Improving Google Rankings With Keywords And Content, Tips On How To Make An Essay More Engaging, A fantasy writers guide to weaponry Richie Billing, A fantasy writers guide to Castles and Keeps: part one Richie Billing, The Life of the Medieval Lord - Richie Billing, How To Create Your Very Own Living Breathing Fantasy World - Richie Billing, Fantasy Races - The Ultimate Guide To Elves, Orcs and Dwarves | Richie Billing, Killer Diseases of the Middle Ages | Richie Billing, Medieval Cannons: The Essential Guide | Richie Billing, On Writing: Fantasy Without Magic Of Metal and Magic Publishing, The Lives Of Medieval Peasants - Richie Billing, Fantasy Weapons - Medieval, Magic And Other Types - Richie Billing, Great Examples Of The 5 Senses In Writing, 5 Mistakes Men Can Make Writing Women Characters, The Power of Words: Essay Writing Techniques, Mastering Body Language With Former FBI Agent Joe Navarro, A Lawyer's Perspective On Writing Fantasy, Do you want to grow your mailing list, check out. - Christine, on How to describe clothing in a story (with examples), 8 story hook examples (how to grab attention), Story structure examples: How to create payoffs for readers, How to describe to immerse readers (complete guide), How to write deep POV: 8 tips and examples, 9 exposition examples: How to write clear introductions, How to make a plot captivating: 7 strategies, Writing great characters: 5 lessons from modern novels. Nylon and polyester fabrics weren't invented until almost the mid 20th century for example. (Cough-cough-cough.) In some cases because they simply didn't have the technology for it, in others because it was too expensive and/or time consuming for the average person. What does your character wear to feel safer in their world or in their own skin? Id be willing to bet each of these items immediately brought to mind a semi-clear character. For example, a shy person will often wear 'regular' clothing, clothing that isn't too bright or outgoing in both design and colors. Fashion photographer Bill Cunningham said, Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. Try applying this philosophy to clothing descriptions in your writing and see what happens. (Has denim been invented yet? Each lesson breaks down the analysis of one component of a fashion collection, progressing from a consideration of the designer's technique and influences to the . They looked something like this: One of the main defensive strengths of plated armor came from its curved design, which deflected both blades and arrows. Share. Read these tips on how (and why) to describe clothes with examples from well-known novels: 1: Use clothing to show status and position 2: Build (or thwart) character expectations with clothing descriptions 3: Describe clothing to contrast characters' personalities 4: Show clothing to avoid over-relying on telling Instead of saying, for example I saw that the station gate was coming down and the last train was about to leave, you could say The station gate is already screeching closed. Which of these clothing types is your character most likely to reach for when starting their day? Theyll see it automatically. And its in designs that you can really go wild with your own fantasy armor. This is further influenced/confirmed by the show Forged in Fire where the judges were a half step from putting their heads in their hands when a smith put his hot blade in water instead of oil to cool it down. As with body armor, great efforts were made with the designs of helmets. I don't mean make your characters walk around naked, but exposing (or covering) body parts in ways we don't today helps make ordinary clothing look different, which in turn helps sell the idea of it being futuristic. Do not describe a character's clothing except as that point of view character would do so. Once quenched, the steel was re-heated to make it more resilient. What are the rules of your characters world? But even regular elements can help with this. ). This can be a very effective way if your universe is based on an existing culture. These elements are very important when taking into account the previous point. It illustrates brilliantly the differences between fantasy armor and the boring armor of reality, in this case, Gothic armor. Think armor, bulletproof vests, and bandoliers. Fancy dresses. Clothing description is something I have to actively choose to create, too. The time period of your story. As well see below, medieval armor developed through necessitypeople needed to protect themselves from those wicked blades and needle-sharp darts. A scarf for example might be too hot for some areas, but it's obviously easy to leave those out. We'll also take a look at female fantasy armor and those used by knights, potential designs, and ways to help you find inspiration for creating your own. Perhaps its because the genre was born out of stories that emerged from the Middle Ages like Beowulf and King Arthur (around the 10th-11th century). Troubles with Clothing in Fantasy + Some Ideas - Brielle Andela His pants are simple and narrow and reach down to his hard leather shoes. A self-conscious kid tries to disappear inside their oversized sweatshirt. Your articles are always very informative. Obviously clothing is extremely varied, especially