by Becca Puglisi

“Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.”

This quote by Karl Lagerfeld is pretty heady. I’m still chewing on it, but what I gather is that clothing and other appearance choices are one way we interpret and reflect reality—the reality of who we are, of our passions. Sometimes, it’s the reality we want to project (as opposed to what’s actually real).

In this way, a character’s clothes can say a lot about them as individuals. As writers, we should always be looking for characterization opportunities that allow us to reveal truths about our characters in natural ways. And clothing choices, as mundane as they may seem, can be a great way to do this. Just zero in on a few details about your character’s clothes, and BAM! You’ve revealed crucial information without having to state it outright.

So, what can fashion choices tell us about a character?

Jobs and Careers

Does your protagonist have a job that requires a uniform? Have them head into the coffee shop wearing their hospital scrubs, stained mechanic’s coveralls, three-piece suit, or steel-toed boots and work belt. By referencing their work clothes, you won’t have to mention their profession overtly.

Temporal and Geographic Markers

If the story takes place in a different time or location, your character’s fashion choices can clue readers in to the where and when. Show your protagonist in crinolines and a corset, a tartan kilt and clan badges, or bellbottoms and a halter top. Use context clues to introduce futuristic, paranormal, or otherworldly wardrobe items. Let a few carefully chosen clothing details show readers where and when your character is living.

Personality

Because clothing choices are deeply personal, they can reflect certain aspects of personality. Looking at the main cast of Stranger Things, you wouldn’t define them as haute couture; they’re self-defined nerds with little fashion sense, and their clothes reflect this. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Cruella from the movie of the same name. Antisocial is her defining trait, and her fashion choices consistently fly in the face of what’s popular, traditional, and accepted.

A character who is flamboyant will dress differently than someone who is simple or traditional or lazy. Our personality absolutely influences how we dress, so know your character’s dominant traits, and outfit them accordingly.

Identity

In specific cases, clothing can quickly establish certain aspects of identity. Traditional cultural garb, like a sari, kimono, or yarmulke, can point to the character’s heritage. The same is true if their dress associates them with a certain group of people, such as the LGBTQ+ community.

Interests and Hobbies

Want to show your character’s interests? Put them in fan merch from a favorite band or a t-shirt sporting a social justice slogan. Reveal their K-Pop obsession by having them show up to a block party looking like a member of BTS. One of the things that makes us each unique is our individual passions. Show those off for your character through their wardrobe.

Individuality

You can’t learn much from someone who looks just like everyone else. But if they take pains to individualize their appearance, it says something about them. Wearing colorful knee socks with a school uniform, only wearing certain colors, or making their own uniquely styled clothes are all ways to show that a character is swimming against the current. More information is needed for readers to know exactly how or why they’re different, but clothing is a good starting point for revealing this desire to break from the pack.

Financial Status

As we all know, clothes come with a variety of price tags. Some are cheap while others are wildly expensive. A character who dresses in name brands, wears only natural fibers, or shops at trendy boutiques is likely to have a bigger bank account than someone wearing hand-me-downs or generic clothes from Target.

Of course, the expensive clothes could be a smokescreen meant to convey the image of wealth. We see this with Coriolanus Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

This book, like the original Hunger Games, opens on the day of a reaping, when Snow will learn which tribute he’ll be mentoring. Assignments reflect prestige and status, which is especially important for Snow because his family has secretly fallen into poverty. He’s got to maintain appearances, and we see this in the opening pages as he meticulously picks out his clothes for the big announcement. He has splurged on a black-market pair of pants, and his tired shirt is transformed with dyes, extra purloined cloth, and a fashion-savvy cousin’s needle and thread. He shows up to his meeting looking like any wealthy Capitol citizen, but it’s all a ruse that is carried off by his clothing.

This is something to keep in mind—that looks can be deceiving, and some fashion choices are meant to portray an image that isn’t real. Those false choices, in and of themselves, can be very telling to readers.

Secrets

So, while clothing can reveal truths about a character, it can also be used to conceal those truths. Fashion choices could be deliberately made to hide things, such as

• Scars, skin conditions, or other imperfections
• Signs of physical abuse
• A pregnancy
• Their financial standing
• An aspect of their identity or heritage that they’re rejecting
• Beliefs that would make them unpopular
• Insecurity and self-doubt
• Their emotional state

Does your character have something to hide? How could you show that through their clothing?

