How to Write Descriptions of Hair and Skin
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This book is for fiction writers who love physical descriptions of characters.
Here, you get an abundance of descriptive terms for hair and skin. Each section centers on a type of description, such as Hair Color (for example, "Bleached blond hair") or Hair Type (for example, straight, wavy, curly, and kinked). Each section lists its descriptive terms alphabetically with full explanations. You can read the lists to learn new terms, or you can look up a specific term.
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The hair section starts with hair type and hairstyle. It details how the appearance of one's hair can shape one's gender identity and ethnic identity. The next sections show how your fictional character's hair might move, feel (for example, brittle, greasy, silky, or springy) and smell (for example, like cigarettes, deep fryer oil, perfume, or wood smoke). All this leads to more than 2,000 words explaining 72 different color names to assign to hair that is black, blond, brown, gray, red, or white. There is also a section on highlights and lowlights.
The skin section continues the emphasis on sensory description with sections on what your fictional character's skin might feel like, smell like, and taste like. Learn how the placement of wrinkles can show whether your character has spent a lifetime smiling or frowning.
There is a section on the erotic aspects of skin. Other sections list ways in which your fictional character might modify his or her skin, including tattoos, piercing, and cosmetic surgery. All this leads to more than 2,000 words explaining 43 different color names to assign to skin that is dark, medium tone, or pale.
Who may benefit from this book? Anyone who wants a quick prompt or idea so as not to lose his writing momentum. Readers for whom English is a second language may enjoy the in-depth explanations of American English terms. Authors writing in genres that demand much physical description (for example, fantasy fiction and romance fiction) may also find this book useful.
How to Write Descriptions of Hair and Skin is 14,900 words in total. (Just so you know, this 14,900 word book contains the 2,000-word article HT Describe Hair from my blog plus the 600-word Hair Color list from my website. The other 12,300 words in the book are all-new material.) Thank you for reading.
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