Do Clothes Make The Mystery Novel Character?

 

Clothes can play an important role in depicting mystery novel characters. Clothing descriptions can build impressions and reveal social standing and character personality or values. Clothes are a way to describe class, taste. body image, mental health and even intent. Clothes can make your characters.

But, clothing description must have a purpose. Only describe a character’s clothing if it is important to the story.  Here are some ways writers can use clothing descriptions to enhance their novel characters:

• In a mystery novel clothes may act as clues. This strategy has endless uses—witness descriptions, shoe prints, fibers, clothing markers.
• Use clothing to contrast characters’ personalities—a sexy babe’s short, thigh-high skirt would contrast with her colleague’s conservative at-the-knee  hemline.
• Use clothing to create authentic settings and scenes. Clothing will differ in foreign countries, historical settings, sciFi.
• Clothing can enable a writer to show rather than tell basic character traits. Do his clothes show sloppiness, extreme neatness, insecure need to put on airs, rebelliousness?
• Use clothing for quick identification of infrequently appearing characters. One unique or strange garment can be used to identify a character throughout a novel.
• Use clothing to distinguish between numerous characters that are not important enough to present in greater detail. Again, use a unique piece of clothing for quick identification..
• If clothing is worth describing, it is worth detailing. Don’t describe it as a jacket, describe it as a very British houndstooth, sports jacket.
• Beware of lists: He wore a gray jacket, black pants, a red tie with a silver tie clasp and matching cufflinks and topped it all off with a derby hat the same color as his brown loafers. Phew!
• Variations in clothing can reveal something about a character: Long sleeved white shirts say something different than tight t-shirts. An out-of-style, threadbare collared shirt says something else.
• Use metaphors and similes to provide interesting descriptions of clothing: She looked like a prize-winning pumpkin in her gold jersey dress.
• T-shirts with slogans printed on them can say a lot about a character: “I am Woman Hear me Roar” does not connote the same value as “Man Completes Woman.”

These are a few purposeful ways to use clothing descriptions to make mystery novel characters or any other kind of characters interesting. Share any additional ideas you might have.

More tips:

How to Create Characters Readers Can Relate to
5 Ways Negative Traits Make Mystery Novel Characters More Interesting
Perfect Characters are Paper Characters