Physical Attribute Entry: Chest

Physical description of a character can be difficult to convey—too much will slow the pace or feel 'list-like', while too little will not allow readers to form a clear mental image. If a reader cannot imagine what your character looks like, they may have trouble connecting with them on a personal level, or caring about their plight. 

One way to balance the showing and telling of physical description is to showcase a few details that really help 'tell the story' about who your character is and what they've been through up to this point. Think about what makes them different and interesting. Can a unique feature, clothing choice or way they carry themselves help to hint at their personality? Also, consider how they move their body. Using movement will naturally show a character's physical characteristics, keep the pace flowing and help to convey their emotions.

CHEST AREA

photo credit: lta362 via photopin cc

Descriptors: 

MEN (CHEST): brawny, smooth, hairy, firm, curly, broad, narrow, warm, sculpted, hard, strong, well-defined, chiseled, toned, pecs, pectorals, heavy, sagging, deep, flabby, bumpy, thick, skinny, bony, concave, sweaty, gleaming, solid, muscular, lean, tanned, tattooed, scrawny, athletic, spindly, thin, bulging, scarred, nipples, nips, narrow, defined, pale, taut, hardened

WOMEN (BREASTS): busty, big-chested, full, flat, sagging, well-endowed, buxom, busty, stacked, built, curvy or curvaceous, heavy, slopes, rounded, shapely, petite, cleavage, tanned,  voluptuous, bouncing, jiggling, small-breasted, peaks, mountains, mounds, valley cleavage, soft, silky, smooth, alabaster, tanned, bronzed, droopy, low, high, perky, pillows, overflowing, straining, ample, thin, boobs, ta-tas

Things Breasts/Chests Do:

• Thrust: chests and breasts are a sexual area that is closely tied into a person's self esteem and instinctive, primal response. Baring a chest or thrusting it out is either a sexual display, an action to show strength and confidence, and (especially in males) a way to show aggression if feeling threatened.
• Feed: This one's just for the ladies of course, but breast feeding is the function of breasts.

Key Emotions: 

• Desire:  Touching and caressing the chest or breasts between compatible, romantic pairs is a way to show affection and amp up sexual desire. Women and men find this attribute an attractive feature in others that match their sexual preferences, and even if one is in a committed relationship with someone else, looking (without being creepy or pervy about it) and appreciating this attribute is healthy and normal.
• Surprise/Shock: If a person is surprised, it is normal for their hand to fly to their chest in automatic response.
• Confidence/Pride: Both women and men thrust their chests out slightly when feeling energized by confidence or pride.
• Anger/Rage/Hatred: These negative emotions bring out the 'Fight' in fight or flight, and the instinctive response is to make oneself look bigger and more imposing. Both men and women will thrust out their chests when threatened. 

Simile and Metaphor Help:         

• Linda gasped, her breasts lifting up in her tube top like oranges ready to spill from a fruit basket.

• Alex's chest was hard and lean, muscular without being overdone. I ran my hands over the plains of his skin, my light touch a wind brushing the Sahara.               

Clichés to Avoid:

• describing a woman's breasts as beach balls, balloons, etc. 
• breasts that 'heave'
• A chest that is 'as hard as a rock'

BONUS TIP: The Colors, Textures & Shapes Thesaurus in our sidebar might help you find a fresh take on some of the descriptors listed above!

Donald Maass Wisdom: Cultivate Reader Interest Through Unexpected Emotions

Recently I was at a workshop with Donald Maass and the topic of Emotional Writing came up. As you can imagine, I immediately perked up and my fingers became cyclones over the keyboard of my iPad, taking notes.

photo credit: Send me adrift. via photopin cc

The gist of it was this: the most powerful stories have emotional writing, the kind where we dig deep into our own feelings and then put them on the page. Donald encouraged us to move past ‘expected’ character emotions and try for something deeper, more primal. Something unexpected.

We were to take a scene from our book, list the primary emotion our character was feeling, and then change it to something they would never dare to voice or show, but felt none-the-less.

I chose a scene from my Upper MG WIP, Wrath of a God. The Egyptian God Osiris, newly resurrected and clothed as a simple human storekeeper, shows up at the protagonist’s house as a surprise dinner guest. The goal is to intimidate my hero, Brett, and convince him to stop fighting Osiris as he attempts to gain control over everyone in the town. The two of them are speaking outside, away from Brett’s mother who doesn’t know who Osiris really is. Brett is full of anger and frustration because deep down, he knows he’s powerless to stop the God.

