Welcome back, everyone!
This will be much shorter than the first exercise, but just as important. In my opinion, it is very hard to describe clothes in an effective way. You want to describe the clothes thoroughly, but you also don't want to bore your reader with a whole page on some girl's crop top.
The fancier the clothes your characters are wearing (also in my opinion), the easier it is to describe them. This is because you can go more into detail describing your protagonist's ballgown without sounding like you're just trying to fill in the space of your story than when describing your character's hoodie and sweatpants.
Let's try a couple different outfits, shall we? Comment your entry next to the piece of clothing you're describing.
Round 1.1: a princess gown of any color/style on a gender of your choice. (Your entry goes here!)
My entry:
The lavender silk of her gown flowed down from her shoulders like a waterfall, expanding in wavy ruffles at her waist.
Round 1.2: a suit of any color/style on a gender of your choice. (Your entry, once again, goes here!)
My entry:
His well-tailored mint green suit hugged his bony arms and poked out at the back of his waist like a cute little duck tail.
Those were some pretty classy clothes, but now it's time to move on to more casual articles of fashion. Shall we?
Here's some advice: unless your character's outfit is benefitting the plot somehow, you really don't need to spend a page- or even a paragraph!- describing what they're wearing. Here are some scenarios where it is a GOOD idea to describe your character's outfit...
(source: https://allwritealright.com/tricks-for-describing-a-characters-appearance-with-examples/)
-An article of clothing might have special significance to a character. It could have been handed down from a relative, it could be a favorite shirt, or it could be meaningful in other ways. That would merit drawing more attention to it.
-An article of clothing might have special significance to the story. This could be a type of ceremonial outfit, a piece of magical armor, or something along those lines. That would require a more thorough in-depth description of the item.
-An article of clothing may be unfamiliar to most of your readers, such as a specific cultural outfit or an unusual costume, in which case a descriptive explanation could help illustrate what it looks like.
-A particular outfit could draw attention to a character, such as an attractive or surprising outfit, that could merit taking more time to describe it (and explain why it garners the character extra attention).
To restate the last bullet, it is a good idea to describe an outfit when it is an attractive outfit. You could interpret that in a couple ways, but I see attractive in this context as a synonym for fancy. And besides, I like a book with a good wardrobe to offer, don't you?
Now! Without further ado...
Round 2.1: an outfit that isn't important to the plot or character and isn't unusual in any way.
My entry:
That was a trick question. You shouldn't be describing the outfit, let alone attaching a picture of the outfit to your story, at all. Of course, this is one opinion out of millions of readers, but when writers describe an unimportant outfit with more than five words I get the urge to pull my hair out.
I hope you learned something from this chapter today. See you in the next one!
STAI LEGGENDO
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