Friday, February 19, 2010

What color was that?

Most of my characters have the same color eyes. The Kind cats are green. The Angels are blue.

So far I’m not worried because I did a chart when I started these stories. It got lost in my computer crash but it only takes 30 seconds to find it using my backup program. No big deal. I go hunting and pecking through documents and there it is. Actually there are about 20 of them—all titled Character Traits. A couple did have Character Traits and the story initials behind them. Anyway, I open a few. OMG!

I ask myself, “Self, what were you thinking?”

Self replied, “Guess you weren’t thinking. You gave them all the same color eyes, it should be okay. Green if they’re cats, blue if they’re angels, right?” A sly smirk appeared on Self’s face. “If they were human you didn’t seem to care much one way or the other—you gave them brown or hazel for the most part.”

Self is such a smart ass.

“Yes, Self, the cats are all green, angels are all blue. Humans have different color eyes, too. But aren’t there variations of those colors?”
Smiling smugly, Self said, “Hell yes. Knowing you it varied from emerald to jade to forest green. With the blue, I’ll bet you had a few sapphires, some blue as a summer sky and even a couple of twinkling, starry midnight blues.” Self is really grinning snidely now. “Didn’t someone have eyes the color of whiskey, amber or chocolate?”

Right. I don’t like Self much at the moment. Mainly because the smart ass is right. However, Self didn’t do the chart—I did! And for each character the note says either green, blue, even brown—period! Who the heck has whiskey colored eyes anyway, or chocolate eyes? Isn’t amber the color of whiskey?

“Umm, amber varies in color, and so does chocolate. There’s light and dark-”
“Shut up, Self. I don’t need this right now, not a few scant chapters from the end of a 45K+ novel. I don’t need it.” Chin in hand, resting on elbow, I ask Self, “Is it a big deal if I said the eyes were chocolate brown as long as I didn’t specify light or dark chocolate?”

Self looks thoughtful. “Well, if you’re sure you didn’t specify, I guess it’s okay. Wouldn’t look good though for sky blue eyes to suddenly become midnight blue or violet? I guess blue would work as long as you’re sure you said blue without the added colorful description resembling the one you just added to that character.” Self’s finger was pointed at my computer screen. “Probably nothing to worry about.”

Finally, Self is making sense.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Still, I felt my brow furrow in worry. Who the hell had violet blue eyes, that’s a freaking flower? I peered at Self, who has one green eye and one brown eye—both were filled with devilishness. Here it comes!

“Remember what your editor said though when you gave someone sienna colored skin and later called it brown. She made you clarify that because sienna varies from light brown to dark brown depending on whether or not it’s raw sienna, burnt sienna. And there was the time with the platinum blonde and the ash -”

**THUMP! CLASH!! BANG!!!**

I locked the door, checked it twice. Enough of that. Wringing my hands together, I headed back to my computer.

“Now where the hell is that list…”

Color Chart

Finally, I have a free read about a stallion shifter at: http://www.longandshortreviews.com/WC/story.htm CHECK IT OUT!

He has whiskey brown eyes!
Growl and roar-it's okay to let the beast out.-© J. Hali Steele

3 comments:

Rebecca Royce said...

WOW> AWESOME POST! I love it when you talk to your SELF.


Rebecca

Unknown said...

I loved your post.
So fun & true.
Thank you for sharing the eye chart!
Like Rebecca said - I enjoyed SELF.
;)

J Hali Steele said...

lol, Rebecca and RK, Self drives me insane sometimes. I'll be using this color chart!