I like to draw a little, though I don't do it much anymore. Diving into the weird world of product merchandizing, I've learned that having art for your books is a good idea. If you can put that art on a t-shirt, even better!
Since I'm not a professional artist, just a hobbyist, I've watched a couple of instructional videos from professionals for pointers. I stumbled on something called "Shape Language." Have you heard of it?
Here is a great and easy little worksheet explaining shape language, done by the Walt Disney Family Museum. But it basically means that the basic shapes we see in a picture can convey some basic meaning to us, without the use of words.
Without words?!?!? That's my territory you're creeping onto art!
When we see a lot of rounded edges and circles, we intuitively think of innocence, cuteness, and flexibility or gullibility. When we see squares, we think of sturdiness and stubbornness. When we see triangles and points, we think of craftiness, intelligence and maybe some unpredictability. Disney, as you might have guessed, is great at using this in their characters. In the movie, Aladdin, Jafar is very pointy and full of triangles. When he first comes on the scene, you immediately distrust him! But, Aladdin also has some triangles, and we all believe that he is crafty and intelligent. It's part of why we believe that he can get away with marrying a princess! The sultan is very rounded and circular, and we all know how gullible and innocent he is, a fact that plays heavily into the plotline of the story.
Why are we talking about this, you might ask?
How can we apply this to our writing? One of the popular tenets of writing good fiction is to say as much as possible in as few words as possible. Every word needs to be loaded with meaning. Stephen King says your first draft usually has about 20% that needs to be cut completely. I've heard other writers say they have to cut much more. It's part of why editing can be such a brutal process, because we writers are often a little in love with our own words! We don't want to cut any of it!
And why? Why do we do this? The short answer is...TV. If you read almost any popular novel written before televisions were a common household item, you will likely immediately notice all the words! Many of todays readers struggle with Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and certainly the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien (really, Mr. Tolkien? A whole paragraph about how green the grass is?)!
But then along came television. It considerably picked up the pace for any story format. Instead of reading something like:
There was a knock at the door. I walked across the room and turned the doorknob. I pulled open the door to find my neighbor on the front porch.
Modern readers find that difficult to stick with. We gloss over words, and potentially, miss something. Now, readers want something like:
Knock, knock.
My neighbor was on the porch.
We, as readers, can imagine the little trek through the house and what it looks like to open a door, without it being described to us.
Can shape language help us have this same economy of words when it comes to describing our characters?
I, personally, am a less is more kind of writer when it comes to character descriptions. Some authors have a very specific face in mind when they create their characters, and they spend time describing that specific face to their readers. I don't do that. I pick up a few traits for a reader to latch onto, then let them imagine the rest to their preference.
I'm going to tell on myself further, and tell you that one of my weaknesses is that all of my characters, if I'm not paying attention, will be tall and thin. I guess I imagine a world full of tall, thin and unnaturally attractive people, like you sometimes find in comic books and TV. In Rabbit-trapped, I intentionally described Neveah as short. In The Thrown-Away Son, I tried to imply that Alicia was not as petite as "other girls," and her cousin, Tyler is short. Some diversity should be in our writing, in race, gender and body types.
But what if we could use shape language to give more?
If we describe our main character as square-jawed, do we automatically think that character is reliable and maybe stubborn? If we describe a girl with a heart-shaped face, or round eyes, do we instinctively believe she will be more innocent or gullible?
And, maybe even more importantly, what other tools from disciplines other than writing can we use to improve the words we put on the page. We don't live in a void of words only. We live in a time full of sound and images. How can those disciplines inform the text we add to it?
I love writing. It's obviously something I'm passionate about. But we can't, for a second, imagine that is all there is influencing our readers if we want to be successful. Is it not better to engage these other aspects common to our reader's lives, and find the best ways to let that influence our writing?
The next time you're reading something, pay attention to character descriptions. Are there mentions of shapes? How does that make you feel about that character? And even better, the next time you're writing, experiment with shapes. See for yourself how manipulating these details can change the perception of your characters and settings.