 But a deeper emotion, something unexpected? What might he also feel? I decided to try DESIRE.

Donald then told us to then duct tape our protagonist, and show that emotion non-verbally (talk about right up my alley!) Want to see what I came up with? (WARNING: It’s not exceptionally written--just a two minute free write!) 

A glow came off of Osiris, a hue that had nothing to do with the sun setting. It was something that came from inside the god...a sureness, a confidence. He was powerful, close to having it all. Brett imagined that for a moment, imagined the feeling of control, the ability to wipe the slate clean. To heal his mother, to heal the town. 

His chest expanded and he straightened with the need to have what Osiris had, to shape the world with power. But as he stared at the god, the shadows clutching the sharp angles of his face stood out in dark contrast. Power corrupted. Power consumed. If Brett had it, would he do good? Or would he become like Osiris, and only want more? A deep pain spread in his chest and he reached up, kneading it with his palm. This was wrong. How could he feel this, want this? 

I love what I came up with, because it’s so much deeper than the original emotions of anger and frustration. By honing in on Brett’s desire, I show how he craves what he doesn’t have (power & control), and then the shame he feels at wanting to be like the antagonist.

Donald then challenged us to find 20 more scenes and do this very same thing. And you know what? I plan to. (Oh and that little book on the right? Click on it. You want to own it, trust me--it's fabulous!)

How about you? Have you ever used an unexpected emotional reaction to deepen your character to readers? Let me know in the comments!

Using Nonverbal Communication to Wow Readers WEBINAR

Hi everyone!

 I just wanted to post a reminder about our webinar TODAY at WANA International. This is a great opportunity to talk show about one of the biggest problems writers face: showing character emotion. 

Here's more info below, along with the REGISTRATION LINK. Hope to see you there!  

Using Nonverbal Communication to Wow Readers 

Instructors: Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
Email: jaddpublishing@gmail.com
Date: May 14th, 2013, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm EST 

Description: Readers read to have an emotional experience, to feel what’s happening on the page. With the vast competition in publishing today, it’s more important than ever for authors to hook readers through strong emotional connections. One of the best ways to make this happen is by clearly conveying the character’s emotion through a variety of techniques.

This 90-minute course will teach you the effectiveness of showing (rather than telling) your character’s emotion. You will learn how to build reader empathy by showing emotion through dialogue, thoughts, body language, and visceral reactions. Also covered are common problem areas, such as melodrama and clichés, and how to avoid them.

Special Notes: This course for writers of all genres will include a presentation and Q&A session. Each attendee will also receive a PDF version of  The Emotion Thesaurus: A Guide to Character Expression, to aid them in their writing efforts. If the attendee already has this resource, they can have their copy gifted to a friend!

There are loads of great classes at WANA International, so feel free to swing by and have a look!

Physical Attributes Entry: Butts

Physical description of a character can be difficult to convey—too much will slow the pace or feel 'list-like', while too little will not allow readers to form a clear mental image. If a reader cannot imagine what your character looks like, they may have trouble connecting with them on a personal level, or caring about their plight. 

One way to balance the showing and telling of physical description is to showcase a few details that really help 'tell the story' about who your character is and what they've been through up to this point. Think about what makes them different and interesting. Can a unique feature, clothing choice or way they carry themselves help to hint at their personality? Also, consider how they move their body. Using movement will naturally show a character's physical characteristics, keep the pace flowing and help to convey their emotions.

BUTTS

Descriptors: round, flat, huge, tiny, muscular, fat, bony, lumpy, curvy, cute, hard, tight, dimpled, hairy, pimpled, smooth, fleshy, jiggly, bouncy, firm, doughy

Synonyms: rump, bottom, rear end, ass, backside, trunk, bum, derriére, fanny, gluteous maximus, posterior, tush, buttocks, cheeks, tail, keister, behind, hiney, caboose, arse

Famous References from Pop Culture: 

• Kim Kardashian
• Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-a-Lot)
• Beyoncé
• Jennifer Lopez

Simile and Metaphor Help:                         

• He was a definite hard body. I'm pretty sure if I flicked his ass, it would ring like a bell.
• I swung my legs out of bed and stifled a shriek. Gingerly, I poked at the wooden slabs that used to be my glutes. Must've overdone it with the lunges yesterday. 