dresses. But it makes a good story. Which brings me to my next point. The Victorian author Charles Dickens is widely regarded as a master of characterization, for good reason. - 'Stealth'. To create a more futuristic looking style an easy way of doing it is to incorporate technology into the clothing itself. When you use clothing to define who your character is, remember that it can also clarify how they feel about themselves and how they fit into the world around them. Its hard to really appreciate just how sickeningly awful medieval warfare would have been. One specific form of descriptive writing that particularly affects setting and characterization is the portrayal of characters' clothing. Instead of a nobleman being described as wearing red silk slippers, parachute pants, a bejeweled cloth belt, a flowing blouse and an ascot; you can simply describe him as wear very fancy and extravagant clothing befitting his high status in society. Like Marquez, compare and contrast characters clothes to reveal important details about their social status or position. And what does she put that cap on for? Examples of the latter are The Fifth Element and The Hunger Games. One way to deal with clothing is to not try to be unique. For instance, if I'm reading a story and the narrative mentions jeans right off, I'm thinking mid twentieth century or later (while dungarees would be late nineteenth . In Gabriel Garcia Marquezs Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), we learn of a doctors status through his being the only person at an event who is not smartly dressed: Although it was not customary for invitations to request special attire, least of all for a luncheon in the country, the women wore evening gowns and precious jewels and most of the men were dressed in dinner jackets with black ties, and some even wore frock coats. These images all go a lot further than white socks, green dress, and most of them dont require a lot of extra words. Other elements you could include are mood-based changes (exists today), clothing that uses lights or glowing elements (exists today), clothing that can be repaired or changed on the go (exists today), smart technology woven into the fabric of clothing (exists today), changing colors (think chameleons) whenever you feel like it (exists today, kind of). Are they overalls or coveralls? Affordable . Fashionably elegant and sophisticated. A velvet scrunchie. How to Describe Clothing in a Story (with Examples) | Now Novel As a friend told me, Wear jeans and glasses and have a favorite pen. I'll make a separate point for sci-fi/futuristic clothing and fantasy/historic clothing. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. They also wear talismans, jewelry, and other objects. In other words: To describe a fantasy world, use either neutral terms, or made up words. As time marched on, small plates of leather or iron were added to the mail to protect key areas, such as vital organs. Something like this: As you can see, a knights armor is made up of a lot of different pieces. Will using real-world cultural vocabulary in a fantasy setting Black and white usually does the trick as well. Thanks, Sana. Finally there's the aspect of fashion to take into account. Maybe a bracelet represents a character's relationship to her mother. 100 Male Fantasy Outfit Concepts & Designs ideas | fantasy clothing Fashion trends come and go and they often return later, albeit in a slightly different form. Like Borges would say, Community . Make it mandatory to hold up a piece of clothing. In battle, you are trying to strike a moving target, so mail was sufficient as most blows were glancing ones. First and foremost, remember that clothing description is still storytelling. First and foremost we need to know who we're designing for. We all love a character with a cool set of fantasy armor: the baresark Rek from David Gemmells Legend with his enchanted coat of bronze, or Tomas from Raymond Feists Riftwar Cycle with his gleaming white dragon plate which gifted him incredible power. Or at least they know what century theyre in. My story feels like its set more in medieval times, but I don't want my characters running around in full out tunics and. Which is to say, if you write from the point of view of a character who thinks of clothing only in terms of the simplest descriptors, that's just fine. In battle, you are trying to strike a moving target, so mail was sufficient as most blows were glancing ones. And well dip back in time to look at medieval armor and how it was used and crafted. Both can lose clout simply by the way their peers respond to their wardrobe choices. No problem! All cultures have dress codes to some degree, some more so than others and some more stricter than others, but every culture has a range of styles that would be considered normal, 'out there' and unacceptable to most. Thanks I will be following your blog from now one I just came across it today. Do they need a ghillie suit to blend into the natural environment? Most picture the knight when we talk about plated armorrigid tin men that can withstand all manner of blows. Its fun to play with power in clothing, because it's a relative concept. They could withstand high-velocity strikes from a javelin or lance, driven home by somebody charging forwards on horseback. As a quick question, in film you see a lot of heroes and leaders not wearing helmets. And of course, location provides a clue for what it takes to be comfortable in the world of your story. 