What Your Characters Look Like

jruby · Jan 29, 2010

How do you decide, or figure out, what your characters look like? Do they just appear to you (that's the way it is for me most the time) or do you see a picture in a magazine and a character just sprouts from this face - even if that character doesn't end up looking exactly like the face you saw, it does kindle something...

Just wondering about everyone else's process.

Collectonian · Jan 29, 2010

They pretty much just appear to me and tell me how they look. Much like their names. I rarely deliberately name my characters, they usually just have names they share, though sometimes I do choose on purpose (usually more minor characters) or override the character's choice.

thothguard51 · Jan 29, 2010

My characters appearances are generally based on their characteristics. Most are composites of people I know. Several of my beta readers complained everyone in one of my stories were too beautiful or handsome, and there was not an average person in it. (Hey, can I help it if I see beauty in everyone?). Eventually, I did tone the looks down some; added a few scars, blemishes, or deformaties... But only slightly because it is fantasy fiction.

And since I write mostly fantasy fiction, I have found not only some of my characters in the art work of fantasy artist like Frazetta, but I have also found stories from the art work...

Brutal Mustang · Jan 29, 2010

A lot of my characters are intrusive, and come crashing into my brain, looks, lingo, and character intact (usually they are the swearing bunch). And then there are characters who come to me slowly, the details of their faces sharpening in my mind as weeks pass by.

donroc · Jan 29, 2010

Composites and specifics based on people I have seen and known -- the exceptions being historical personages whose descriptions and portraits are available.

Stunted · Jan 29, 2010

Yeah, they just come. (Or they don't. Which is also fine. I had one really major character whose face I didn't know. I said that he had dark hair, so that he would look different from the MC, who was blond, but I didn't know.)

AlterEgox5 · Jan 29, 2010

Most characters just pop up the way they are, oddly enough. I'd never really thought about it. I did realize recently that I completely neglected to mention what the MC's brother looks like and after seeing a piece of art that perfectly fit a scene in the book (I mean, 95% dead on), I realized he could look like the person in the piece.

I'm willing to make adjustments. I did have one character that was blond, but after seeing a picture (yeah, I'm big on art) that fit oh-so-nicely and also realizing I use blond hair a lot elsewhere, decided to make her hair more of a reddish color.

thothguard51 · Jan 29, 2010

Yes, I am big on the art searches myself. I have a general idea a lot of times but need the inspiration the art brings to me in describing my characters.

I hope one never reminds of the Mona Lisa, her smile looks painful...

Libbie · Jan 29, 2010

I really don't give a poop what my characters look like. When I must describe any of them, I do so in relatively vague terms. For example, a guy might be described as being masculine, or strong, or bald, without my going into specifics over eye color, height, skin color, etc. It doesn't matter to me, and I'd rather allow the reader to fill in the image as they please.

I have extremely vague ideas myself of what most of my characters look like.

Maxinquaye · Jan 29, 2010

I have a very vivid images of all my characters but I don't generally translate that onto the page because often it's not necessary. I do however tend to give some characteristics, to seperate people from each other; a redhead, a black person, a teenage boy, old man, and so on.

My mind plays movies for me, and the character appearances is part of that.

nitaworm · Jan 30, 2010

I visualize all of my characters, but have changed certain characteristics once beta's get it. Usually its only minor, like the eye color or height that changes.

Chasing the Horizon · Jan 30, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
My mind plays movies for me, and the character appearances is part of that.

This is how it works for me too.

I don't give super-detailed descriptions of the characters, but focus on the features that make them distinctive. I also pay attention to what my POV character would notice. In the book I was just working on there was more clothing description than I'd usually do, because my POV character was using the way people dressed to denote their social class (very important in his society). In my other series the two female leads got very loving descriptions from my (straight male) MC's POV, because when he sees a beautiful woman he takes a very close look.

Linda Adams · Jan 30, 2010

My process:

I find a name (usually after a quick search off the internet).

Then I assign one or more characteristics to the character, pretty much off the fly. More often then not, the description is a first impression rather than a description of hair color and eye color. Because I do an omni narrator, the first impression can include a far wider range than what a POV character can see.

In most cases, I don't really have a picture of the character in my head--I often have 30 characters in my books, so it would get old very quickly if I had to come up with distinguishing features for everyone.

