in the earliest draft of my first novel, i didn't include any physical descriptions for my protagonist. my intention was to step out of the way and have the reader place anyone, including themselves, into the role. i found that the lack of guidance made most people uncomfortable. i wasn't expecting them to be so bothered, but the piece was said to be too "experimental" and "literary". the literary tag didn't bother me, but i didn't enjoy making the reader squirm for the wrong reason. on the other hand, classical writers described every little thing. i don't think modern writers, except those already super accomplished (Chabon) and others that write literary novels, can get away with this anymore. a balance needs to be struck. i think you did a good job with your thriller. i wished I had gotten a bit more description of rangar in the first chapter, but the setting descriptions worked very well. i also really liked that you guided the reader as to the reporter’s ethnicity. when I read that, her character really came alive in my mind’s eye.

i’ve read some articles criticizing Rand’s use of description. i was wondering what kind of conversations she had with her editor. it turns out her editor didn’t like her style, either, and worked with her because she paid the bills. personally, i like the way her novels were written. they’re unique because they don’t come from a native english speaker, and she had to work hard to get across her vision of a character or place without devoting ten pages to each. she had to learn to be succinct and keep only what was important. for this reason, i paid a lot attention to what she did leave in the novel. i imagine that since she said ragnar is blonde and blue-eyed, then it’s important the reader see him that way, too, for whatever reason. i can just imagine someone walking up to Rand and saying, “ragnar? oh, yeah, that short, dark-skinned guy with the brown eyes. if he’s a pirate, why doesn’t he say, ‘arrrrgh’?” the rand in my head (the wide-eyed one I created in my bitstrip pieces) would yell something about words having precise meanings and bitch slap the person. that’s probably not what would have happened in real life, though…