27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
Well, you see, I write romance novels, so there has to be some kind of chemistry and attraction between my main characters. The POV character, and therefore the reader, need to think the love interest is hot in order to make the romance sizzle.
So yes, appearances do play a role. Sometimes my heroes aren’t conventionally handsome, like Jamie’s “stealth hotness” in Chiaroscuro, but the important thing is that their love interest thinks they’re beautiful.
I don’t know if I “design” my characters as such. I fantasy-cast them and choose their names, decide how they dress and if they have a beard or wear cologne…I guess that’s designing them? But creating a character ‘s appearance is only a beginning. While things like style and haircut can help inform a character, it should never be the whole of the characterization.
Mirrored from Jenna Jones.com.