Aug 13 15:42:03 <narwhalz0111_>	The thing is, I'm not really conscious of the associations with physical descriptions and characters.
Aug 13 15:42:05 <Talvieno>	'night fawkes o/
Aug 13 15:42:06 <narwhalz0111_>	\o
Aug 13 15:42:14 <Talvieno>	You don't have to be, Nar.
Aug 13 15:42:15 <Dinosawer>	The fact Josh is replying and not sending you a pm after nuking the topic is prolly good?
Aug 13 15:42:27 <Talvieno>	as long as you don't have autism. (actual autism. not the internet version)
Aug 13 15:42:33 <narwhalz0111_>	So it's difficult for me to encode information about a character in description.
Aug 13 15:42:34 <Fawkes-mobile>	Cya tomorrow :)
Aug 13 15:42:37 *	Fawkes-mobile has quit (Quit: Arrow to the knee! Arrow to the aaaaarrrgggghhhh ---)
Aug 13 15:42:43 <Talvieno>	autism breaks the "meaning" of these things and they don't connect
Aug 13 15:43:02 <Talvieno>	Nar, let's do a little exercise
Aug 13 15:43:17 <Talvieno>	Describe this person - what comes to your mind as you read:
Aug 13 15:43:29 <narwhalz0111_>	Since describing a character is a very "abstract" thing to me, it's almost an entirely conscious process.
Aug 13 15:44:07 <narwhalz0111_>	So I need to be able to draw on consciously-accessible tools to do it.
Aug 13 15:44:14 <narwhalz0111_>	Otherwise it might as well be random :V
Aug 13 15:45:13 <Talvieno>	Smith is a bouncer at the Six Cats Club in south L.A. He got started after getting into a bar brawl where he broke a guy's nose; someone offered to pay for boxing lessons. It was a good step up from his drug-filled teenage years. These days he's doing a lot better and has a good-sized apartment.
Aug 13 15:45:28 <Talvieno>	Now tell me what came into your mind as you read.
Aug 13 15:46:32 <Talvieno>	If you're anything like the great majority of people, your mind started forming a mental image of Smith as soon as I began describing his life, and it may have changed somewhat as I gave more details about him.
Aug 13 15:46:31 <narwhalz0111_>	First things, before I started analyzing it: Probably a big (muscular, not fat) guy.
Aug 13 15:46:39 <Talvieno>	Yes.
Aug 13 15:47:25 <Talvieno>	And that's the fun part. I don't have to give his backstory. I could just say he's a muscular guy. That's it. "Smith is a big, muscular guy."
Aug 13 15:47:38 <Talvieno>	And that tells you most of what you need to know about his personality, in a flash.
Aug 13 15:47:42 <narwhalz0111_>	After that the image was pretty much noised out by thinking about why I thought that and so on :V
Aug 13 15:47:46 <Talvieno>	He trains, he's used to fighting.
Aug 13 15:48:17 <Talvieno>	Those are things people would assume immediately on reading that - especially in an RPG setting.
Aug 13 15:48:27 <Talvieno>	And that's how everything works.
Aug 13 15:48:28 <Dinosawer>	I have 'big, muscular, bald or cropped hair, has a tattoo or two but tries to cover them up nowadays'
Aug 13 15:48:34 <Talvieno>	damn dino
Aug 13 15:48:39 <Talvieno>	that's spot on to what I was envisioning
Aug 13 15:48:53 <Talvieno>	even the tattoo part, and trying to cover them up.
Aug 13 15:48:53 <narwhalz0111_>	:V
Aug 13 15:49:10 <Dinosawer>	woo
Aug 13 15:49:29 <Talvieno>	In all cases you can tell a lot more with appearance than you can with describing their personality - although the actual personality description always helps to clarify.
Aug 13 15:49:49 <Talvieno>	Appearance is a powerful tool for writing.
Aug 13 15:50:06 <narwhalz0111_>	I understand the utility of it, but I'm just not good at using it :V
Aug 13 15:50:25 <Talvieno>	That's fine. Understanding is the first step towards learning.
Aug 13 15:50:30 <Talvieno>	It's a skill.
Aug 13 15:50:35 <Talvieno>	You'll get good at it in time.
Aug 13 15:51:16 <narwhalz0111_>	I need to either get the associations of physical and character into my conscious mind or build characters intuitively instead.
Aug 13 15:51:20 <Talvieno>	and it's not like I'm going to hold a pop quiz on it or something.
Aug 13 15:51:26 <narwhalz0111_>	I don't know which approach will be more fruitful V:
Aug 13 15:51:42 <Talvieno>	well, for future characters
Aug 13 15:51:49 <narwhalz0111_>	(that's the kind of thing someone who plans to give a pop quiz would say)
Aug 13 15:51:49 <Talvieno>	I would start with intended playstyle and build from there