Maxinquaye · Jan 30, 2010

Chasing the Horizon said:
This is how it works for me too.

I don't give super-detailed descriptions of the characters, but focus on the features that make them distinctive. I also pay attention to what my POV character would notice. In the book I was just working on there was more clothing description than I'd usually do, because my POV character was using the way people dressed to denote their social class (very important in his society). In my other series the two female leads got very loving descriptions from my (straight male) MC's POV, because when he sees a beautiful woman he takes a very close look.

That is important in our society too; if you have a young man dressed in suit and tie, in contrast to a young man dressed in a jumper and a faked Adidas tracksuit with a cap wisted 45-degrees on his head, you can make some assumptions about the character, and it becomes a short-hand characterisation device.

donroc · Jan 30, 2010

I hope one never reminds of the Mona Lisa, her smile looks painful...[/QUOTE]

During my school days, we decided the Mona Lisa "smile" meant that she was the anonymous one who wafted a rancid silent fart.

Mr Flibble · Jan 30, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
That is important in our society too; if you have a young man dressed in suit and tie, in contrast to a young man dressed in a jumper and a faked Adidas tracksuit with a cap wisted 45-degrees on his head, you can make some assumptions about the character, and it becomes a short-hand characterisation device.

Which becomes even better when you reveal the guy in the suit is on trial for murder and trying to look respectable and the guy in the trackie is the judge on his way to a fancy dress party

Lady Ice · Jan 30, 2010

They look like certain actors, or people I know, with some minor changes. I like to try and have a clear picture as it helps me to build their personality.

sadron · Jan 30, 2010

MC look like reference on my ava.

roonil_wazlib · Jan 30, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
I have a very vivid images of all my characters but I don't generally translate that onto the page because often it's not necessary. I do however tend to give some characteristics, to seperate people from each other; a redhead, a black person, a teenage boy, old man, and so on.

My mind plays movies for me, and the character appearances is part of that.

It's the same for me. My characters often look like someone I know or someone I've seen in a movie/television show/etc, but that never really translates to paper. If they're scruffy, I describe them as scruffy, but beyond that, it's up to the reader to decide exactly what the characters look like.

Darklite · Jan 30, 2010

My MC is short, pale, and ginger. With freckles. Not your traditional romantic lead, but that was the way he showed up in my head. I didn’t have the heart to demand he get himself a hollywood make-over.

OpheliaRevived · Jan 30, 2010

They just come served up fully "formed" by my imagination. :Shrug:

Renee Collins · Jan 30, 2010

I usually get a general picture of what they look like right away. And by general, I mean, body size/shape and coloring. The faces of my characters always stay a bit blurred, if that makes sense. I do occasionally "see" facial expressions though.

Frankly, it doesn't bother me that I don't see every single detail of what they "look" like. I know what they are like very well, and to me, that's most important.

ishtar'sgate · Jan 30, 2010

jruby said:
How do you decide, or figure out, what your characters look like? Do they just appear to you (that's the way it is for me most the time) or do you see a picture in a magazine and a character just sprouts from this face - even if that character doesn't end up looking exactly like the face you saw, it does kindle something...

Just wondering about everyone else's process.

Their appearance usually emerges out of what I expect from them in the story. When I begin to write character backgrounds and what shapes them into who they are now and what they're going to do I generally start to 'see' them - with some exceptions. A couple of women in The First Vial were taken from a newspaper clipping I kept for years. The photograph with the article caught my attention because although the two women were twins they were quite different. In The First Vial they became sisters that everyone considered witches.

jruby · Jan 30, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
I have a very vivid images of all my characters but I don't generally translate that onto the page because often it's not necessary [...] My mind plays movies for me, and the character appearances is part of that.

That's the way it is for me. I like seeing the characters, and knowing everything about them; from the way they look to their personality and likes and dislikes - but I don't write most of it down (because like others have said, I think too much character description bogs the narrative), it's just for me.

Gedaechtnis · Jan 30, 2010

I haven't described my characters much...the MC has dark brown hair, grey eyes...others have hair color mentioned in the book and I know their eye colours but haven't mentioned them. People get characterized by what they wear, how they act, not so much what they look like. I almost never get concrete mental images of what a character looks like, it's all just "you'll have this hair color, you're going to be skinny and blush easily so I'll model your looks a little off an old friend" etc.

What Your Characters Look Like

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