Dear Fanfiction Authors,



Appearance can be an important part of setting up your character. It affects other characters’ reactions to her, as well as readers’ opinions. However, establishing character’s appearance needs more work that it might seem. Just writing a paragraph describing her from head to toe, including elaborate explanation of clothes and a few poetic metaphors to “enhance” her beauty, is not enough – as a matter of fact, it’s best avoided.



A second important point would be clothes. Appropriate clothes, that is. Appropriate to what, you ask? It depends on the story setting. In modern day, it will be the occasion. In the past, appropriate to the period – and I saw many fail here. But that’s the easy part. When you are writing in an alternate universe, like science or epic fiction (fantasy), you have only what author wrote to base her clothing on.



This blog should cover some of the basics of characterisation, description, appeal and clothing.



However, I admit that these topics might be a bit advanced. If you are new to the fanfiction and still struggling with terms like “Mary Sue” and “flames”, you might want to start with basics on MackenzieW’s “Fanfiction for dummies”.



Sincerely Yours,

Helen