Mental/Emotional State

Sometimes, a person’s fashion choices can hint at how they’re doing mentally or emotionally—namely, when their clothes change unexpectedly and no longer match their personality. If a fashion-conscious or fastidious character starts living in threadbare leggings and stained shirts, that’s a clue that something is going on with them. Likewise, when an emo character suddenly starts wearing bright colors and clothing with cheery slogans, readers will sit up and take notice because it doesn’t fit with what they know about them.

Final Thoughts

It’s clear that clothing can be used to reveal certain truths. But the clothes themselves don’t always allow for a complete interpretation because they can mean different things. Rumpled sweats and mismatched socks may be a sign of emotional distress, but it also could just mean the character is a slob. Or their washing machine is broken. For clarity about the why, pair clothing choices with dialogue, thoughts, body language, and environmental factors to provide context.

And lay the foundation early for readers about what’s normal for the character. Know their personality, preferences, interests, and personal identity well. Identify what they embrace about themselves and what they’ll downplay. Once you’ve really gotten to know your character, you can write them clearly and consistently for readers. Then, when their appearance changes, readers will know something is going on, and the meaning behind the shift will be more obvious.

I hope this post gives you some ideas about how to make your character’s clothes do double-duty. But, of course, it doesn’t cover everything. Can you think of other truths wardrobe choices can reveal about a character?

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About Becca

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 1 million copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog.

Top Image by Pexels from Pixabay

by Lisa Norman

Two students came into one of my "build your own website" classes. One was geeky and he'd dragged along his friend who described himself as impossibly tech challenged. One of the first things my non-geek student said was, "The internet just doesn't make sense to me. I know that it works for other people, but it doesn't work for me. I just don't get it."

The geeky friend said, "I've heard that you can teach anyone, so I brought him to you."

Non-geek just shook his head and said, "I know it won't work."

After the first lesson, non-geek came to me, frustrated. "There are no buttons! You've made it sound easy. I should just push the buttons. But when I get there, there aren't any buttons!" I asked to meet on Zoom and to look at the student's screen.

And he was right. There were no buttons on his screen.

Why? He’d chosen to use an old browser. It was familiar, and therefore the only one he would use. Problem: it didn’t work with the modern internet. I updated the browser on remote and suddenly, the internet made sense.

Of the two students, guess who finished their website first?

Tech Fundamentals

The world of technology is constantly changing. The internet has just undergone a huge speed boost. Websites are using more graphic elements because pictures and even videos can now be downloaded faster. If your computer can’t handle the speed or the size of the files, it’ll lag and cause you problems. Understand: I detest our modern throwaway culture. I still use a Bluetooth keyboard that I bought before smartphones. I love my keyboard, and it still works with modern tech.

But the computer that it worked with now lives in a box on a shelf, an antique, something I save to show my grandkids what I used before cellphones.

Upgrading our software (programs) and hardware (machines) is an important part of our writing life. Don’t underestimate the destructive nature of hardware and software malfunctions on the life of a creative.

The Mouse Is Not Just for Disneyland.

When I work with people online, I often see them struggling to find a button or to hit it. I’ve started asking, “Are you using a trackpad?” You’d be surprised how often my students who are struggling to handle an assignment are using a trackpad. I can reach through Zoom and magically hit a button – not because I’m just that awesome – but because I’m using a mouse.

You can get an inexpensive Bluetooth mouse these days. If trying to hit a button or select text is just a painful agony, try working with a mouse and see if that doesn’t just make life easier. And as a bonus comment: if your mouse makes your wrist hurt, consider getting a pad to put under your wrist.

My daughter is a digital artist. She wears special braces on her wrists to keep them from hurting when she is drawing. She’s helping to remind me that we need to pay attention to how our joints feel while working.

Movers use back braces to help them lift heavy loads. Writers need padded wrist rests!

Location, Location, Location

Real estate is important! No, not the physical kind, but the virtual kind on your screen! If the button you are looking for is off the screen, how are you going to know it is over there? I’ve learned to look for the little gray lines (scroll bars) on the bottom and sides of the screen when working on student computers. They’re there to give you a hint that there’s more off the screen, but often they’re hidden until you hover over them. Many times, I find the button they can’t find off the screen. I know where to look because I’ve seen it before. They’ve never seen that button. Of course, they couldn’t find it!

I see people struggling with software programs and saying that they just can’t use ____ because it doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen writers unable to handle basic tasks because they are too “hard.” If I share my screen with them, they can see the button and suddenly things aren’t as hard.

