Physically Describing a Diverse MC

abbyapplejack · Dec 10, 2016

So this is a bit of a two part question. The first: should you describe your main character's physical description at all? Things such as hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. I've noticed some writers view this kind of description as superficial and not very important to the meat of most stories. For the most part, I agree that you can give your readers little to nothing and they'll still come up with a very vivid physical description of your character anyway.

HOWEVER--and this is where part two comes in--I started writing science fiction stories to bring more diversity to the genre. By that, I mean protagonists of all different races. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a phenomenon that most readers assume a character to be Caucasian unless told otherwise. So although the story isn't about my character's race, describing what they look like still seems critical in order to accomplish what I'm trying to do. Halfway through my book, I have my MC explaining to someone about her parents and it becomes clear that she's biracial. But, as a reader, I also can't stand when I have a picture in my head of a character and then halfway through I'm told they look like something else!

Right now, I'm thinking of Marie Lu's Legend trilogy and how race is stated for one of the main characters. I'm also thinking about Hermoine Granger and how she wasn't described in racial detail, but once people started imagining her as black things got...tense. Anywho, I want to make it clear what race my characters are but I'm not sure how to do it tastefully without detracting from the story.

Also, just in case it helps, I'm writing in 1st POV, present tense.

Marlys · Dec 10, 2016

Could be as simple as I reach in the closet and grab my lucky pink shirt--I love the way the color pops against my brown skin.

As a reader, I prefer at least some physical description to help me imagine a character. As a writer, I give description, usually focusing on what my characters like or don't like about themselves. One hates his ginger hair and freckles with a passion. Another mentions that other kids used to make fun of his long, bony face by neighing behind his back, but is happy that his slender frame looks good in tailored clothes. Someone else looks like a lesser version of his father--not as tall, not as blond. In real life, people care about how they look at least some of the time. I think it's realistic when fictional characters do the same.

mschew · Dec 10, 2016

Personally, I don't care too much about physical description – but I'm also a pretty minimalist writer in general

When it comes to race, I'm struggling with the same thing. Here's one way I've thought of approaching it: when a character walks into a room full of people, does it occur to her that she's the only minority in the room? Does she ever wonder if someone's acting a certain way toward her because of her race? I think some degree of physical description is fine, too, but too often I've seen race brought up only in terms of looks, and that just doesn't feel right. A story may not be about a character's race, but her race is inevitably going to influence her outlook on the world and the way she exists in it.

blacbird · Dec 10, 2016

Since you yourself brought up the question, my recommendation, as a reader, would be: Don't describe the character. Write the story, and see what you need to leak out, at the times you need to do so.

caw

abbyapplejack · Dec 10, 2016

The story's already written.

I was going through the editing when I realized, "Wait! I never mentioned she has hazel eyes! *GASP*" and as I went looking for a place to put it I thought "...Is it really all that important?" And then all of my other questions starting tumbling out.

I know what my characters look like are important to me (down to the littlest detail) but I also know that's not important to the story. Which is why I'm finding it hard to accomplish my bigger picture.

abbyapplejack · Dec 10, 2016

mschew said:
...does it occur to her that she's the only minority in the room?

Oh, I've never thought about it that way. Thanks! As for the rest, I was trying to not focus on race to that extent. She definitely faces discrimination but not because of her skin color, it's because of her gender and social class. The book is set significantly in the future and I was optimistically writing from the perspective of race not being an issue for anyone.

mschew · Dec 11, 2016

abbyapplejack said:
I was optimistically writing from the perspective of race not being an issue for anyone.

Gotcha! If racism is a thing of the past in your book (a lovely thought) then maybe you could reference that social progress and at the same time fulfill the task of describing your character. For example: "Lucy often thought about how different life had been for her great-great-grandmother, how much discrimination she must have faced as practically the only black woman in her town, or what people must have said when she married a white man. Now, all these decades later, race was never an issue. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for gender."

Bufty · Dec 11, 2016

Writers, in order to write the story, obviously need to know far more about their characters than readers necessarily need to know in order to follow the story.

Concentrate upon the story.

Unless having hazel coloured eyes or green hair or whatever is of relevance/significance, don't mention it.

Readers have imaginations, too.

abbyapplejack · Dec 11, 2016

Cool, thanks everyone!

blacbird · Dec 11, 2016

Bufty said:
Writers, in order to write the story, obviously need to know far more about their characters than readers necessarily need to know in order to follow the story.

I'm not entirely sure about this, but it is a pretty good question. Me, I tend to find out a lot about my characters as I write the story. And I'm okay with readers discerning things about the characters that I didn't intend or didn't realize.

Well, that is, if I had any readers, I'd be okay with that.

caw

Bufty · Dec 12, 2016

I must confess I realized after I posted that I had inadvertently restricted the comment to characters, and I agree with your comments, blacie. :snoopy:

Put another way, just because we know a facial or other minor detail it may not be relevant or necessary for us to impose that detail on the reader, who may for whatever reason prefer another type of detail from his own imagination.

blacbird said:
I'm not entirely sure about this, but it is a pretty good question. Me, I tend to find out a lot about my characters as I write the story. And I'm okay with readers discerning things about the characters that I didn't intend or didn't realize.

Well, that is, if I had any readers, I'd be okay with that.

caw

Aggy B. · Dec 12, 2016

Yeah. There is an issue that folks will tend to assume "white/Caucasian" unless they are told otherwise. This is especially true if the author is not a PoC. Since part of the reason to write diverse characters is to give folks a chance to "see" people like themselves in fiction, there is an extra burden to ensure that diversity is out in the open.

