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How Would You Describe the Listed Towers?

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
You ask how I (and others) would describe it. But that's not the point. The point is, how would *you* describe it? Unless I (or others) am going to be the one writing the textbook, my words are irrelevant. Because you and I are different writers, I wouldn't even write the textbook. I'll offer a bit of an example, then leave it; perhaps someone else will take a stab at it.

I currently have a place that will have tall buildings. I'm not working off existing images because these are buildings built by elves and dwarves (different architectures). I have a couple of seedling ideas, but for the most part it's terribly vague. I'm fine with that. I'm in the camp that says all that matters is what my characters notice at the time they encounter these buildings, so I'll get to it when I get to it. How I describe it will be the result of how I as a writer am feeling at the time, and the exact circumstances of my characters at that moment in the story.

However. I also have a web site with lots of background information. I can very much imagine I might have a paragraph or so on how Urstadt looks. There I will be deliberately general in my descriptions, seeking to evoke more than delineate.

I remember listening to Peter Jackson talk about the choices they made for elvish and dwarvish architecture in LoTR. Elvish would be organic, flowing, graceful. Dwarvish would be more geometrical. I am quite certain his artists got only general suggestions like that to begin with, letting their imaginations carry them forward from there. That's how I choose to envision my relationship with my readers. General suggestions, and let their imaginations carry them forward, even though their vision will differ from mine. I'm fine with that. In fact, I'm great with that.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Wow... I've been up in the empire state building and that was tall enough for me. The scale of some of these is really impressive (and ambitious) but I am okay with a world a little closer to the ground.

I have to agree with Skip. The goal is for you to write it. You and I (and everyone else) might come to an endless way of describing the same things, but the only one that counts is your own. Giving you the best advice I can, I suggest, if its important to you, that you take a stab at describing each of these, and then put them up for peer review.
 
Wow... I've been up in the empire state building and that was tall enough for me. The scale of some of these is really impressive (and ambitious) but I am okay with a world a little closer to the ground.

I have to agree with Skip. The goal is for you to write it. You and I (and everyone else) might come to an endless way of describing the same things, but the only one that counts is your own. Giving you the best advice I can, I suggest, if its important to you, that you take a stab at describing each of these, and then put them up for peer review.

That doesn't help at all. Some of the towers in the image are shaped irregularly that I don't know how to describe it clearly enough for the readers to see them.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
We're trying to help, but it's not helping.

If the goal is for your readers to see exactly what is in the photo, then my best advice is to abandon the attempt. No matter how hard you try, no matter how explicit the description, your readers' imaginations are not under your control. They will see what they see. I did not envision Bag End the way Tolkien did (we know how he envisioned it because he drew it). Nor Rivendell nor, for that matter, Bilbo. And nothing was lost thereby.

Also, how do you know you can't describe it clearly enough when you have yet to try? What would constitute success? How would you even know if what I picture in my mind is what you picture in yours? I think you're chasing after chimeras here, mate.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Ah, well, I am sorry you feel it does not help, but in fairness, that is not the same as not helping.

When one knows how to fish they do not ask how do I catch the biggest ones. They apply the skills they have and go after it, understanding that part of getting them is expanding on the skills and knowledge they already have. If you have the ability to describe any building then you can describe these. If you feel you cannot, then I have no better way to help you than to point you to what you need to do so you can.

I might enjoy the exercise of undertaking to describe each of these, but I must assert, that would be of no help to you. I already know I can do it, you need to see that you can do it for yourself.

And the journey is always long. We try today, and maybe it works and maybe it doesn't, but if we could be some years hence and look back, we will say remember when my writing was thus, and so much more thus today? Its only a long stream of 'tried today' that will get us there.

An exercise for you. Pick a building, look at it for about 10 seconds. Write down the three things that stood out most, and go... I bet you have a building that would do for any reader when you are done. I thought the cake pretty much described the look of the one.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
As you can see, the towers listed in the post are so irregulary shaped that it's hard for me to describe properly.

To me, the irregular shapes make them easier to describe. They're already so very different.

Taking one pretty much at random....

towers-8-470-0110.jpg


This is the proposed Jaber Tower. Apparently the proposal won some sort of Millenium Challenge.

To me, it looks like a rocket about to launch in the sky, but somebody turned the engine clouds into a series of squished pyramids butting against the bottom. There's a series of what looks like observation decks jutting out the side every hundred stories or so. And I'm not sure what the circle is supposed to be?

The top looks lonely to me. I imagine the floors are actually huge, but the picture doesn't do that justice. I imagine it's a bit like a city, with the people living in the bottom pyramids finding themselves in squalor, with a demented madman ruling everything from the top floor, and his government/business leaders running things from the tower within.

I hope that helps!
 
To me, the irregular shapes make them easier to describe. They're already so very different.

Taking one pretty much at random....

towers-8-470-0110.jpg


This is the proposed Jaber Tower. Apparently the proposal won some sort of Millenium Challenge.

To me, it looks like a rocket about to launch in the sky, but somebody turned the engine clouds into a series of squished pyramids butting against the bottom. There's a series of what looks like observation decks jutting out the side every hundred stories or so. And I'm not sure what the circle is supposed to be?

The top looks lonely to me. I imagine the floors are actually huge, but the picture doesn't do that justice. I imagine it's a bit like a city, with the people living in the bottom pyramids finding themselves in squalor, with a demented madman ruling everything from the top floor, and his government/business leaders running things from the tower within.

I hope that helps!

Actually, it does. So how would you describe the towers listed in the post? Image is here, by-the-by.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Now, if one really wants an unusual tower described, consult Josiah Bancroft's Tower of Babel. *chuckle*
 
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