisely [in a script], you frustrate everyone during production, and you tip off any reader of a spec to your inexperience.” But I also think that, if you throw in any physical descriptions, in any writing, they need to matter<\/em>. They can’t be there in place<\/em> of characterization. It’s much better to get me inside a character’s head than to tell me what color the hair is on top of it. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve read that lead off with a string of physical descriptions — hair-color, age, height, weight, etc. — but that tell the reader absolutely nothing about the characters who have them.<\/p>\n

I’m of the opinion that you don’t tell readers anything they don’t need to know; and you only tell them what they do<\/i> need to know when<\/i> they need to know it.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jane Espenson on character introductions: I know you see the difference. The second description is highly physical. In fact, it uses visual characteristics to try to convey things about the character. This is a very good way to quickly convey character in, say, a novel, but it’s not especially helpful in a script. Actually, I … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-3116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}