Halp

[delight]

Does anyone happen to have any online resources for writing physical descriptions? Or, for those of you who are visual artists, things you need to get in references or written desc?

My big problem is not being sure what to include in an in-depth description, because I have the great trifecta of severe visual impairment, aphantasia and prosopagnosia -- therefore visual things are pretty meaningless to me (in both directions: I also can't parse written physical description and just ask for a picture, which confuses people a lot when I say I have trouble seeing! if you send me a picture I can get my face real close to itand understand it, but a physical description doesn't help at all) and so I don't know what to include.

When an artist asks me for a detailed description, or a role-playing game requires 2-3 paragraphs on appearance in a character sheet, I ... have no idea what to put there besides coloring, height, weight/build/body shape and a little bit about dressing style. With medical-types I sometimes remember to put in a line about their hands.

And I really need a better cheat sheet of all the things I forget.

Comments

[worlds_of_smoke]

I find, for me, that thinking of the person's personality helps me a LOT. I will do very generic coloring/height/weight/etc and dressing style because that's pretty much all Thorns requires. But I like to add in little personal touches to help make the character realistic. if a character's depressed, they're not going to smile a lot or might tend to stand slumped over and curled into themselves. If they're happy-go-lucky, they might grin even when it's inappropriate or have crow's feet or like to randomly dance. If they're anxious, they're going to fidget in some way or not like to meet people's eyes. If they're often angry, that's going to leave frown lines or constantly hold themselves tensely.

If that wouldn't work for you, would looking up things like "angry faces" or "depressed body language" or "elderly woman" help?