That doesn't mean you have to describe every detail though, just the ones that will help clue in the reader that this character has dark skin and that character is Maori (or some equivalent). Hairstyles can also be a big clue. If you mention tiny braids or dreadlocs or even "natural" hair those things will give cues. The trick is finding something that informs us about the character as well as their appearance.

Simone.Garick · Dec 15, 2016

The best way to do any MC description is tospread it around. Also best to have the things dropped by other characters. I deally, you don't want to pay a big deal to things like race

abbyapplejack · Dec 18, 2016

Aggy B. said:
Hairstyles can also be a big clue.

Ah that's a good one I've never thought of. But will all readers get the natural hair thing? I've seen a few people not a part of that community not quite understand the term. For my MC I just described her hair texture which can be assumed as natural hair (hopefully). But beyond that though, dreadlocks and braids could belong to anybody especially when you write the kind of post-apocalyptic futuristic worlds that I do where cultures blur together.

Also I popped over by your blog and left a comment (it's on the one about privilege and race).

Latina Bunny · Dec 18, 2016

If the hair is like mine, you could mention the character struggling with trying to tame the wild "natural" hair, lol.

The Seanchai · Dec 20, 2016

So, whether or not you should describe your characters really depends on which reader you ask. Some people say no, that as a reader they'd rather it be left to their imagination. However, I, and several other readers, say yes describe your character. For me, I typically want to know at least some basics--hair and eye color at least. I want to be able to get a picture in my head based on what I read.

If you are trying to write diverse characters, then making it clear that they are diverse (and not just another white character--and you are right. Most people assume a character is white unless otherwise stated) is kind of needed. Otherwise people will just assume they are another straight white character. Granted you don't have to do this through physical description (my characters are lesbian, and there isn't really a way to describe a character as lesbian via physical description). You can do it through habit, if they have a specific cultural heritage or customs they follow, etc.

RightHoJeeves · Dec 20, 2016

abbyapplejack said:
Right now, I'm thinking of Marie Lu's Legend trilogy and how race is stated for one of the main characters. I'm also thinking about Hermoine Granger and how she wasn't described in racial detail, but once people started imagining her as black things got...tense. Anywho, I want to make it clear what race my characters are but I'm not sure how to do it tastefully without detracting from the story.

The Hermione being black thing falls squarely into the "who gives a toss?" category for me. I have read many things about people caring about that, but I've never met anyone who cares even slightly.

Sonsofthepharaohs · Dec 20, 2016

If you want to write diverse characters, you kinda have to describe what makes them diverse. Otherwise people will just assume default setting, which is the opposite of diverse.

Samsonet · Jan 4, 2017

For an MC, I find it easier to mention culture than appearance since it avoids the mirror cliche. "We eat mochi on New Year's" vs "I have straight black hair, brown eyes, and tan skin", if that makes sense?

For other characters the narrator has no way of reading their minds, so describing them works.

(And even if the character passes as white, her outlook could still be affected by her background.)

tommyb · Jan 4, 2017

Where is the writing aimed? How is it handled already there?
If it is 'street fiction', they have their own ways that you can mold, just like most other genre.

R.T James · Jan 4, 2017

When I came to this topic I could not help but view race as species.

Granted, most of my stories contain numerous sentient species, some of them covered in fur. So I took reading this and had my mind flipped around a bit.

So for my question then, if the mc is another species that isn't human do you bother describing them?

I mean one MC has fur, ears and a tail and is holding a whiskey glass up to their best friend who does not.
I mean I don't think it'd be wise to leave out the fact the MC is a different species until her tail is latched onto by a thug. I guess this shows funnily enough Diversity to me means "More then sodding humans."

Because I think I grew up with the mindset of we're all people.

On that Hermoine thing I always pictured her as black in the stories. Never knew why, just came off naturally as that. Or maybe my brain imagines a bit more color then is the norm. :tongue

Signed,

Mr. James.

Blinkk · Jan 4, 2017

abbyapplejack said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a phenomenon that most readers assume a character to be Caucasian unless told otherwise

I was under the impression that readers imagine unspecified characters as their own race. I knew a black girl who told me that, actually. She usually imagined characters in books as black unless otherwise stated. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't really know. I've never asked other people how they go about imagining characters.

tommyb · Jan 4, 2017

R.T James said:
So for my question then, if the mc is another species that isn't human do you bother describing them?

No, not usually, nor do I like them described much. In sci-fi, or whatever, there is usually some sort of backstory, or it is written as it goes, and that leaves the reader the chance to imagine it. I should probably know they are different and hairy.
In your example- the reader should already know there are different species and that she is not 'human' or whatever. Personally, I want to find out these little things when she needs to use them, or they become a part of the story. If she gets her tail pulled and it is important; then either I already know she has a tail (from another use), or it will be near the beginning and I will know it.

HeavilyMedicated · Jan 4, 2017

Just please, please don't compare them to food.

BethS · Jan 4, 2017

abbyapplejack said:
should you describe your main character's physical description at all?

Well, I do. Not in a lot of detail, but I find ways to work in key details when appropriate. And as a reader, I appreciate when the author includes skillful physical descriptions. After all, if other things are described--settings, objects, etc.--why wouldn't people be?

As to the rest of your question, whether the characters are "diverse" or not has nothing to do with it. If you choose to describe them, describe them as they are, whatever that happens to be.

Physically Describing a Diverse MC

abbyapplejack

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

mschew

blacbird

abbyapplejack

abbyapplejack

mschew

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

abbyapplejack

blacbird

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think

Simone.Garick

abbyapplejack

Latina Bunny

Lover of Contemporary/Fantasy Romance (she/her)

The Seanchai

RightHoJeeves

Sonsofthepharaohs

Still writing the ancient Egyptian tetralogy

Samsonet

Just visiting

tommyb

R.T James

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Blinkk

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tommyb

HeavilyMedicated

BethS