Do you gravitate toward particular body types?

[Naruzeldamaster]

I don't try to do it on purpose, but I seem to gravitate toward a particular body type, both for men and women.
When I try to write a 'chubby' character I avoid depicting them as 'overweight' or negative. (even when that's the point, I try to avoid negative descriptors)
When I try to write a 'fit' character I tend to go for 'athletic' but not like, muscle head. Unless it specifically fits that character. I don't think I've written anyone excessively 'buff' or 'masculine' for either gender.

I of course try to make their appearance fit the character, but I have a hard time honing in on anything other than like a 'basic' description. (you know, 'athletic' 'lanky' etc)

 

[Mad Swede]

No, I don't write or assume any particular body type. I write what is appropriate for the character, which means I need to have though through both the story and the characters in some detail before I start writing.

 

[pmmg]

I tend to drift back to my army days and see people in the wiry army physique. Some characters are meant to be big, so I see them as more barrel chested, and some of the baddies are meant to be bigger than them, they either come to me as dorito shaped, or heavier and hunched.

For the women its a little different. Some have the same combat physique, similar to Sarah Conner in Term 2, some have more of courtly appearance, more shapely and curvy, and most look healthy. Only one character has been described as unordinarily attractive. While, I tend to think most women are attractive, most of them are not supermodels.

One character has a more conan-esque physique, and is noticeably unusual. He drifts between Conan-like and dorito shaped to me. I'll eventually settle on one.

A last one, I see has heavy, even though he's never described as such. He meant to be athletic, but he lost his leg in the story, and since then, I see him as having put on weight.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

No, I don't write or assume any particular body type. I write what is appropriate for the character, which means I need to have though through both the story and the characters in some detail before I start writing.

I'm talking about when you come up with the character to fit their role. I don't 'design' their appearance/personality. I just do them how they come to mind as. But I do tend to gravitate toward certain types.

I kind of gravitate toward appearances I've seen of that particular archetype but put my own spin on it.
When I create one from scratch entirely (not based on something) I wind up using more basic descriptions (lanky, skinny etc) before their image fully comes through. I usually have a basic idea of simple traits, but I usually have to write them a bit (not usually a lot) before I decide on further details. (what kind of voice they have etc)

Like say I'm writing a Viking named Greg, he's the opposite of how he looks, he appears this way in my mind, but I have to actually write him a little bit. In order to fully form all the nitty griddy. (like battle scars, the types of clothes they wear other stuff like that.)

 

[Jackarandajam]

In my current wip I talk very little about body type. There is a horrible old woman who is described in detail, but mostly I'm dealing with trained professional soldier/mercenaries, so the difference in body type would be negligible enough to not be worth harping on too much. A couple big tankish characters, one pretty heavy, a couple very skinny, wiry characters who are addicted to a substance...

I had a lot more fun with this in my space fantasy side project.
A mouthy, loyal old peasant woman, the type of coarse, wiry old lady that seems like she could bite through plate steel.
A spherical gambling house owner with her wicked smile, benevolent charisma and green Mohawk.
My Mc is a softish young guy, the kinda "nice guy who's crazy strong but the football coach is always on to lose some weight."

People watching can help with this. Take a look at different body types (without staring. Even with the "I'm a writer" card in your pocket it's still rude) and imagine how you would describe them in written form.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

In my current wip I talk very little about body type. There is a horrible old woman who is described in detail, but mostly I'm dealing with trained professional soldier/mercenaries, so the difference in body type would be negligible enough to not be worth harping on too much. A couple big tankish characters, one pretty heavy, a couple very skinny, wiry characters who are addicted to a substance...

I had a lot more fun with this in my space fantasy side project.
A mouthy, loyal old peasant woman, the type of coarse, wiry old lady that seems like she could bite through plate steel.
A spherical gambling house owner with her wicked smile, benevolent charisma and green Mohawk.
My Mc is a softish young guy, the kinda "nice guy who's crazy strong but the football coach is always on to lose some weight."

People watching can help with this. Take a look at different body types (without staring. Even with the "I'm a writer" card in your pocket it's still rude) and imagine how you would describe them in written form.