Clichés to Avoid: smooth as a baby's bottom; butts so big you could show a movie on them; doing a job half-assed; rigid or stuck-up people described as having a pole up their ass


HINT: When describing any part of the body, try to use cues that show the reader more than just a physical description. Make your descriptions do double duty. Example: I sat carefully on the plastic chair. It creaked but held my weight as my rear end oozed over the sides like batter in a waffle iron. Someone groaned behind me. Then a snicker. I opened my history book and pretended to read.

BONUS TIP: The Colors, Textures & Shapes Thesaurus in our sidebar might help you find a fresh take on some of the descriptors listed above! 

And here's one for all of us who were alive in the 80s:

Hiding Emotions: Just Act Normal

As humans, we value honesty and strive to be as truthful as we can as often as we can. But in truth, protection is also important to our species, and many times it trumps honesty. To protect ourselves, everyone periodically resorts to deception—to avoid consequences, to get what we want, to keep from hurting ourselves or others.

One of the most common deceptions I see has to do with our emotions. We mislead others to think we’re feeling one way when we’re really feeling something else. Why? To avoid questions we don’t want to answer, to deny our true feelings and avoid having to face them, to save face in front of others, to keep a secret...the possibilities are endless.

Whatever the motivation, we hide our emotions all the time. And this means that our characters should, too. As authors, we need to know how to show this evasiveness in regards to what our characters are feeling.

*The Head-in-Sand technique. Effective, but...not ideal*

One of the most common methods for hiding one’s emotions is the Just Act Normal technique. This is when a character disguises their internal feelings by acting like everything’s fine. This is tough to write, because you’ve essentially got to show two things at once. Here’s a good example of this technique from The Outlaws of Sherwood, by Robin McKinley:

     “A wrestler should be a little slippery.” Little John handed Cecily the pot of tallow. 
     She took it from him daintily, her fingertips not touching his hand, and began to use the palms of her hands, rubbing the long round muscles in a circular motion, using the heels of her hands around the shoulder blades, running the edge of her palm down the spine. She was not so young that she did not know what was happening to her: why her heart was beating too fast, why her breath came hard. She knew, and tried to pretend she was Little John’s sister, and failed. 
     “That should do,” she said, after a few of the simultaneously longest and shortest minutes of her life. She absent-mindedly went to rub her sticky hands down the front of her bright new tunic when there was an exclamation from her companion and her arms were nearly jerked out of their sockets as Little John grabbed her wrists. 
     “Not on the tunic! Have you no sense?” 
     He rubbed each of her hands down each of his forearms and she closed her eyes and thought about fraternal relationships. 
     Little John said, “Here—are you all right? I am sorry, did I hurt you?” 
     “Not nearly as much as all the bruises from my quarterstaff lessons, my friend,” she said with a fair imitation of her usual tone. 

This exchange clearly shows Cecily’s true emotion (desire) and her attempt to act normal. Her desire is shown through a number of indicators: in the detailed way that she completes the simple act of applying tallow to Little John’s skin; through her thoughts, which are private and safe; by evading his are you all right question; and through her internal cues, which are also safe. All of these clues—none of which Little John can see—indicate how she really feels. In contrast, her words remain nonchalant, showing him what she wants to convey: normalcy.

When hiding an emotion, it’s easier to lie with our words than with our bodies. This is why we turn away when we don’t want people to see what we’re feeling—to give us time to get our bodies under control while we’re saying, “I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” So when your character needs to hide, try this formula:

Show the true emotion through vehicles that are difficult for others to notice, like internal physical cues and thoughts. Use details, words, and comparisons that indicate whatever emotion your character is truly feeling. Show the false emotion through dialogue and forced body cues that are meant to deceive others: controlling one's tone of voice, rearranging one’s facial expression, trying to mimic  “normal” gestures, etc.

image courtesy of Lisa Hall-Wilson

Emotions are multi-faceted and tricky, but we’ve got to learn to write them clearly if we want to create believable, empathetic characters. To help with conveying emotion effectively, Angela and I are teaching a WANA course next week on Using Nonverbal Communication to Wow Readers. It’s a 90-minute course that you can take from the comfort of your own home, in your pajamas, with the fruity beverage of your choice. So if you’re looking for ways to beef up your character’s emotions, you can register by clicking the link above. We’d love to see you there!

