What the readers read and what they see. And hear...

[BiscuitHammer]

What the readers read vs. what they see. And hear...

I very often get messages from readers asking me what I think my characters look like. I like to think I do a good job of describing them without being clinical about it.

But I get the messages where readers tell me how my characters look in THEIR minds. And sometimes it's close enough, other times there's a decided disconnect. I had one person tell me that she pictured Karen as rather skinny of build, despite my describing her just about every damn chapter in the Alexaverse as being tall and decidedly bathycolpian, with the build of a dancer. My Skinny Minnie is Lisa, the short, gassy, and neurotic Jewish redheaded lesbian social activist.

So aside from literal aversion therapy, where I zap a reader each time they see my characters as something they patently aren't, and despite my endless descriptions, they are gonna see what suits them best.

Another reader was asking me what the myriad characters sounded like in my head. I tend to not go so far as compare my characters' voices to real people, except obliquely. I've had one character say that she thinks Mike sounds like Lion-o from the Thundercats cartoon, meaning Jeanie thinks he sounds like Larry Kenny (now THERE'S a physical disconnect). I've had another character describe Lady Jenny Penrose's voice as reminding them of Galadriel from the 1978 Lord of the Rings movie, meaning she sounds like the actress Annette Crosbie. Unless you piss her off, then she sounds like an enraged soccer hooligan.

One reader told me that he thought Karen sounded like the adult voice actress Bordeaux Black.

Yowza.

I hadn't considered that, and Ms. Black's normal body of voice work is a mite too American-sounding, although Karen hardly sounds like Bob and Doug Mckenzie, either.

Still, Bordeaux Black? Whispering Karen's dialogue in my ear every time I read or write her parts? That's some ASMR that I could get used to. Jayzoz, that's hot. If Ms. Black can do a mid-Atlantic accent with a hint of Received Pronunciation, I'd buy that all day...

To quote Zeppelin, I'll just ramble on...

Anyhoo, have readers ever told you what they see or hear, instead of what you've stated? Yes, your word as author is canon, and gospel but alternative facts seem to work for a lot of people.

What have readers told you about your cast that you didn't know before they set you straight?

 

[SimonDoom]

I very often get messages from readers asking me what I think my characters look like. I like to think I do a good job of describing them without being clinical about it.


Anyhoo, have readers ever told you what they see or hear, instead of what you've stated? Yes, your word as author is canon, and gospel but alternative facts seem to work for a lot of people.

What have readers told you about your cast that you didn't know before they set you straight?

I've had readers do this a little bit, but not nearly to this extent.

You should pat yourself on the back, because obviously you've brought your characters to life so your readers see them in their minds. Even if they see them differently from the way you do, it's a compliment to you. One of the most surprising and delightful things about publishing your story is when reader feedback shows that the readers are really into your characters and think of them as real people.

 

[TadOverdon]

I'd enjoy more detailed feedback from some readers about the characters.

Lots of times, people have unconscious associations with given names themselves that conjure up specific images for them as soon as they see the name in print. "Peggy" is one like that for me.

 

[KeithD]

I haven't had a reader ask me what one of my characters looked like, but if they did, I think my response would be to turn it back on them--to say I tried to only be specific enough for the needs of the story and purposely left the rest open for the reader to conjure an image that satisfied them. Then I'd ask if I succeeded to do so with the story they were asking about.

 

[gordo12]

I very often get messages from readers asking me what I think my characters look like. I like to think I do a good job of describing them without being clinical about it.

But I get the messages where readers tell me how my characters look in THEIR minds. And sometimes it's close enough, other times there's a decided disconnect. I had one person tell me that she pictured Karen as rather skinny of build, despite my describing her just about every damn chapter in the Alexaverse as being tall and decidedly bathycolpian, with the build of a dancer. My Skinny Minnie is Lisa, the short, gassy, and neurotic Jewish redheaded lesbian social activist.

So aside from literal aversion therapy, where I zap a reader each time they see my characters as something they patently aren't, and despite my endless descriptions, they are gonna see what suits them best.

Another reader was asking me what the myriad characters sounded like in my head. I tend to not go so far as compare my characters' voices to real people, except obliquely. I've had one character say that she thinks Mike sounds like Lion-o from the Thundercats cartoon, meaning Jeanie thinks he sounds like Larry Kenny (now THERE'S a physical disconnect). I've had another character describe Lady Jenny Penrose's voice as reminding them of Galadriel from the 1978 Lord of the Rings movie, meaning she sounds like the actress Annette Crosbie. Unless you piss her off, then she sounds like an enraged soccer hooligan.

One reader told me that he thought Karen sounded like the adult voice actress Bordeaux Black.

Yowza.

I hadn't considered that, and Ms. Black's normal body of voice work is a mite too American-sounding, although Karen hardly sounds like Bob and Doug Mckenzie, either.

Still, Bordeaux Black? Whispering Karen's dialogue in my ear every time I read or write her parts? That's some ASMR that I could get used to. Jayzoz, that's hot. If Ms. Black can do a mid-Atlantic accent with a hint of Received Pronunciation, I'd buy that all day...

To quote Zeppelin, I'll just ramble on...

Anyhoo, have readers ever told you what they see or hear, instead of what you've stated? Yes, your word as author is canon, and gospel but alternative facts seem to work for a lot of people.

What have readers told you about your cast that you didn't know before they set you straight?

I had to look it up!

"bathycolpian: One of the few writers to have used it was Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote in his Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table in 1858"

Are you sure you're not channelling somebody?