I tend to just naturally observe people as they pass me by.
But I notice the more ethereal stuff, their gate, how much energy they have (hard to put into words but I think you know what I mean, even similar personality types have different amounts of that type of personality) etc.
Even if I did people watching proper I'd have trouble remembering the physical stuff. I try to do the same thing when describing anime characters and stuff. I remember characters more for who they are as people rather than what they look like, even if how they look is one of my reasons for liking them.

 

[Renè Williams]

Yes and No. I do gravitate towards particular body types for certain types of characters in my head and my attempts to write, for instance, if i have a seemingly 'insane' style bad guy, I tend to make him a meat head muscle bound freak of nature physically and I also do the same for blockheaded characters, good or bad. The most dedicated characters are almost always very fit if not athletic in and of itself because I feel like that helps to show their dedication or possibly routineness. But otherwise, i try to let the character define their body type, for instance, my one character with the Gift to form a barrier of aether/energy is physically frail because she uses her magic to protect herself, to move around sometimes, etc, and my techie isn't as frail but is smaller and thin due to the fact that they don't need to rely on their body to perform magic the same way as my more combative/hands on characters do.

 

[Jackarandajam]

I tend to just naturally observe people as they pass me by.
But I notice the more ethereal stuff, their gate, how much energy they have (hard to put into words but I think you know what I mean, even similar personality types have different amounts of that type of personality) etc.
Even if I did people watching proper I'd have trouble remembering the physical stuff. I try to do the same thing when describing anime characters and stuff. I remember characters more for who they are as people rather than what they look like, even if how they look is one of my reasons for liking them.

I used to do it with a notebook in the food court at the mall. A few notes about carriage, a few amateur psycho-analysis guesses... it was fun. Like taking my writing passion on a field trip.

 

[skip.knox]

I'm sure I do, but not consciously, so I would have to go back through all that I've written, making notes of weight-related adjectives, to see if there's a statistical preponderance.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I'm sure I do, but not consciously, so I would have to go back through all that I've written, making notes of weight-related adjectives, to see if there's a statistical preponderance.

I seem to like going for characters with 'athletic' builds or 'average' ones. Most of my characters appearances are meant to be able to go on fantasy adventures too. I think I'm maturing a bit as a writer cause I'm writing less and less 'distracting' females (well distracting in specific ways) unless that's the joke with the character. two female characters in my current side project absolutely have that kind of appearance, but personality wise they're way different from what you expect. (and one of them, the character whom the reader meets her with questions how her vocal chords produce those sounds)

 

[Renè Williams]

I seem to like going for characters with 'athletic' builds or 'average' ones. Most of my characters appearances are meant to be able to go on fantasy adventures too. I think I'm maturing a bit as a writer cause I'm writing less and less 'distracting' females (well distracting in specific ways) unless that's the joke with the character. two female characters in my current side project absolutely have that kind of appearance, but personality wise they're way different from what you expect. (and one of them, the character whom the reader meets her with questions how her vocal chords produce those sounds)

I think in alot of fantasy setting, fit or at least not overweight characters make sense for alot of reasons, from common ways of life to income of the population to foods the population eats. It's a modern thing that we see more of what people would consider overweight, etc, in the real world, so i think it's reasonable that worlds with older settings or historical works aren't as representative of the body types as opposed to a modern urban fantasy where if alot of people get described, it wouldn't feel natural for everyone to be fit, athletic or average, you'd expect at least one members of the cast or more to be somewhat differently shaped.

I really try hard to not comment on things about my female characters that the POV character doesn't think or notice, or really, all characters but i'm a little more careful with descriptions of females because i don't want any of my main cast to come off as just conventionally gorgeous, although one or two of my men certainly do now that i think about it, or might come across as such because of lack of specific description aside from what another character thinks. When this all started for me a decade ago, all of the women who were protaganists were basically different flavors of "What i'd expect everyone to agree is pretty pretty". Now, if i go as far as calling a woman gorgeous or beautiful, i try and write a little tidbit where another person sees them as just not that at all, sometimes another woman. I guess i could do this for my guys too but one heartthrob isn't tooooo many, right?

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I think in alot of fantasy setting, fit or at least not overweight characters make sense for alot of reasons, from common ways of life to income of the population to foods the population eats. It's a modern thing that we see more of what people would consider overweight, etc, in the real world, so i think it's reasonable that worlds with older settings or historical works aren't as representative of the body types as opposed to a modern urban fantasy where if alot of people get described, it wouldn't feel natural for everyone to be fit, athletic or average, you'd expect at least one members of the cast or more to be somewhat differently shaped.

