How to write about the sense of sight is just too broad a subject for one post. So I’m focusing on using color in our stories to bring scenes to life that might lie dead if we rely solely on the tried-and-true descriptions using sight. I’ve loved exploring the names of colors, but before I discuss how to add color to our writing, I have to ask …
Does using a lot of colors make sense for your story?
The main character of my teen cozy mystery series is Rae Riley, a twenty-year-old amateur photographer. Because photography is her hobby, it makes sense to mention colors when I write from her first person point of view. It’s something the character would notice, so I can include. To give you an opposite example, fashion is not a hobby of Rae’s. So when she describes characters, she isn’t focused on their clothes unless it makes a definite impression on her.
Examine your point of view characters. Would any of them notice colors? Why? Understanding your characters will help you use colors in their descriptions correctly. But those aren’t the only people you have to understand.
Use colors readers can related to.
Last spring, I made a study of colors. I typed into Google phrases like “shades of brown” and then looked at the many names for different shades of brown. The site where I found the most helpful graphics was “Color Meanings”. Here’s the link for shades of brown.
As I read each name and looked at the color, I jotted down which colors readers would instantly recognize and which ones my character would know. “Coffee”, “caramel”, “cinnamon”, “beige”, and “sand” were all names that would bring an instant mental picture to readers. But others like “ecru”, “bistre”, and “ocher” might force readers to put down my novel to look up what in the world I was talking about. And would a young woman who wasn’t a painter use words like that? So I used names that were both appropriate for readers and my character.
Make the colors fit the genre.
I like to immerse my readers in my settings. But since I write mysteries, I can’t get bogged down in descriptions. If I wrote historical fiction, I might have more space to paint more vivid descriptions. Knowing what readers expect in your genre helps you decide how to write descriptions and employ color.
Here’s an example of how I used colors in to paint the scenes of a Memorial Day picnic at lake in a state park in Ohio.
“Families and groups of friends dotted the imported sand, clusters of wet, deep colors and pastels decorating the drab ground. Rick Carlisle tossed his seven-year-old nephew and namesake Richard into shallow water while his nine-year-old niece Alli paddled on an inflatable, pink swan. Under the picnic shelter on the edge of the beach, Senator Schuster chatted with an elderly man and scooped something from a vivid tangerine bowl. About twenty people milled in and out of the shelter from preschoolers to senior citizens, so it was probably a family gathering, rather than a political one.”
from A Storm of Doubts by JPC Allen
For more tips on writing with the senses, click here.
What books or stories have you read that used color well?
I’m rewriting a third-person POV story to first person, and my narrator has befriended an artist. In the process, he’s learning names of colors on the artist’s palette. This way, when I use “burnt sienna” as a color from a tube of paint, for example, the narrator lets the reader know it’s a type of brown. I’ve done this before in 3p POV, but I find it more revealing of the narrator when told in first person.
I wrote in third person for years. One day when I was discussing all my favorite books with my husband, he said that since my favorites were all written in first person, why didn’t I write from the POV? So I did and it changed my writing dramatically for the better.
I write in first person if the story is under 50,000 words and if it feels right to do so. A first-person character in anything longer has to be extremely interesting to hold my attention as both author and reader. My least favorite novels use both first and third person. I simply don’t like the mixture and I rarely finish any novel written that way. I want to shout at the author and say, “Choose one or the other; not both.”
I read a mystery where the author switched between first and third person for the same character. Very odd. And I didn’t like it.
I think you have a great point about using colors if it makes sense for the character, and I know exactly what you mean about not having Rae go into tons of fashion detail. As a general rule, I have female characters use more color descriptions than male characters, and that’s based off conversations with my husband where he doesn’t notice the color of say, a house.