I've heard scatter decussions about this subject so I decided to get all the opinions on one thread
Character descriptions
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If the character's description is important, it should probably be included. If you're writing a fantasy character who doesn't match any typical fantasy race, it's probably worth mentioning that she, say, has hair made of multi-colored moss, or whatever distinguishes that race. Or, say, your character is the only blue-eyed person in the area, it'll probaby be striking to other characters. If it's not important, don't include it (just like everything else 
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I'm assuming you mean physical descriptions.
I don't really use them. Hair and clothes and height don't matter to me that much. I only mention very striking features...but you don't describe your best friends every time you see them, so why should your narrator? (first person or third) A paragraph of straight description turns me off. I skim those. It doesn't enrich the story to know if Susie has green eyes or brown.
I don't really use them. Hair and clothes and height don't matter to me that much. I only mention very striking features...but you don't describe your best friends every time you see them, so why should your narrator? (first person or third) A paragraph of straight description turns me off. I skim those. It doesn't enrich the story to know if Susie has green eyes or brown.
I was never big on physical character descriptions, personally. They *can* be effective but I don't bother with them much unless there is a particular detail about a person's physical make up that is important to the over-all story. Some people LOVE them. I don't. Meh. In my mind, the more vaguely a main character's physical make up can be described, the better. Simply because, as a reader, I was always big on associating myself in a character's role. And the more physically particular you make a character, the harder it is for the reader to accomplish this. So, unless there is a specific reason I need to include a physical description of some aspect of a main character (a lot of times there are), I don't.
I think it's best to scatter the description between bits of action, if you're going to use one. For example, if the author's character is short, he can have her be unable to reach something that others can reach just fine. Then, the reader knows that she's short without the author having to bluntly say, "She was short," which would be pretty dull to read.
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If you're writing a romance your pretty much have to describe the appearance of the two main characters in loving detail. And appearance can be a very strong tool in comedy and horror too. I think every major character should be described at least enough to create some sort of mental picture in the reader's head which makes that character distinct from the other characters. It's certainly not necessary to describe every detail of every character's appearance though.
I give physical descriptions when writing. I don't go overboard at all, but I want to put what the characters look like. I do it as showing and not telling, too. When reading, I like to have a description of the characters. Its good to leave something to the readers' imaginations for them to fill in, but I want something there. I don't want to be clueless as to what they look like.
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It depends on several factors. Describing the POV character is always tacky. But describing what strikes the POV character about other characters is natural.
The only really bad thing, when describing non-POVs is stopping the action for a detailed description. Normally you can sketch them out in a few lines and sprinkle in more details later.
The exception is romance, where description of the hot, nubile body in the room has everything to do with why the reader picked up this book in the first place. Fantasy is the same way to a large extent.
But if it's an every day story, be careful... and always be careful of describing the POV character. For her/him, leave what you can to the reader's imagination, because they're trying to identify with her/him. Also, it's just tacky to have a character musing on their own appearance in any way.
The only really bad thing, when describing non-POVs is stopping the action for a detailed description. Normally you can sketch them out in a few lines and sprinkle in more details later.
The exception is romance, where description of the hot, nubile body in the room has everything to do with why the reader picked up this book in the first place. Fantasy is the same way to a large extent.
But if it's an every day story, be careful... and always be careful of describing the POV character. For her/him, leave what you can to the reader's imagination, because they're trying to identify with her/him. Also, it's just tacky to have a character musing on their own appearance in any way.
The only really bad thing, when describing non-POVs is stopping the action for a detailed description. Normally you can sketch them out in a few lines and sprinkle in more details later.
This is a very important observation here. I've heard from agents and editors alike tell me to "sprinkle" characteristics or descriptions, but do so liberally. I'm more apt to throw in a tattoo or use a metaphor.
Tri
This is a very important observation here. I've heard from agents and editors alike tell me to "sprinkle" characteristics or descriptions, but do so liberally. I'm more apt to throw in a tattoo or use a metaphor.