I really try hard to not comment on things about my female characters that the POV character doesn't think or notice, or really, all characters but i'm a little more careful with descriptions of females because i don't want any of my main cast to come off as just conventionally gorgeous, although one or two of my men certainly do now that i think about it, or might come across as such because of lack of specific description aside from what another character thinks. When this all started for me a decade ago, all of the women who were protaganists were basically different flavors of "What i'd expect everyone to agree is pretty pretty". Now, if i go as far as calling a woman gorgeous or beautiful, i try and write a little tidbit where another person sees them as just not that at all, sometimes another woman. I guess i could do this for my guys too but one heartthrob isn't tooooo many, right?

The only body type thing that bugs me is that describing 'curvy' female characters kinda sucks, cause you want to depict them as attractive but you also don't want to piss off certain crowds. (avoiding 'sexualization' I mean)

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand why those crowds get angry at certain things, but sometimes the POV character notices and gets distracted by that stuff. (it happens all the time in romantic comedies) That's often the character being the character, at least for me. One of my characters gets 'distracted' like I do, but the things he ponders about and how he reacts are totally different. It's one of those things where you really have to examine the whole scene rather than the one thing that engages keyboard warrior mode.

I've tried and probably failed to find 'safe' ways to describe them, most of the time I don't even bring it up (unless it is an actual stand out feature of the character, but even then phrasing it is difficult) I try to be tasteful with it and I usually don't write lecherous types anyway. But If I'm writing a guy in his twenties and he's still 'discovering' things, it seems natural that he'd notice well, stuff. Even if that's not the main thing he likes about the girl.

 

[Aldarion]

When I imagine people in my setting, I generally tend to gravitate towards slim people. "Big" as in muscular people would be relatively rare, and fat characters rather exceptional (and since I have druids and not monks, for some reason I tend to imagine them like Getafix lol... climbing trees to get mistletoe is rather not conductive to getting fat!).

I mean, it is a medieval fantasy. Just look at medieval art... if you look at medieval manuscripts, people are generally depicted as thin. Even knights:

Sure, I know it might be an artistic convention, but fact is that medieval diet and life in general were much healthier than is the case today (generally speaking - lack of germ theory did really screw them over on occasion), so looking at modern-day people for inspiration on characters in medieval fantasy world makes no sense. That would be like wanting to describe deer and looking to walruses instead.

 

[Finchbearer]

No, would be my answer. Have you ever seen any two people with the exact same body shape and size?

 

[Renè Williams]

No, would be my answer. Have you ever seen any two people with the exact same body shape and size?

Yes, more or less, all the time in things like sports, if i'm being honest. Even jockeys this would apply to, since they are all below a certain height and weight. Not that everyone within a certain sport looks the same, but that's why terms like 'built like a linebacker' or 'swimmers build' exist.

Example A. Yes, there are outliers as far as height, but clearly a huge trend towards medium height and around 125-145 lbs. If you look in front of and behind the yellow jersey, so red jersey, yellow, red, white, those three dudes are nearly the same heigh and body shape, with the one closest in forground the the red on right of yellow clear taller contenders

 

[Aldarion]

No, would be my answer. Have you ever seen any two people with the exact same body shape and size?

First, answer is definitely yes. It does happen on occasion.

Second, "type" by definition includes a range of variables. Two objects, phenomena or people can be of the same type while being extremely different anyway. Exact variation of course depends on how you define a "type", but it will always exist.

Two ships of the same type (dreadnought battleship):

Multiple weapons of the same type (longsword):

And so on.

But while all long-distance swimmers, or all sprinters, will not have the exact same body shape, they will have the same body type.

 

[Finchbearer]

Wait…are you comparing the human body to objects??

 

[Aldarion]

Wait…are you comparing the human body to objects??

Considering the context, why not? Typification and categorization can be used for literally everything in this world.

 

[Gurkhal]

I kind of assume that my characters are average in pretty much every way unless I specify that they are not form some reason or another that's relevant for the story.

 

[pmmg]

She had all the curves of a battleship, with long sword like limbs, the kind that made any man want to climb on board and test her edges.