After Astrology - Characterization - The Physical

You have your traits, both positive and negative, plus their astrological information. Now the time comes to get physical. What sort of things do you need.

Age, height, weight, hair color, eye color are some of these things. I also must have a name for each of my major and minor characters. The walk-on people in my stories are usually given a job or a brief physical description. Like, the apple-cheeked clerk.

One problem with physical description is the way it's used. He was thirty years old, five foot eleven and a half inches tall, he weighs 180 pounds, his hair is blond and his eyes dark brown. While this gives a picture of a character, it's rather static and doesn't show the character.

A lock of blond hair flopped on his forehead. His dark eyes hardened with anger. This sort of thing gives the reader a picture and becomes an active part of building a character. The trick is to voice the description in a way that paints a picture and shows character.

Describing a character's face by using the features can bring a character to life. Her mouth formed a slash. Hands are another way to show character. Her nails, bitten to the quick, slender fingers plucked at his sleeve.

What one has to do when developing a character is to think active and not static. Long lists of physical attributes won't make a character come to life in a reader's eyes.

Characterization -- After Astrology

You've selected the Sun, Moon, Rising sign for your characters but there's more to making a character live and breathe than this. Look at the traits you've discovered and think of the kind of story you want to write. Not all the wonderful traits listed should be used to develop a character the readers will love. After knowing what kind of story you want to write, look at the traits you've listed. Pick one from each of the three areas. Now look at them again and find one of the traits that can be a problem for your character.

Suppose you picked a sun in Libra and have decided to use the trait of being able to see issues from all sides. This can be both a plus and a minus. Now you've given your character a Sagittarius rising sigh and have picked a love of justice for their trait. Give the character a Cancer moon with an emotional need for a family and you have ways to build in conflict in your character. Perhaps you don't need to pick a negative trait but you could use one from the Sagittarius rising and have the hero or heroine suffer from "hoof in mouth" syndrome. Having them at times speak without thinking of the consequences can make for some interesting times for the character and for the reader.

This should be done for all the major characters in the story. Though minor characters often play an important part in a story the need to develop them as extensively as you do the major players isn't necessary.

This is only the beginning of developing the people you want to tell the stories you have to tell. Next time physical descriptions will be spotlighted.