However, you can tell your reader interesting things through a mismatch: A wealthy character might show off their expensive clothing. To discover more awesome ideas, head over to Pinterest and just search for female fantasy armor. But let's take a step back and look at what kind of clothing is usually associated with futuristic settings. In writing, the clothes kind of do make the (hu)man. I would be great to expand it with armor from other areas, Samurai armor, for example. That also will help readers really experience things through their eyes. The tragedy of Azincourt, for example, occurred because of a poorly-chosen battleground that had flooded. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Pingback: A fantasy writers guide to weaponry Richie Billing. Instead of a nobleman being described as wearing red silk slippers, parachute pants, a bejeweled cloth belt, a flowing blouse and an ascot; you can simply describe him as wear very fancy and extravagant clothing befitting his high status in society. Added on top of that the condition that they had to supply him with soldiers too. Another important function of clothing description in stories is to create an authentic sense of time and place. Your main character just put on some makeup and changed into a fancy dress, complete with heels and a tiny handbag. Vividly describing the colors of your character's clothing can enliven ordinary writing. That cloth ribbon tied around their waist? In reality, a medieval lord could pretty much do what they liked. He's had over a dozen short stories published in various magazines and journals, with one adapted for BBC radio. First and foremost, remember that clothing description is still storytelling. It's part of culture, so it's definitely something to keep in mind since your fictional universes will have some form of culture as well. If there is one thing I hope you take from all of this, its that none of this is about describing what a character looks like. In this section, Ive included some more guides on creating fantasy armor designs that you may find useful. Ha-ha! You can also check out some of my other guides too, like: If you have any questions about this guide on fantasy armor, please get in touch. I sincerely hope youve found some inspiration for your fantasy medieval armor. By using fur for decoration you quickly create fictional pieces in no time. One easy way of creating a more customized look is to simply use cultural elements in the standard clothing. For example, headphones aren't really a piece of clothing, but they definitely affect our style. If you write historical fiction, youre probably way ahead of me. Conveniently, a lot of high status positions come with outfits or accessories that telegraph a persons position in the hierarchy. Discover an extensive list of terms you may want to know here. But Ive also noticed that artful clothing description does make a character, a setting, and even a moment more engaging. 2023 NOW NOVEL CC. Am I trying to blow the interview? If done right you could even use these elements alone with clothing of today to sell a futuristic look. Mantel creates a vivid sense of the wealth that the church amassed in these times. Once quenched, the steel was re-heated to make it more resilient. Another might claim power by striding in wearing torn jeans and a tank top. Chapters 1 and 2 were pretty decent and I started chapter 4 with him dressing for the party. Its hard to really appreciate just how sickeningly awful medieval warfare would have been. A man's padded undercoat worn under a doublet and over a shirt; a woman's (often padded) under-tunic or the skirt of her riding habit. Adorable. It may be apocryphal, but Harold Godwinson is said to have done just that at the battle of Hastings in 1066. The more outlandish the fantasy species your character is the more outlandish you can usually be with clothing, but familiarity is usually still a solid ground for a realistic feel, even if the universe and the creatures are completely unrealistic. Really, the topic of this article is not how to describe clothing in writing as much as it is how to tell a story with clothes. And right at the heart of it were the leaders of societythe medieval lords. If you stopped to think about it, you may even notice yourself imagining things as specific as age, hobbies, and ambitions. You can also fulfil (or contradict) impressions your characters (or readers) form based on appearances. I love to wear baggy trousers in summer. Sci-fi and fantasy don't necessarily have to be futuristic and historic respectively, but they're commonly associated as such, so for the sake of simplicity that's what I'm going with for the purposes of this guide. How to create a fantasy costume design | Creative Bloq - Taboos and nudity. Leonidas in 300, for instance, almost certainly wore a helmet in the battle with the Persians! You can use visual description to make a character more vivid in the readers minds eye. What is a good way to do Show not tell in a first person POV state? Using a squared, pixelated look or circuitry patterns usually works great too, which can even be combined with layered clothing to create the circuitry feel. Here are some classic characteristics you can draw out through clothing description. Ive always wondered that too! Character description may change over the course of a story to emphasize a characters arc. Struggling with describing clothes for a fantasy setting. : r/DnD - reddit Looking for a word - prince's clothes - English Language Learners Stack 80s-inspired. As time marched on, small plates of leather or iron were added to the mail to protect key areas, such as vital organs. The more people that join this thriving group the better it becomes. A velvet scrunchie. Have fun with it. If all else fails use Google images and find some visual aids and inspiration sources, they can work wonders. As with body armor, great efforts were made with the designs of helmets. Or is it really important for a reader to know the specific pattern? Hopefully, you now have more wardrobe ideas for your characters than just red shirt, blue pants. But what about the process of actually sharing these details in your novel? As a friend told me, Wear jeans and glasses and have a favorite pen. Since it's a friends' get-together, let's wear casual attire. These shallow details help us go pretty deep on character. This article was very helpfulcan you post some examples of showing versus telling when describing clothing? