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Halp
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.
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.
no subject
• How well groomed they are: cleanliness of body and clothes, how well tended the hair is
• Their choice of attire and any messages, implicit (e.g. social class markers, conformity to fashion or subcultural affiliation) or explicit (e.g. things written on t-shirts, religious or political insignia), it conveys
• Same for use of make-up, tattoos, or other personal adornment
• Their body language: the expressions on their face (how much, as much as which), their posture sitting and standing
• How energetic or lethargic they seem, whether they fidget, "speak with their hands"
• Pitch, rate, and volume of speech; a whole lot about speech production, actually, including whether or not it is "pressured", logical linkage between sentence topics, vocabulary register, self-interruption, etc.
We're also expected to make a quick assessment of our impression of a bunch of abstract mental things about the client: their mood, their attitude towards being there, their memory functioning, their reasoning functioning, their level of judgment, of education, of problem solving ability, etc.
One of the things I've learned it's interesting to note about new clients is what they carry with them, and how they carry (if they carry) their keys and phone and wallet/money/checkbook. It sort of implies something about what they believe they will need to have with them, and what/whether they plan for the future.