80s-inspired. Using a squared, pixelated look or circuitry patterns usually works great too, which can even be combined with layered clothing to create the circuitry feel. Pingback: A fantasy writers guide to Castles and Keeps: part one Richie Billing. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts A simple t-shirt could be cut diagonally in the front, give both shoulder parts a different style from the arms, elongate one side and so on. Use fashion and clothing history archives if necessary. Now on the other end of the spectrum we have fantasy clothing and more history based clothing. "He was wearing a spandex tank top" is an improvement from just mentioning that your character's wearing a shirt; but consider adding the element of color: "He was wearing a black-and-yellow-striped spandex tank top.". Maybe your character heads out on the town wearing a daring leopard print jumpsuit, only to have their best friend immediately ask where they got the kitty costume.. Because like all other character details, its not enough to paint a picture. s a fantastic image that Thomas Feichtmeir, AKA Cyangmou has put together. Which was, indeed, a little weird straight off! To navigate your way through this guide, just click the links below. How to describe scenery ? : r/fantasywriters - reddit.com The novels protagonist Rodion gives Katerina the last of his money to host a funeral. An owl, a real owl! - Gadgets, hair styles and accessories. I dont mean camisoles and cardigans. Or they could be frantically running errands in leggings and a t-shirt. The fact the clothes seem to stand by themselves indicates just how heavy they are with jewels and embroidery. Medieval clothing description generator - Fantasy name generators For example, if a character is going on a date, you could write: Gem wanted to look sexy for her date downtown (but not easy), so she changed into more comfortable clothes. You find that its about more than throwing out fashion terms and listing articles of clothing. She also writes for film and television with her brother and writing partner, Phil Wurdeman. Particularly in genres such as historical fiction and fantasy, clothing can help to create other worlds (or a long gone era of our own). These shallow details help us go pretty deep on character. Can you imagine tweaking this to make your own set of fantasy armor? The fact Gem goes with jeans and a tee could suggest that she trusts her aunts advice. Wearing a suit of armor was like being in your own private world. The complete opposite is true for fantasy and historic clothing. Achieving glory in battle was one way of earning a knighthood. The tragedy of Azincourt, for example, occurred because of a poorly-chosen battleground that had flooded. What your character wears can tell us a lot about how they feel or how they want to feel. The aim is to arm you with what you need to enrich your tales with brilliant detail. This is mostly something to keep in mind when designing for characters living in the future, but it could work for alternative historic universes as well. As far as guidelines go this is the first to be broken though, consider this one more of a starting point rather than something to necessarily end on. Im struggling to properly figure out how to describe clothing for a fantasy setting Im trying to create. An anxious college student buys a flower crown in the hopes of feeling young and free at Coachella. The bully Gradgrind is the type whod wear a waistcoat concealing an eyeglass for catching people out. List of Medieval Clothing (91 terms!) - The Medieverse: Tim's Realistic A knight, by definition, was a lord. Clothing creation guide - Roll for Fantasy Your email address will not be published. Stealthy clothes bring to mind burglars clad in black outfits and soft-soled sneakers. (Hopefully, I dont really know your life, so maybe not. How do they change, and how does their clothing reflect that change? Shoes made with bendable displays already exist, allowing you to change your shoe's design on the fly. You can use visual description to make a character more vivid in the readers minds eye. But the definition of sneaky depends on your characters situation. It would have been extremely warm too. Fantasy Armor - The Ultimate Guide - Richie Billing I sincerely hope youve found some inspiration for your fantasy medieval armor. Similarly, find out (or, if youre creating a fantasy world, create) the garments your characters would wear in a particular time and place. