RWT: Getting Your Character OUT of Your Head and in Front of Your Eyes (No artistic ability required!!!)

(RWT stands for Random Writing Tip, something I hope to post about pretty regularly as I come across shortcuts and advice that make my writing life easier)

One of the things I often struggle with while creating characters is crafting a clear mental image of how I want them to look. Even though I might remember my male lead has blonde hair, green eyes, and is kind of short, the rest of how I imagine him is a little fuzzy aside from the odd detail here and there (like the fact that he tends to be barefoot). Now I know some of you more talented people out there are thinking why don't you just DRAW your characters? Well that would be a fantastic idea if I could manage more than a stick figure. So for those of you who are like me and about as far from Da Vinci as you can get, I recently stumbled across a SUPER helpful solution that makes my writing life a hundred times easier. You're going to think I'm crazy but just stay with me for a second. I've got four words for you: Online Dress Up Games.

Now I know what you're thinking. That's dumb. Those are for kids. Etc. Etc. But seriously, I have not come across a better way to take my mental image of a character and make it into something tangible that I can look at with my eyes IN REAL LIFE. There are a lot of lame dress up games out there, but if you find a good site, there are literally millions of options to choose from. Is your character a mermaid? Cool, go find a mermaid dress up game where you can customize everything from their outfit, to their facial features, to the scale patterns on their tale. Trust me, these games exist and some of them are really, really well done. And there are games for just about any type of character you can come up with. Witches, Angels, Vampires, Fairies, Hobbits, you name it. Of course there are also sites to dress up historically accurate characters or ones to design wedding dresses and such, but since we're all fantasy people here, that's what I'm going to focus on.

Ok, so you've scoured the internet and found a game that gets SUPER close to how you imagine your character, except for a few little things that your OCD just can't ignore. I get it. The game might not have the EXACT shade of green for your character's skin, or maybe it offers claws but not the luscious eyebrows your character simply MUST have. Well I found a solution for that too. With my character, it was the inclusion of scars. Everything about my character was perfect, except there was no option on the game to add scars. So...I printed it out. Almost every online dress up game in existence has a place for you to save and print your creation. This makes it super easy to hand-color any part of them with whatever perfect shade isn't in the game. It also lets you add in some easier details like scars (yes I can manage to draw scars at least), or a tail, or a third eye if you're feeling adventurous.

This exercise not only helps me get to know my character better since the game asks you to choose things that I'd never even think of (like the shape of my character's chin), it also serves as a helpful reference when you can't remember off the top of your head what your character is wearing, or whether you gave them fangs or a full set of canines. I always save my online creations and keep them nearby while writing for exactly this purpose, and I can't tell you what a time saver it's been.

So is this method crazy and a little childish? Yes. Yes it is. But it WORKS. Well, at least for me it does. Give it a try and tell me how it goes. Let me know if you have any questions or maybe put some links in the comments if you find any great sites you're just dying to share. Mine would be Azalea's which has tons of great games to pick from and a whole section devoted to fantasy characters. There are some really great games in there if you're willing to dig through them a little.