Tri
Well, I think it's necessary to have some absolute basic information about the character, like female, male, tall, small, thin or not, pretty, blonde, whatever, it's always nice to know. At least I don't like reading books where I can't picture the main character or after 400 pages I find out I pictured her tall, blonde and actually she's small and brown haired.
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Mdlle. Nancy said:
If you're observant, I think you internally describe your friends to yourself everytime you meet them. You do notice their clothes, how their hair is done, if they've got too much or too little makeup on. Don't you?
I think the same is true for fiction, one day a character might be wearing a pair of jeans and a colored T-shirt, the next day they might be wearing a suit and tie. In real life you'd comment, "going on a job interview?" or something if suits weren't their normal attire.
When I'm reading, I like to know if a character has short dark hair or long wavy blond hair, if they are tall and thin, or short and squat, flabby or muscled, a sloucher or with good posture. Helps me visualize them.
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Like snowflake said, if you do describe a character, do it early on. I was reading a James Patterson novel, and he desribed one of the characters (in a mirror scene *ack*), right at the end of the story, when I'd already built a picture of him. And of course, the descriptions clashed. And when stuff clashes, it removes the reader from the story.
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Personally, when I'm writting, I generally like to describe the main character in the first paragraph, but then again I generally write in third person for the most part, and personally I think having a general description is always good, not only that it kind of helps me get into the story, and if it's unneeded in the end, I remove it...but at first I always include it.
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loquax said:
I agree. The reader should know the basics of a character's appearance early in the story, so they can form a mental picture. After that (imo), it should be left alone, unless the character suffers some injury that alters their appearance. I get irritated when a physical trait is constantly revisited; if a character is abnormally tall, I don't want to read about people's reactions every time he goes somewhere he is not already known.
Depends on how unique a character looks, and how important their physical traits are. On one hand it doesn't really matter how the librarian in the local college, who appears in one scene, is built... but then again, I wouldn't want people to think my heroine who's tossing around men the size of WWE wrestlers is the usual slightly built fantasy babe.
I blend physical description with elements significant to the character's behavior and status, eg: "As he hurried on, his worn brown coat, a hand-me-down from his father, flapped about his thin body, and his wrists stuck out four inches."
"Bristling with irritation, she stood with her arms akimbo, the thin skin of her face turning an unbecoming puce, dark against the white coif covering most of her red hair."
"Just past fifty, she felt old and tired, but the prettiness of her youth clung to her face... Anyone meeting her could see where her son Robert got his looks."
I admire Annie Proulx's writing. Take a look at Accordian Crimes if you want to see this done well--or any of the others.
Character descriiptions are important to the richness of the storytelling, but not necessarily physical descriptions. I would say selective physical descriptions. Just what a POV character notices about others tells a lot about how his/her mind works. For instance, a man might notice a woman's neckline was low-cut and the body revealed shapely but not that the dress was a designer original or last year's style. A woman would be more likely to look at it like a consumer and use it to gauge the woman's social position, taste, or pretensions or even her moral character and personality. Another woman might recognize the dress as one she donated to a thrift shop. What a character sees and registers is important, not just for descriptions of others but as revealing the POV character.
"Bristling with irritation, she stood with her arms akimbo, the thin skin of her face turning an unbecoming puce, dark against the white coif covering most of her red hair."
"Just past fifty, she felt old and tired, but the prettiness of her youth clung to her face... Anyone meeting her could see where her son Robert got his looks."
I admire Annie Proulx's writing. Take a look at Accordian Crimes if you want to see this done well--or any of the others.
Character descriiptions are important to the richness of the storytelling, but not necessarily physical descriptions. I would say selective physical descriptions. Just what a POV character notices about others tells a lot about how his/her mind works. For instance, a man might notice a woman's neckline was low-cut and the body revealed shapely but not that the dress was a designer original or last year's style. A woman would be more likely to look at it like a consumer and use it to gauge the woman's social position, taste, or pretensions or even her moral character and personality. Another woman might recognize the dress as one she donated to a thrift shop. What a character sees and registers is important, not just for descriptions of others but as revealing the POV character.
