Quote:
Originally Posted by jupstin
<writing_snobbery>
It seems like an attempt to fit character description into the action of the story. It's basically a case of taking "show don't tell" too far. The impulse to avoid overtly expository text is actually commendable...just don't tell me that the protagonist is admiring his "chestnut curls" or noticing "for the first time that his square jaw and aquiline nose made him resemble, in profile, both his father and his grandfather."
</writing_snobbery>
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Riffing off this, I dislike it when the character TELLS ME what they look like. Sookie Stackhouse informing me how well she fills out her waitress uniform comes to mind, as does Camille from Sisters of the Moon telling me that the drapes match... oh, nevermind.
I dislike it when the character acknowledges the reader; at least the mirror-admiring is a little less HI YOU ARE READING ABOUT ME, NO?