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Great article. A four-layer, bubble-gum pink taffeta skirt. The geographical setting might suggest that your characters are expected to abide by strict rules for modesty or are celebrated for being wild and free. This pride, though justifiable, displeased Katerina Ivanovna for some reason. What your character wears reveals where they come from, how they rank in society, how they want to be perceived, and even how they feel about themselves. Similarly, show how different characters personalities are through apt clothing description. Glasses, headsets, lenses, jewelry, belts and so on can all help sell the futuristic look. Such simple things, but the clothes really helped show Jesus plight. Like Dostoyevsky, think how something as small as a characters change of clothing can affecttheir own or others behaviour. Creating new clothing styles for fictional worlds can be a daunting task, there's just so much out there already and so many elements to play around with to create a fun and unique style, no matter whether the art form is visual or not. Characters can also comment on or react to one anothers clothing, as long as the exchange reveals something about the world or relationship. Does your character need to hide? Only when youre keeping secrets in fiction, you can make them even darker and deeper than any you might ever have in real life. Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. The clothing itself can be just standard medieval gear, but with these elements they immediately look (wood) elvish. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7bbcc198c936bc1af3fbda128514c44fcfc10f0513ea31cad7c21ae61ba0ab0.jpg. It can genuinely be tough to come up with cool ideas for epic fantasy armor without drifting back to things that weve seen in the likes of Dungeons and Dragons, The Elder Scrolls and movies like Lord of the Rings. It gives you an idea of the capabilities that armor can have. Describing clothes? : r/writing - reddit show how hard is to escape in a narrow street. So here are some more ways to alter a design while sticking with familiarity and a more historic feel: Abi Wurdeman is the author of Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood, as well as the novella, Holiday Gifts for Insufferable People. Well come to this below. This is often enough to make something look more futuristic, especially if used on something that looks glossy, shiny and/or smooth. Helmets were arguably the most distinctive feature of an armored knight. Whether its a beekeeping suit, climbing helmet, knee pads, or sun-protective fabric, what your character wears provides a clue about whats at stake in the coming scene. As knights became fully armored, so did their mounts. Characters wear more than just clothes. Thanks Liv, Im glad you found this helpful. Mention the familiar swooshing of the neighbors tracksuit as he runs by the house every morning or how the aunts jacket always smells like cold air and pine needles. Figurative language . Here are five examples: 1. Thats a good example of using clothing to reinforce the narrative of a characters arc. 04. In the historical fiction books Ive read, none of the heroes took off their helmets unless they were knocked off, or bashed in. Richie Billing writes fantasy fiction, historical fiction and stories of a darker nature. What also worries me is that in Chapter 3 I used a lot of descriptions of the house, like the main characters room and then I had him go to various other rooms, looked at pictures of his family he has yet to meet so chapter 3 had the least story development or social scenes but the ones it had were good ones and I ended it with a scene that creates more development and story hype. 50+ Fashion Terms: Fundamental Words Related to Style These aren't the only elements either, pretty much every part of clothing changes with the times and depend heavily upon what's fashionable at the time. So its unsurprising to see soldiers wielding swords and axes and shooting bows. Thank you for reading our blog! Or theyll be living off soda crackers and peanut butter for the next week because they drained their checking account for a suit to impress at their job interview. When describing clothing in writing, consider: You can also use this aspect of clothing description to paint a vivid picture of the world you imagined. Metallic works well too, but make sure any metal bits or metallic looking bits are smooth and clean looking too, otherwise it might look too historic. Each suit was tailored to the individual. A few easy changes are to make one side longer than the other, so basically creating a diagonal cut instead of the standard horizontal one. Leather could be stitched into coats, or added to mail to provide added protection. Nudity was often either a complete taboo or just common place in many cultures throughout history, so by changing these taboos (and others) you immediately create a fictional piece. How to Give Your Characters Style: Describing Clothing in Writing Once blue, it is quenched a second time, permanently fixing its hardness. Hi Paige, thank you (and thanks for your question). Vividly describing the colors of your character's clothing can enliven ordinary writing. These small but mighty players can add depth, complexity, and a fresh perspective to your plot. Costume is a large part of a character. And as a reader, nothing bores me like an entire paragraph of detailed clothing description. Clothing description in a story is useful because it often gives additional information about a character that you might otherwise tell.
Can You Take A Lighter On A Plane Qantas,
How To Measure Pleat Size Of Cellular Shades,
Fresh Prince Of Bel Air Reboot Release Date,
Perceptual Regions Examples,
Jonathan Barnett Oxi Fresh Net Worth,
Articles H