There are very vague physical descriptions in my book, except where it develops the character. If grandma dyes her hair black and wears lots of jewelry it says something about that character.
One of my support characters was only described as action took place. At one point she was talking about her many years ago engagement ring, looked down at her left hand and said, "I wish it still fit." So we understand she is not a petite thing. I didnt have to say it. She said it. This just works for me. I like to leave it open to interpretation because as a reader that always helped me formulate my own picture of the characters. I wanted to do that for my readers too.
We know my main character has long hair which comes into play a couple of times in the story - when she puts her head down it falls like a curtain over her face - she hides behind it. This detail seems crucial so it is included. So its in. I don't think I ever mentioned the color of her eyes though.
I described the MC's friends when she first met them, because she was noticing them for the first time. They are not described again, except in action that a physical characteristic applies to.
One of my support characters was only described as action took place. At one point she was talking about her many years ago engagement ring, looked down at her left hand and said, "I wish it still fit." So we understand she is not a petite thing. I didnt have to say it. She said it. This just works for me. I like to leave it open to interpretation because as a reader that always helped me formulate my own picture of the characters. I wanted to do that for my readers too.
We know my main character has long hair which comes into play a couple of times in the story - when she puts her head down it falls like a curtain over her face - she hides behind it. This detail seems crucial so it is included. So its in. I don't think I ever mentioned the color of her eyes though.
I described the MC's friends when she first met them, because she was noticing them for the first time. They are not described again, except in action that a physical characteristic applies to.
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I'm with Nancy, totally.
To me, you can't measure a person by their hair-color. I have mentioned height now and then, but rarely, and only in relation to other characters in situations that matter.
I think you can, to some extant, talk about issues like physical fitness, or a healthy tan in the middle of winter, as well... basically features that reveal the person's true self.
It's not the skin that matters, it's how we wear it.
Describing characters appearances is often just a distraction.
The writer that I think does it best is F. Scott Fitzgerald in "The Great Gatsby". He does go into detail about the characters, but the details he chooses to show aren't really about the person's physical body -- they just seem to be.
To me, you can't measure a person by their hair-color. I have mentioned height now and then, but rarely, and only in relation to other characters in situations that matter.
I think you can, to some extant, talk about issues like physical fitness, or a healthy tan in the middle of winter, as well... basically features that reveal the person's true self.
It's not the skin that matters, it's how we wear it.
Describing characters appearances is often just a distraction.
The writer that I think does it best is F. Scott Fitzgerald in "The Great Gatsby". He does go into detail about the characters, but the details he chooses to show aren't really about the person's physical body -- they just seem to be.
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I use a physical description once, and lightly, and allow the reader's imagination to take shape. Any other description comes through by the characters actions, tendencies, etc.
badducky said:
Very much agreed that physical description has to reveal something about the character's innerworkings. has to reveal part of their personality, motive, etc. and completely agree regarding "Gatsby".
The physical stature of a character only matters if it impacts their actions, or the reactions of other characters to them, imo. That is nearly the only physical description I use.
Shadow_Ferret said:
I only describe what is pertinent to the story and what the narrator notices. You might mention a friend's shirt in passing but your interior monologue wouldn't go into description mode.
Sometimes I have to get the physical description out, for my own benefit. But I cut most of it. In my current WIP I haven't described my MC at all--in one scene she wears a bikini, so you know she's probably not fat, but that's as in-depth as it goes.
description
Unless there someting really weird about a character's appearance that must be described, I greatly prefer showing what a character looks like through his actions, and the actions of those around him, rather than describing them. If he's tall, have him reach something on a high shelf, or have him look down at another character. If he's handsome, have a woman turn to watch him.
I literally could not care less about hair and eye color. All that does is tell the reader teh character doesn't look like them.
Unless there someting really weird about a character's appearance that must be described, I greatly prefer showing what a character looks like through his actions, and the actions of those around him, rather than describing them. If he's tall, have him reach something on a high shelf, or have him look down at another character. If he's handsome, have a woman turn to watch him.
I literally could not care less about hair and eye color. All that does is tell the reader teh character doesn't look like them.
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