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7bbcc198c936bc1af3fbda128514c44fcfc10f0513ea31cad7c21ae61ba0ab0.jpg. Theyre probably less concerned with how they look (unless they want to look intimidating) and more concerned with things like survival or victory. If its 1st person you'll describe things from the POV of your character, and I find that that's different than if you're in, for example, 3rd person. Stealthy clothes bring to mind burglars clad in black outfits and soft-soled sneakers. Consider whether your characters attire might serve as a symbol, highlight a theme, or represent a conflict. When you use clothing to define who your character is, remember that it can also clarify how they feel about themselves and how they fit into the world around them. You really can tell a lot about a person by what they wear, or what they dont wear. Changes in characters clothing can help revealcharacter development. for any particular parts of an outfit. I mean what your character wears provides a clue to how they see themselves, how they want to be seen, and even how others see them. They're the Robin to your Batman, the Luigi to your Mario, the Samwise Gamgee to your Frodo Baggins. Fashionable: Clothes representing a current style in fashion. Knights were, indeed, hard to defeat in battle. Send private message Achievements: Need help with clothing description in Fantasy #1 I'm writing a Fantasy Novel in the middle ages, filled with swords and magic However, I realize I have trouble trying to convey how the characters look, like what the nobles' attire, the bandit's armor. Trendy: Modern, fashionable, and up-to-date outfits. In Dostoyevskys Crime and Punishment, the poor, Tuberculosis-stricken Katerina Ivanovnas husband is trampled to death by a horse-drawn cart. Which is to say, if you write from the point of view of a character who thinks of clothing only in terms of the simplest descriptors, that's just fine. Finally there's all the little things that can make an outfit look more futuristic. Once blue, it is quenched a second time, permanently fixing its hardness. Describing armor and clothing. : r/writing - reddit stylish, expensive clothing, yet not specific to a certain time or place. Reeking of piss on the battlefield was another weapon in the arsenal I suppose. Maybe a bracelet represents a character's relationship to her mother. I second the idea of describing the reactions of the characters to the city. - Gadgets, hair styles and accessories. To make it futuristic you could change where the buttons are, they're normally quite low and form a v-neck line when buttoned up, how about moving them to the top and creating an upside down V shape at the bottom. Do they need a ghillie suit to blend into the natural environment? In visual mediums like TV or comics, cool outfits are on-screen the whole time, and they're the first and most obvious impression you'll get of the character, so they have a big impact on how the character is perceived. Describing clothes? : r/writing - reddit We already have spray on clothing technology. How to describe clothing: 6 simple tips Use clothing to show status and position Build (or thwart) expectations using clothing descriptions Describe clothing to contrast character personalities Show clothing to avoid over-relying on telling Change clothing to highlight character development Use clothing details to create authentic setting There are some elements which are common among most works of fiction when it comes to clothing, with these elements in mind it becomes a lot easier to turn the clothing we wear today or wore throughout history into a futuristic or more fantasy oriented equivalent. The surrounding culture dictates what they cant wear if they want to be seen as free-thinking individuals. The more you know about real clothing and armor, the more tools in your bag of tricks for describing awesome fantasy pieces. Whether its a beekeeping suit, climbing helmet, knee pads, or sun-protective fabric, what your character wears provides a clue about whats at stake in the coming scene. PsstDoes Your Character Have a Secret? Clothing description also presents an opportunity to play with different points of view. Get an image of a blank shirt and simply draw the lines on it, it'll form a great base to work with. When heated, steel turns from yellow, to brown, to blue, to red. As a result, feudal England became rife with young murderous men. William the Conquerors society was shaped with war in mind. Okay, maybe not.Secrets in real life can be a little trickywe all have thembut they have a way of blowing up in our faces, depending on how big they are.Your characters are really no different. So Id say in films its more for cinematic effect and also for clarity so the viewer can see whos doing what. Stylish: Elegant and sophisticated clothing to grab attention. The image you create has to play a role in the narrative.Consider the character arc. Who doesnt like being comfortable when killing? And if you were skilled at surviving and killing, it was a good way to make a living. With all that armor, its often assumed the medieval knight was