Saturday, February 25, 2006

Personal Taste

Hi Guys! Cie here!

Everybody has their own taste and opinions. Liz Taylor has admitted publicly to LOVING the color purple. Adores it. It is her signature color, etc. I like purple. It's a pretty color. Looks great on her. But it's not my favorite.

I have never been a fan of pink -- any shade. Nor am I big on ruffles and bows. Far as I'm concerned, a little bit of lace goes a long way. I like it, but in small amounts. You can ask my mother to confirm this. She will regale you with tales of the horror I was during Easter dress shopping almost from the time I was an infant.

Given a choice, I will never wear a pink garment, paint a room pink, or have a pink ANYTHING. I don't care how beautiful it is the words just pop out of my mouth "But it's PINK!!!" This is stupid, I know. I am not, after all, the arbiter of all good taste (although I should be, dammit! LOL) This will leave all the more of these things available for the rest of you. Enjoy.

I guess part of this is a reaction to the overload of red and pink that bursts out every Valentine's Day. (Not my favorite holiday either. Probably because I'm single. Then again... it COULD be the pink. It really could.)

Anyway, the whole taste thing has come up for a reason (Really! Honestly! This is going somewhere!). In writing our books Cathy and I have been talking about the characters (as always). Your taste in clothing, furniture, housing, etc. says a lot about you. It's important to have your character live in a place that makes sense for their personality. The other day Cathy and I took a field trip into the local furniture stores looking at what rugs, art, and furniture the main characters of her book would have in their homes.

Thus far, most of the characters I have developed have had hardwood floors and lived in apartments or condos of one sort or another. Part of this is that having people in neighboring apartments gives you interesting character interactions. Another part is that the characters have lived in older, recently renovated buildings (Kate did her own renovations, Cat hired it out)and hardwood is "in" right now. Also, these are impatient people who wouldn't want to deal with spills or stains on a carpet. My current character is much the same, but she has really lovely expensive rugs and oriental carpets (some of which are about to be ruined in the next scene -- sigh). Raphael's home in Cat was a Frank Lloyd Wright design, with lots of tan stone and cubbyhole areas, but very distinctive lines. His pack office was airy, carpeted and done in soothing colors and light oak and original art work. Lucas, on the other hand, had an office down the hall that was very "lawyerly" with dark cherry furniture, burgundy leather chairs with brass studs and lots of bookshelves. Very different people with very different work spaces.

Windows, too, are a big thing in a lot of the stories I write. Not only do they make things light -- they give the character something to look at when they are thoughtful, trying to avoid eye-contact or whatever. I'm only realizing this now, oddly enough.

The characters Cathy has written have been much more likely to have carpet, more modern furnishings with clean lines, etc. It's not better or worse, it just *IS*.

The trick is to make sure that you don't make everybody alike. Carmine and Linda are NOT going to live in the same type of house as Sue and Tony. It's a personality thing. Fortunately for me, Cathy and I have completely different taste, and while this may make designing the website or ads a topic for long discussion, it means that our characters are going to have more variety.

Anyway, it's something to think about. Because when the character turns the front door key and walks into their home, it needs to be THEIR home.

Gotta run. Have a great day!


Cie

4 comments:

Yolanda Sfetsos said...

What a cool post! And I totally agree with you, the home and stylings in the character's home says a lot about the person.

I love coming up with homes and stuff. It's a lot of fun.

:)

Shawn said...

Great post! It definitely gave me something to think about.

Anonymous said...

Me, I like the red, white and pink colors of Valentine's Day, but Valentine's Day is such a lame holiday (it's an un-holiday). Regarding "pink," I don't care for it by itself, kinda a lame color. I like purple, blue and green used together. Or red, white and black used together.
Happy MARDI GRAS!
Jimbo

Anonymous said...

Happy Friday and happy weekend!
Jim