Today is day two of the Guess That Character Blogfest hosted by Jen of Unedited. Yesterday you guessed what my character looked like according to her voice. Now I’ll give you a photo and a short description of Liza to see if you were right. The photo is from Paloma in Flight on flickr.
Liza from Her Daughter:
Long brown hair, deep brown eyes, slender and short (I kind of gave that one away). The dress in this photo almost matches the wedding dress. I imagined Elizabeth’s dress from the Pride and Prejudice ball at Netherfield (the movie with Keira Knightley as Elizabeth).
She is timid, especially when it comes to her mother, but she has her reasons. And she is very much in love with her college sweetheart, John.
Talli Roland was right on.
Nicole Murray had her personality down.
Steph Sinkhorn pinpointed her style and the fact that she smiles because she’s in love.
Now my question is: what do we take from this? Is my voice not strong enough, or are people reading the character the way they want to read? Obviously you can’t get a complete picture of who she is without the rest of the book. So what do I do with this information? Anybody have any ideas?
Hi,
Re: What do we take from this?
It’s a case of the devil and the deep blue sea: one can either describe one’s characters or allow readers to let their imaginations run riot. The plain fact being, that even if it is stated a female character is twenty/thirty something has long dark hair, dark brown eyes, cute mouth and beautiful face, several film stars will come to mind: Keira Knightly, Katherine Zeta Jones, Angelina Jolie, Penelope Cruz – whomever one might favour!
best
F
This is great. I love the dress too. I guessed so many characters yesterday I can’t even remember my guess. 🙂 Love this!
NICE choice! This has been the greatest blogfest EVER!
I didn’t get a chance to read yours yesterday – so I read it today. Interesting scene. I of course pictured her short and petite with shoulder length hair and blue eyes.
Don’t read too much into what people guessed. Even if you have all the details down for what she looks like – people still imagine themselves when they like a character.
Re: I don’t know. I was wondering the same thing. A lot of people got my character which makes me wonder. Am I too predictable? Or am I a good writer. I don’t know that we’ll figure that out from the blogfest yet, but it might give us some clues on how to improve. At least, that’s my hope.
I love your character I think I miss-shot a bit of the description, but the dress is really close to what I pictured. 🙂
very sweet and innocent, I like it… pictures say so much about our characters. I really like this one for yours.
another wrong one!
i think the snippets are too short to really come up with accurate images… that said i think the diversity imagined is a beautiful thing… the reflection of varied minds.
I love this picture. It’s definitely Liza.
(And I love that dress in P&P. Come to that, I love the whole movie.)
I agree with Francine: imaginations are unpredictable and uncontrollable. I even have serious discrepancies between the Harry Potter in my mind and the Harry Potter than Daniel Radcliffe plays. So, I think we do what we can, and let go of the rest.
I think most readers will see someone different no matter how detailed a snippet is or how strong the voice – that’s part of the beauty of the written word, we all make it our own.
Have a great weekend!
Image is in the mind of the beholder, but I figure with more of the story to go on your readers will get a better picture of your character. I think it’s important to suggest it right off in the first pages. That’s what this exercise has taught me, anyway.
Your character is great! Love your premise. 😀
I think you’re doing just fine 🙂 I got the sense of her personality and style from just that little segment, and physical appearance is always going to be subjective. The fact that I got as much about her as I did tells me you’re on the right track.
I love her!!! She’s fantastic! I can now picture her perfectly in the piece you wrote yesterday!
I don’t think it says anything about your writing. As a reader I take what you give me and make my own impression. If you tell me she has red hair but her personality fits what I would think a blonde would have I make her blonde, it’s just how I roll, every reader is different.
Thank you so much for joining in the blog fest! You helped make it a huge success!!!
I like your version of her looks much better. She looks so sweet. You will definitely want to root for her.
She’s very pretty. The photo is perfect. I pictured similar but with curly hair.
It’s really impossible to guess from a short snippet with no description. But that’s half the fun. We all draw pictures in our minds.
Our bad guesses are no reflection on your writing:)
Oh I love Elizabeths dress, actually I love all things Jane Austen.
Great pic, alas I missed the mark in my guess but I agree with what alot of folks have said here. Everyone has an idea of what the character is like, even if you describe someone, its subjective to the readers. And thats a good thing! I think. 😉
Aw, that pic totally fits the character! I agree: it doesn’t much matter how people see your character, as long as they can connect with her on some level. I don’t need a picture in my mind of what the character looks like exactly, but I do like knowing her voice and her personality.
I agree, this picture is a perfect fit for your character! Great entry!
Oh I was way off with Reese Witherspoon! But I love the picture you gave us. I esp. liked the fact that the girl is reading in tall grass with a pretty dress on – almost as if she’s hiding or waiting for someone! 🙂