Learn to zoom in and out on your screen. If you have a tiny screen, you may need to zoom out to see even basic functions. Software programs often remove options based on the width of your screen! What if replacing a monitor made marketing easy?

Ergonomics

We’ve all learned the value of sitting in a comfy chair as writers. We’re working on keeping our butts in the chair and our fingers on the keyboard, right? But when was the last time you considered the keyboard? Do your fingers fit well on the keys of your main writing machine? Now I understand that our portable machines will lack a bit of comfort, but the machine you work on most: Is it helping you become a more productive writer?

Or is it slowly eroding the muscles in your wrists and triggering arthritis in your fingers?

How do you feel after a long writing session? If you work in a flow state, where you lose track of time and become totally immersed in your writing, is pain pulling you out of your productivity?

My chiropractor had me mount my screens on swing arms to get them at the perfect height. After a recent car accident, one of my screens is practically impossible to use. My head just doesn’t want to turn that way.

Ergonomics applies to every part of your writing experience. Anything that you will be doing for a long period of time will take a toll on your body. Be aware of how you feel after a writing session. If something hurts, look into options. Many solutions are inexpensive.

Things Geeks Notice

A geek will notice that there is always more than one software program to do a thing. A geek will research and choose the best based on their technology (machine), cost, and needs. You want to pick software not because someone else recommended it, but because it works best for your process. If your software doesn’t work the way you do, consider a change.

Geeks notice that keys have resistance and clicks. Geeks will customize their keyboards for just the right amount of click and pressure required. You can, too. Fancy keyboards aren’t just for gamers. Anyone who uses a keyboard as their main interface with their art might want to take a moment and check out the options! Keycaps, for example, are replacement keys for certain keyboards that can customize how the keys feel, giving you a more satisfying touch experience.

A geek knows that there are legions of mice in the universe. They know that a wired mouse will perform differently than a wireless mouse. They know that some scroll wheels work great for scrolling 50 pages at a time while others will make your fingers tired scrolling a few pages.

The first time I heard a gamer talk about their computer as a “rig” it got me thinking. These gamers are athletes, and for them, their machine is the most important part of their sport.

What about writers?

If our computer is the center point of our productivity then why are so many writers struggling with keyboards that don’t fit their fingers, trackpads that don’t allow for fine coordination, and screens that don’t show a normal page width?

Shouldn’t our computers be as important to us as they are to gamers?

When was the last time you looked at your writing rig? Is there one piece of your tech (hardware or software) that helps make you more productive? Share it with us in the comments!

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her brand new classroom where she teaches social media, organization skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image by Deleyna via Midjourney.

by Leon Conrad

How long should a piece of writing be?

There is a huge range of opportunities for writers to explore between the towering masterpiece that is War and Peace and a condensed microfiction six-word story.

But what makes a piece of writing of any length work? Often it is not so much the length of a piece, but the underlying story that matters. More precisely, it is the link between the form and content that makes a piece of any length feel not too long; not too short; just right.

The story so far

In an earlier ‘Writers in the Storm’ blog post which explored the Deep Structure of Story, I outlined very briefly how story structures can be mapped using a set of six simple visually intuitive symbols. Two common patterns can be found at the heart of story. These follow the natural ebb and flow of story, at a level of story structure. They also show how sequences of events can expand and contract:

Mapping the Heartbeat of Story

Handled well, expansions of ‘backward steps’ can increase tension; expansions of ‘forward steps’ can release tension:

For instance: ‘She left it all’—which could be mapped as a single backward step—could be expanded to a series of them: ‘She left her house, her spouse, her wife, her child behind her.’

Alternatively, ‘The dragon took off, soaring higher and higher into the air, way past the cloudy sphere, until cloud-wrapped Noosa was a tiny speck beneath her’—which could be mapped as series of forward steps—could be condensed to: ‘The dragon soared high, high, high above the clouds’, or even further to: ‘The dragon soared high above the clouds’.

Similarly, sequences of different step types can expand and contract as follows. The combinations of forward and backward steps can make the task of keeping things varied and interesting much easier for writers:

For example:

The Heartbeat of Story

Just like a living being, a story needs a healthy pulse rate appropriate to the function it is performing. This can be traced both in the underlying sequence of events that can be mapped in a character’s story line, and in the way in which the story is told, at the level of plot patterning.

