Have I Told You How Attractive This Character is?

gothicangel

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During my Lockdown reading, I've read a few recently published (crime) novels and I have noticed that there seems to be a trend were authors are repeatedly telling you how gorgeous their characters are or how everyone loves them? I find it quite irritating and to be frank vomit-inducing.

It makes me cringe really, particularly when an author spends so much time telling me how beautiful a female is for her to end up a beautiful corpse https://literariness.org/wp-content...tional-Publishing_Palgrave-Macmillan-2018.pdf

I don't remember this being such a thing? Is it the result of our modern celebrity culture or the legacy of Twilight and 50 Shades? Thoughts?
 

Animad345

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One of my biggest pet peeves in writing is when a character's looks are described more than their actual personality. I don't know about it being a modern trend necessarily - you have this in a lot of 'older' and classic novels as well.
 

Bing Z

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Probably a cheesy way to induce (more of) your sympathy. A man/woman gets killed? Just another news/plot point. A hottie meets a tragic end? Readers might sympathize more. Okay, a well written character will get more, but it takes time and effort to do it. Telling you a cardboard character is gorgeous and kind and brilliant takes half minute.
 

lizmonster

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Making a character beautiful so we care when they die is kind of gross, yeah, but also a movie/TV trick.

In novels, attractiveness can be a lot of things. I read an interview with Carol O'Connell once in which she said she made her protagonist, Kathy Mallory, beautiful because it was a power of sorts, and Mallory was otherwise a deeply damaged person. I approach my characters the same way: unusual good looks are a tool, to be used for good or bad, but still used.

If it's harped on to the point of annoyance, of course, the writer has mishandled it. :)
 

Z0Marley

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I remember it being a thing in horror movies. We'd get to see this beautiful thing do the dumbest things possible for about a solid five minutes before becoming a beautiful corpse. Equally annoying, in my opinion, haha.
 

MaeZe

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In Daughter of Smoke and Bones, the angel* character is described as so beautiful when the main character draws him no one believes she drew a real person.

It works because she doesn't fall head-over-heels for him because of his looks. It works because he's a symbolic angel (or not-see below ;) )

So looks can be treated in many different ways.


**Religious references are hinted at, more than that and I'd be writing spoilers.
 

Albedo

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*author says the character is stunningly attractive*

*proceeds to describe character in a way that suggests overconfidence that their idea of attractive is universal*

Thinking of all those court ladies from Classical Chinese poetry with skin like lard and foreheads like cicadas.