Green Eyes

[raefinlay]

I've been reading the new(ish) Luna line to get a feel for that particular market. Read one that was pretty decent. (C.E. Murphy's Urban Shaman.) Read another that was abysmal. The abysmal one contains the typical hero/heroine in a love/hate relationship. They torment each other verbally while being undeniably drawn together by flaming passion, blah, blah. *has headache from rolling eyes so much* If I read another "sparks" or "moth to flame" metaphor I will spork this book.

Also, the heroine has green eyes. Not only are they green, they are oft-noted whenever the reader is forced to wallow in the hero's POV.

Dude(s). In one of my WIPs, my heroine has green eyes. I didn't do this because it was a cliche. I did it because *I* have green eyes, so I know how to write about them. Color-crayon green. Green that makes people look twice and say, DUDE, you have GREEN eyes. My sister has green eyes. My cousin has the kind of sea-green eyes that make you think about tropical beaches. Green eyes are just...normal. To me.

But reading the abysmal book, I'm getting it. I see why people are so irritated by the green eye thing. Why do so many authors choose this color for attractive heroines? I guess Hitler ruined us for blue. (Unless, of course, the blue eyes are accompanied by dark hair.) And brown is just so...I dunno. Why not brown? Do we still have subconsious, residual issues with brown?

*repaints all characters with brown eyes*

Comments

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the having to get pretty close. I always figured it was just my eyes, but I remember once asking G about someone's eye color and he had no idea, so I felt better!

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Whew! Glad it's not just me! :D That would be very sad indeed. :)

[cristalia.livejournal.com]

It's not something I really notice either. Funnily enough, the feature I look at is hands, arms. I always notice those.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

I notice mouths, I think. And smiles. That's a normal one, I think.

Hands and arms is neat.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Er...I notice butts.

I can't be the only one who notices butts. O.O

[navicat.livejournal.com]

OMG lol!

Me too... :D

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I sometimes notice eye color--because it's sometimes hard work for me to consistently look other people in the eye. So when I'm doing it, I'm very aware that I'm doing it.

This excuse does not work for a rather wide range of characters.

[pjthompson]

Actually, Kelly Link wrote an essay about this subject which was up on the OWW web page for ever so long. Her point is that nobody remembers eye color once they walked a few feet away. I try to use it only as a "first impression" thing, where someone might naturally notice it in conversation. But I think maybe I use it too much.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Hehe...at a wedding, both the bride and groom got his eye-colour wrong when playing a party game (at least they guessed at the same colours) - and it was the groom's mother that had to set everyone straight. Trust mother's to know. :)