I haven't had that experience. I've had people tell me their actions didn't suit the morals I've described but not to the extent you've had. On the other hand, this seems to tie into our recent discussion on running into pics or real-life people that are your characters. I did describe a character as a nympho lawyer but a reader set me straight when they pointed out that she'd done nothing to deserve the title. But that was on me. I'd lost sight of that description writing the story and never corrected it.

I haven't had a reader ask me what one of my characters looked like, but if they did, I think my response would be to turn it back on them--to say I tried to only be specific enough for the needs of the story and purposely left the rest open for the reader to conjure an image that satisfied them. Then I'd ask if I succeeded to do so with the story they were asking about.

That's a good response! Put it right back on them.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Anyhoo, have readers ever told you what they see or hear, instead of what you've stated? Yes, your word as author is canon, and gospel but alternative facts seem to work for a lot of people.

What have readers told you about your cast that you didn't know before they set you straight?

Not a lot.

I always have to have an image(s) of a character in my head before I write. Sometimes it's a real person, but often it's a collection of pics. In fact, the few times a reader has said, "I pictured xxxxxxx when I read your character," and xxxxxxxxx was one of the pics in my inspiration collection for that character, I figure I must have written that character well.

 

[SamScribble]

I have had a couple of idiots tell me that a character would not have behaved the way I said they behaved. (The idiots were wrong. I created the characters. They will behave exactly how I want them to behave. ) Other than that, I tend to just get comments that my characters are so real and believable. And that can only be on the basis of what the characters do and say. I seldom describe them. I pretty much leave their appearance up to the readers.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Other than strippers, I don't find many dancer I've know (as classical, ballet) having hourglass figures, or big bosoms! More lithe, with defined muscular torsos and tight smallish breasts. but that's the just ones I've known. Oh, and my former stripper wife is built lithe and muscular, hub, hub, does it for me.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I have had a couple of idiots tell me that a character would not have behaved the way I said they behaved. (The idiots were wrong. I created the characters. They will behave exactly how I want them to behave. ) Other than that, I tend to just get comments that my characters are so real and believable. And that can only be on the basis of what the characters do and say. I seldom describe them. I pretty much leave their appearance up to the readers.

That's happened to me more than a few times.

'ALEXA WOULD NEVER BEHAVE THAT WAY! YOU FUCKED IT UP AND GOT IT WRONG!'

Preeeeety sure I didn't there, sparky. She's my creation, and I am God. Don't fuck with me, or I'll write you into the story and kill you. In a most humiliating fashion.

I've had people calmly comment that something one of my characters did seemed out of character, and that I will entertain or explain to them.

Someone actually offered to buy Karen away from me as intellectual property so that they could write about her if I would stop. They were really possessive of her.

Must've been her tits...

 

[rjordan]

Once a story is released into the wild, it is no longer the author's story. It's sometimes interesting to speculate about what the author saw or meant, but it's completely irrelevant. It's difficult enough for the AUTHOR to know what they meant to say. The author made everything up from their own viewpoint and experience. Each reader has their own viewpoint and their own experience. The best we can hope for is something SimonDoom said that "... readers are really into your characters and think of them as real people."

rj

 

[rescatooor]

I don't get people asking about my characters' looks but sometimes they speculate them performing actions that I consider to be out of character. As far as I'm concerned, the author is dead so they can imagine them robbing banks with their tits out juggling from vibrations of a machine gun for all I care.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Someone actually offered to buy Karen away from me as intellectual property so that they could write about her if I would stop. They were really possessive of her.

Must've been her tits...

That's brilliant! Must have been more than her tits, though. Some writers notice the colour of eyes .

 

[BiscuitHammer]

That's brilliant! Must have been more than her tits, though. Some writers notice the colour of eyes .

Imagine been so self-righteously possessive of someone else's figment of imagination and intellectual property that you try to buy it so that only you can profane it...

 

[SimonDoom]

Someone actually offered to buy Karen away from me as intellectual property so that they could write about her if I would stop. They were really possessive of her.

Must've been her tits...

I love this. I haven't heard of anything like this before. Way to go.

 

[GinnyPPC]

I hadn't considered that, and Ms. Black's normal body of voice work is a mite too American-sounding, although Karen hardly sounds like Bob and Doug Mckenzie, either.

Just tell the weirdos to "Take Off Eh!"

Now, where is my two-four?

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I love this. I haven't heard of anything like this before. Way to go.

Since I tweaked the series and brought Karen into her own (read: fixed her personality), she's become immensely popular and everyone seems to be lusting after her.

But she's mine, and they can't have her.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Just tell the weirdos to "Take Off Eh!"

Now, where is my two-four?

I play Battletech, and every time I see your name I immediately think 'Particle Projection Cannon'. Sorry.

 

[SimonDoom]

Since I tweaked the series and brought Karen into her own (read: fixed her personality), she's become immensely popular and everyone seems to be lusting after her.

But she's mine, and they can't have her.

To paraphrase the immortal words of REO Speedwagon, "Don't let her go."

 

[BiscuitHammer]

To paraphrase the immortal words of REO Speedwagon, "Don't let her go."

There's always Sir Paul and Michael Jackson...

"The Girl Is Mine!"

 

[NightPorter]

People have their own imaginations, which is fine. Do your best to shape a story to fit your vision, just understand that the moment you hit submit, people will make it their own.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I play Battletech, and every time I see your name I immediately think 'Particle Projection Cannon'. Sorry.

Better stock up on heat sinks then.