*photo credit: Jenny Rollo @ stock.xchange

A Short Anecdote, and How to Build Reader Empathy Early On in your Story

Hey there, people!

We all know that Angela recently took a once-in-a-lifetime vacation to Asia. This has made me just a teensy bit jealous. But I'm comforted by the fact that I'll be riding the Small World ride today, which technically means I'll be visiting, like, 40 countries. IN ONE DAY. Quite a feat, but anything's possible at the most magical place on Earth. And since Angela had some interesting info to share from her trip, I thought I'd share an "international" story of my own.

Before the Incident

A few years ago on a trip to Disney, we waited twenty minutes in the Small World line, boarded our boat, and had just started the ride when my recently-potty-trained daughter uttered those four words no mother on a Disney ride wants to hear: "I have to pee."

I spent the first ten minutes of the ride trying to distract her from the growing pressure in her bladder, but we all know how futile this is. Then she said something even more terrifying. "I have to poo."

It was at that point that my daughter and I abandoned our boat and took a quick trip through Mexico to the nearest Salida de Emergencia. You know the signs they put on those doors that say Alarm Will Sound? They lie. No alarm went off.  What DOES happen (as I found out later from my husband, who was stuck in the boat with my son) is they stop the ride for approximately fifteen minutes until they can be sure that it was just a mom and child exiting the ride and not someone carrying explosives of the less stinky kind. I'm not sure who hated me more at that moment, the Disney employees required to follow protocol for this eventuality, or the people stuck in the boats while It's a world of laughter, a world of tears played on, and on, and on...

Cute giraffes, or hidden camera receptacles?

I'm a little worried to return to Small World. I'm afraid our pictures might be posted on WANTED signs in 47 different languages. We shall see. Either way, the Disney machine seems to have been prophetic with its marketing slogan for the year, which is posted on signs all over the park: Let the Memories Begin!

Hopefully, today's trip will be less memorable. In the meantime, the lovely people over at the Helium.com blog (who should in no way be associated with any part of the aforementioned anecdote) have agreed to host me. I'll be sharing some thoughts on how to create reader empathy early on in your story, and the Helium blog as a whole has a lot of helpful info to offer. If you've got time, please stop by and say Hola.

A Big Thank You & Today's Physical Attributes Entry

Before I get into today's thesaurus entry, Becca and I want to give out a big shout out to Kristin Lenz at YA Fusion. She wrote a review of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression, and it was accepted into the SCBWI Bulletin! (I know--how amazing, right?)

Thank you, Kristin!

We are ever so grateful to her for being a champion of our book and seeking out this magazine to place her review!  I recently posted on The Importance of Reviews, and her kindness will result in even more writers discovering our resource, so we are just blown over by this.

Unfortunately, the Bulletin credited the review to another author, and while they are going to change it for the digital copy I believe, the print copy is too late to change. I feel bad because it's very thorough and well done, and she deserves to have her name on it, so PLEASE HELP US in thanking her by stopping in at YA Fusion blog and say hello! They are a great group over there, with inspiring and helpful content for all writers.

***

Bradley Cooper (you are welcome, Ladies!)

 Physical description of a character can be difficult to convey—too much will slow the pace or feel 'list-like', while too little will not allow readers to form a clear mental image. If a reader cannot imagine what your character looks like, they may have trouble connecting with them on a personal level, or caring about their plight. 

One way to balance the showing and telling of physical description is to showcase a few details that really help 'tell the story' about who your character is and what they've been through up to this point. Think about what makes them different and interesting. Can a unique feature, clothing choice or way they carry themselves help to hint at their personality? Also, consider how they move their body. Using movement will naturally show a character's physical characteristics, keep the pace flowing and help to convey their emotions.

FACIAL HAIR

Descriptors: groomed, clean, trimmed, wiry, patchy, sleek, oiled, bristle, stubble, scruffy, scraggly, neat, shaped, bushy, narrow, thin, thick, curly, long, short, smudge, shadow, kinky, dark, salty, wild, bearded, mustache, muttonchops, goatee, sideburns, beards, whiskers

Here's a list of different styles of facial hair!