Short time, long telling: easy

Long time, short telling: challenging

As outlined above, by visualising how steps expand and contract, we cannot only visualise the tightening or loosening of tension, but because the symbols are visually intuitive, we can embody the ebb and flow of tension and use that to inform the way we shape and tell the stories that want to be told through us.

By doing that, we have a better chance of staying true to the heartbeat of story without losing quality and without introducing unnecessary waffle. Moreover, when condensing a story, we can heighten tension, craft blurbs more easily, and come up with great film poster taglines or elevator pitches for the ideas we are working on or the projects we are pitching.

Try Your Hand at Expansion

The 1:3 expansions described in the example above which mapped condensed and expanded versions of the wolf’s exit from his house in order to find food are pretty common. This is not the only way in which a ‘backward-forward’ sequence can expand, however.

Where we start with a strong inciting incident, and the second step expands in a sequence of three consecutive moves, we end up with a Call and Response structure (Variation 1).

The barbed blade pierced his side. He grabbed the masked assailant’s hand to stop the advance, knowing that if it twisted, or retreated, he would die before he could complete his mission. He gripped harder, his left hand reaching for the cold steel stiletto which lay hidden in the lining of the left leg of his combat pants. In one swift move, he drew it out, thrust, twisted, and slashed, only releasing the attacker’s hand once he was sure they were dead. Making sure to keep the barbed blade in place, he stepped over the blood-smeared body, heading for the door, knowing he would have to make up for lost time somehow, ‘… if I even make it,’ he winced.

The sequence is mapped visually as follows:

Alternatively, a series of three negative steps can lead to a ‘1,2,3, Bang!’ sequence, which I describe as the Call and Response (Variation 2) structure:

You will probably be familiar with Hemingway’s six-word story:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

The back story that unfolded in my imagination started out with an expectant couple, a baby shower, the loss, and the placement of the advert. The account was internally inconsistent, though. A standard baby shower would involve quite a few gifts. What happened to the others? Why the need to dispose of a single pair of baby shoes? I engaged with story structure and the back story found its way from the weaker form above, to a stronger sequence of at least two Call and Response (Variation 2) structures.

The expectant unmarried couple, estranged from their families, conceive, and decide to go ahead with the pregnancy. However, they lose the child. On their return from the hospital, the arrive home to find a package waiting for them. They recognise the writing as being from her parents. They open it and find a pair of baby shoes inside, no note: a peace offering. Overcome with grief, they take a ‘too little, too late’ attitude, and put the shoes up for sale. The story is left open-ended at this point.

The patterns work. But they are not set in stone. The patterns are adaptable, variable. They are open to a variety of treatments. The closer these follow the natural ebb and flow of story structure, the more successful they are likely to be. Rules created by humans are made to be broken. The underlying rules that story follows go deeper. We break them at our peril.

Try Your Hand at Condensation

You can see how the longer story above was condensed into a poignant six-word telling. The taglines on film posters often follow a Transformation structure: ‘Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free’ (The Shawshank Redemption). ‘Fifty million people watched, but no one saw a thing.’ (Quiz Show). Sometimes, they follow a triple unfolding structure: ‘Lake Placid: part mystery, part thriller, parts missing’. The large accompanying image of a huge, toothed monster about to devour a helpless swimmer completes the sequence. ‘Five criminals. One line up. No coincidence.’ (The Usual Suspects).

The visuals play an important part in the framing of the story, but what original back stories you could derive from these condensed lines by imagining a different visual? Use the approach to come up with original taglines for folk tales or stories you are familiar with.

Start with a Quest structure story, one of the 16 linear structures outlined in Story and Structure. Condense the sequences of events in a 3:1 pattern to generate blurbs and elevator pitches, but also to spark ideas for choruses for song lyrics, to inspire poems, and to create micro fiction that works.

Have you expanded or condensed your stories? What are your experiences?

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About Leon

Leon Conrad was born in London, UK, to a Polish father and Coptic Egyptian mother. He moved to Alexandria at age 6, and grew up in a multilingual environment there, among the souks and bazaars of Egypt. He is currently based out of London.

As a writer, Leon sees the written word as sound on the page. Why else do we call nouns and verbs 'parts of speech'? He has written plays, and have published articles, poetry, and books.

As an editor, he offers in-depth proofreading, editing and review of manuscripts, focusing on a work’s structure, the reader’s journey, the narrative presentation, the style of a work, the sound, rhythm, musicality and the flow of a piece of writing.

Find out about his various projects, awards, and services at his website: LeonConrad.com.

Top Photo by Tan Kaninthanond on Unsplash