: Re: Help describing dogs' physical appearance and movement I'm writing a story about a group of dogs, mongrels mostly. I would like help finding the correct vocabulary to describe their physical appearance.

@Debbie451

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I call this a "grains of rice" problem. It's from a question over on Graphic Design SE, How do I draw rice grains in Photoshop?, but the idea is the same. If you want to draw grains of rice, you have to observe grains of rice.

In design terms, you can photograph or scan some actual rice and then trace it. In writing terms, if you want to describe how something or someone looks, moves, or acts, you must observe how the thing or person looks, moves, or acts.

Go to a dog park. Bring a notebook. Write down what you see. Do it every day for a month. See if the same dogs return. See how they interact with a familiar environment, or other familiar dogs. See how they interact with newcomers. See how they interact with weather (snow, rain, wind).

You can read books on dog training as well, to make use of others' observations and to learn some of the jargon vocabulary (like "play bow").

In short, this isn't something you can get from an afternoon on Stack Exchange. If you're writing a book, you must invest a chunk of time into research.

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