immobile. I mentioned my online writing group at the beginning of this guide. A jacket or coat of mail was usually worn with a hood, or coif, of the same material to protect the head and neck. Chain mail is a great piece of fantasy armor to use in your stories purely because of its flexibility. Theyre the lifeblood of any relationship. But they are a common element used in fantasy clothing in all sorts of works of fiction. If you look at popular works of fiction you'll find two trends, one is the simplistic and often tight-fit look and the other is the more over the top and extravagant look. Both doublets and chain mail were worn in conjunction with plated armor for that added protection, particularly for areas plate could not cover, such as arms and the groin. These detail could suggest that your character is miserly or down-to-earth despite their wealth. How do they change, and how does their clothing reflect that change? When youre shopping for yourself, you know what you like but you dont know how to describe it. One way to deal with clothing is to not try to be unique. See more ideas about fantasy clothing, anime outfits, character outfits. Just click the button below to find out more. It took leaving the Midwest to recognize it. Some materials are used more than others, some colors are more desirable than others and some accessories are more desirable than others and these all changed throughout time. This idea of knights becoming lords was introduced in England by William the Conqueror. Use your first-person narrators senses sight, hearing, touch, etc. What your character wears can tell us a lot about how they feel or how they want to feel. Mail was particularly effective against glancing blows. Whereas a more confident or attention seeking person might seek out the edges of what's socially acceptable more or just wear more stylish and potentially more colorful or flamboyant clothing. Either way, their goal is to be desirable, whatever desirable means in this situation. One does not refer to "a garb". Slog through another meaningless day in a world where nothing matters? Clothes can betray our greatest joys and our deepest insecurities. Good for the mobile knight. Smart: Neat and tidy clothes but not necessarily formal. Of course there are more ways to alter historic designs and the middle ages aren't the only period to draw inspiration from. The fact that Do all your characters embrace it? It illustrates brilliantly the differences between fantasy armor and the boring armor of reality, in this case, Gothic armor. The novels protagonist Rodion gives Katerina the last of his money to host a funeral. What does your character wear to feel safer in their world or in their own skin? In battle, you are trying to strike a moving target, so mail was sufficient as most blows were glancing ones. Follow edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:43. Even things like tattoos, hair colors, eye colors and so on can help with this. Adding them with intention can help increase tension, make twists hit that much harder, and keep your reader engaged., How to Describe Clothing in Writing Without Boring Everybody, Tertiary Characters: Giving Your Background Players Life, Sidekicks: The Loyal Companion Your Hero Needs. But thats the case wherever you go. Get free books, an invite to my exclusive writing group, writing tools and guides and much more when you join my community. Normally I dont dress characters with such complex clothing that takes more than a few sentences to describe but the vest was inspired by a picture I saw and it took at least a paragraph to describe. As knights became fully armored, so did their mounts. Because like all other character details, its not enough to paint a picture. Again, I don't mean make your character walk around naked, but add elements of covering up or exposing certain areas of the body. Now this won't work for every piece of clothing of course, not everything has buttons or edges that allow for simple changes we don't already use today, so here are a few ways that are commonly used to make things look more futuristic: You can keep track of your characters signature style, upload photos, note how their style evolves, and keep these ideas right at your fingertips as you write. Pauldrons, gauntlets, and even leg armor were fashioned into elaborate designs. [Find more articles on character description in our complete guide to character creation.]. Thank you for reading our blog! What your character wears reveals where they come from, how they rank in society, how they want to be perceived, and even how they feel about themselves. Consider this example from Hard Times. Details about fit, cut, and material go a long way when describing the clothing of a character who longs to attract. Here, for example, Hilary Mantel describes a Cardinals residence being plundered by the Kings men in 1529 England, in her historical novel Wolf Hall. It's also an indirect way to describe their physical appearance by examining how the clothes fit them. Examples of the prior are Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey and to some degree Star Wars and Tron. Then this is their category. Make them earn any sightof skin, Aunt P always said. There's also the element of technology that has to be taken into account. SHIRT AND PANTS | Fantasy-Writers.org Its all in the craft.Its good that youre here to learn how to describe clothing in writing, because its a powerful tool. So we've covered ways to make clothing look both futuristic and historic, but these are all just guidelines and mostly based on what's been done before. Lets take a look at some individual pieces of armor. As far as guidelines go this is the first to be broken though, consider this one more of a starting point rather than something to necessarily end on.