Things Facial Hair Do:

• Tickle: in close contact, facial hair can feel ticklish! 
• Rub: facial hair can also be unpleasant--rubbing, scratching and aggravating sensitive skin.
• Itch: facial hair can be quite itchy for the owner, especially in hot or humid climates. Some men grow beards during the cold months and shave during the summer.

Key Emotions and How Related Facial Hair Relates: 

• Adoration & Love: Some find facial hair extremely attractive, and like a man who can grow a good beard or mustache. Stubble is a trend that has gain a lot of traction. However, with that growth comes some sensibility and good grooming expectations. Gone are the days of waxed and curled mustaches, and no one likes to see one's lunch hangout out of one's beard.
• Pride & Satisfaction: Many men see growing facial hair as a sign of manliness. The thickness of one's beard, or the overall even stubble is a source of pride among males. Men like to touch, pull, tweak, rub, stroke and smooth their facial hair. 
• Embarrassment: Most women are not fans of facial hair on themselves, and they will eradicate any facial hair that is not invisible against one's completion by tweezing, waxing or shaving. Men who feel unsuccessful at growing hair (when it comes in it's patchy, uneven or just not flattering to one's facial structure) simply choose to shave.

Simile and Metaphor Help:                           

• Johnny always takes things too far. Growing a Movember mustache in November to support Cancer Awareness is one thing, but now it's April, and robins are ready to settle in to raise a family.
• When my nephew Rick asked what I thought of his 'mustache' I didn't have the heart to tell him it looked like whiskers on a hairless cat.

Clichés to Avoid: Five o'clock shadow (it's been done to death); the Pornstashe, comparing a beard to Santa's beard or a biker's beard; the handlebar mustache; calling a 'stache or beard a soup strainer


HINT: When describing any part of the body, try to use cues that show the reader more than just a physical description. Make your descriptions do double duty. Example: 

Mom strutted past the security checkpoint, her perfectly made up face surly and grim. As soon as she reached us, she began complaining in Italian about the flight--the food was cold, the seat too small, someone had gas and the man next to her grumbled every time she got up to use the washroom. As she blamed us for picking the flight, railing on how the air conditioning ruined her freshly cut hairdo, I took the greatest satisfaction in the wiry tangle of white sprouting out of a mole on her chin. Mom, always immaculately dressed, always primped and perfect...missed a spot.

BONUS TIP: The Colors, Textures & Shapes Thesaurus in our sidebar might help you find a fresh take on some of the descriptors listed above!

Bradley Cooper photo credit: david_shankbone via photopin cc 

Emotional Tension: Make It A Jagged Climb

Hi everyone--happy Wednesday!

I'm over at Kobo Writing Life today talking about how to successfully build tension through escalating emotions (while steering clear of two common traps: melodrama and emotional plateaus.)

Stop on in if you have the chance? I'd love to see you there!  

Here's the link: 

Emotions That Escalate: How To Build Tension Successfully

Book Reviews Matter: Thank You For Taking The Time

Before I became an author, I didn't think too much about reviews or their impact. If I came across a book that really moved me I might write a review, but more likely I would go the word of mouth route, telling others in emails, blog comments, and social media what I was reading and how I liked it. Sometimes, I would drop the author a note to tell them how much I enjoyed the read.

After becoming an author, I found myself all too often staring at Amazon and Goodreads pages hoping for a review. At first, it was about seeing if people understood how The Emotion Thesaurus could be used, and finding out if it helped them as we hoped it would. After all, not everyone knows about this blog, and so for many, seeing  the ET in book form was their first exposure to the idea of an Emotion Thesaurus. We wanted to make sure readers understood our intent for it to be used as a brainstorming tool for describing their character's emotions, not a shortcut for cutting and pasting body language (unless it was for place-holding purposes).

photo: Adikos via photopin cc

It didn't take long though for me to understand that in a sea of books, especially on a site like Amazon, reviews were the difference between someone taking a casual look (because maybe the title or cover caught their eye,) and actually sticking around (because someone was enthusiastically recommending the book.) I suddenly saw just how important reviews are for discoverability: they draw attention because no one wants to waste time or money. Visitors need to decide if the price is worth the investment before they hit "buy."

The first reviews can be the most important, as they seemed to gather the most 'likes.' They float to the top, remaining visible, and so visitors would see that many people agreed with the review by liking it. Becca and I were lucky to get some great 5 star reviews at the start, and so it hopefully encouraged others to try out the book.  

