Difference between revisions of "Monster Writing Guide: Page 1"

Revision as of 23:52, 21 November 2012

A general guideline on how to write the descriptions.

Imagine a creature. We shall not talk about what this creature is named, or how it behaves. That does not quite matter yet. No, we will be talking about what this creature looks like.

"This creature has feathers on its head, and a beak, and avian eyes."

No errors there, no mistakes. But. Would you have been able to imagine the creature? Perhaps. Roughly. You'd definitely get the image of a bird's head popping up in your brain. But most importantly: Is it the same birdhead that the writer of the creature intended you to see? Probably not. It is way too vague. And that is a problem.

So, when writing monsters, here is the first, most important general rule:

Write the creature so that people looking at it, not knowing its name, see (almost) the same image in their head as you do.

It's a simple rule, but it is one that many writers do not think about. Which is natural; The writer has the image of the critter in their head, they write a description, and upon reading it, they naturally think of the image they had in their head in the first place as it's still sitting there.

So do this: After writing the description, take a break. Forget all about the creature's image you were thinking of. Distract yourself. Later, just read the description, and simply using it paint an image in your mind. Now compare it. Is it the same creature? Actually actively try to imagine the creature differently from your original idea, as far as the description allows you to. Is it still recognizable as the same creature you imagined? If not, your description is way too vague. The more your description allows people to imagine the creature differently than your original idea, the more it lacks detail.

"The creature's head is sleek and elegantly avian. A long, black and slightly curved beak protudes from its face. It's a dark coal in color, and solid enough to deliver hard blows, the tip coming to a pointy, slightly downward turned end. The black feathers that cover the head are subtly shiny in their blackness, depending on how the light falls on them. They are short, but frame the head closely an densly, flowing backwards elegantly around the creature's equally dark eyes."

Chances are, you just imagined a crow or raven head. All by adding details, 'fluff' to the same creature's description.

So, again: The less wiggle room the description leaves other player's imagination to be different from the image you had in your head when you were imagining the creature, the better. Do not let this drive you into being overdetailed. You don't need to specify exact lengths, nor exact amounts, or ten words to describe the color. In the end it does not matter if the raven, that people are imagining, is 7 feet or 7 feet and 2 inches, or has a little more or less feathers or muscles in their mind. But they should imagine that raven, with its cold, cunning expression and those wicked, curved and nasty talons.

Page 1 - General description guideline

Page 2 - Repeats Are Annoying

Page 3 - The Hills Have Eyes; Your Arms Don't.

Page 4 - Victory Messages

Page 5 - Keeping Things Interesting

Page 6 - Victory do's and dont's

Page 7 - Closing Words