Reviews also help by enticing visitors to put the book on their 'wish list' as a way to keep track of it. This puts the book on Amazon's radar for their top 100 "Most Wished For" and "Gift Ideas" lists. Suddenly a book becomes discoverable in a new way--friends and family looking to buy books at Christmas or for a birthday can just check out what other people are pining for in a particular genre or category.

Amazon Reviews are the starting point for a giant promotional wheel. Reviews lead to sales, which lead to 'customers who bought X also bought' matches, which leads to more visibility and sales, 'adds' on individual wish lists, and finally, Amazon promotional emails to customers pairing your book with others like it. This of course leads to more sales, more reviews and more visibility! All because a person who read your book took the time to review.

So why the discussion on reviews you ask? Yesterday, The Emotion Thesaurus received its 200th 5 star review on Amazon, and so Becca and I are taking this opportunity to send you all a big THANK YOU for all your reviews, emails and feedback on this book. We appreciate all your support of us here and elsewhere! We also want to encourage you to get out there and write a review or two. It really does make a huge difference, and the author will appreciate it.:)

Do you review books? Can you squeeze in some time today to write one? I plan to, and I hope you will as well!

ONE MORE THING...WANA LEARN?

Becca and I have set a date for our next webinar on SHOWING CHARACTER EMOTION. Using Nonverbal Communication to Wow Readers and being held on MAY 14th at 8:00 PM Eastern, and you can join us from the comfort of your own home! Registration is open and our last webinar on this topic sold out, so if you're interested, please have a look. :) The webinar lasts 90 minutes, and each registrant will be given a PDF copy of The Emotion Thesaurus for their own use or to gift to a friend. Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have, and we hope to see you there!

Physical Attributes Entry: Neck

Physical description of a character can be difficult to convey—too much will slow the pace or feel 'list-like', while too little will not allow readers to form a clear mental image. If a reader cannot imagine what your character looks like, they may have trouble connecting with them on a personal level, or caring about their plight. 


One way to balance the showing and telling of physical description is to showcase a few details that really help 'tell the story' about who your character is and what they've been through up to this point. Think about what makes them different and interesting. Can a unique feature, clothing choice or way they carry themselves help to hint at their personality? Also, consider how they move their body. Using movement will naturally show a character's physical characteristics, keep the pace flowing and help to convey their emotions.

NECK

c/o Stoneraven @ Stock.xchange

Descriptors: thick, squat, fat, long, skinny, wrinkly, flabby, short, weak, stiff, tight, sore, tense, graceful, elegant


Things Necks Do (and other words/phrases to describe those actions):

• Turn: bend, come around, pivot, roll, rotate, swivel, twist, swing, jerk
• Stretch: roll, extend, crane, lengthen, pull

Key Emotions and Related Neck Gestures: 

• When a person is feeling anxious or tense, the neck will tighten, with the skin stretching taut and the tendons standing out. People will often roll, stretch, or massage the neck in an effort to relieve stress.
• At the onset of embarrassment, a flush will usually start at the neck and creek upward into the face, giving a hot and prickling sensation.
• Strong emotion, such as fear or anger, can tighten the body's muscles, making the neck feel sore and stiff. Prolonged stress can lead to muscle pain in the neck, headaches, and migraines.

Simile and Metaphor Help:                         

• The day after the accident, my neck felt like one fused bone instead of a series of small hinged ones.
• I stretched my arms, trying to find space in the sleeves. Why hadn't I tried on this antique days ago, before it was too late? I could feel Mom's glare while the pastor droned on, but I couldn't turn my head to look at her; one move, and the tourniquet collar would cut off circulation and that would be it. Death by polyester.

Clichés to Avoid: necks thick as tree trunks; comparing short-necked people to frogs; referring to stubborn people as stiff-necked; long necks compared to a giraffe's or swan's

HINT: When describing any part of the body, try to use cues that show the reader more than just a physical description. Make your descriptions do double duty. Example: Ana towered over the other girls on the soccer field, which in other circumstances might've been a good thing. But out here, while everyone else was muscular and solid, she was gangly, with scrawny limbs and a flower-stalk neck. Why did PE have to be required?

BONUS TIP: The Colors, Textures & Shapes Thesaurus in our sidebar might help you find a fresh take on some of the descriptors listed above!