How much description for characters?

[Featured Author]

When introducing a new character, in how much detail do you describe them? Do you always mention hair color, eyes, or height? What do you leave out?

 

[Ophiucha]

I often describe very, very little about my characters - even over the course of the entire story, let alone when they are first introduced. I have the motto "what stands out?" and take to that. For most of my characters, there is nothing to say. Brown or blonde hair, brown or blue eyes, not worth describing. Some of them are a bit different. My main character/narrator first describes Laverne as "having tits and hips wide enough for me to wear her clothing", because she's a bit of a big girl. That is also the first mention of her we get (since she is sleeping when this happens; we later meet her properly, with little additional introduction). One character, Edmund, is as-of-now introduced with the line, "The captain walked as though he were still fighting the fierce waves at sea, and I could not tell if his distinct odor came from his food or his sexual proclivities." Because his only distinct traits are his odd walk and the fact that he smells of rotted fish.

 

[Kelise]

I only describe what's crucial to the story, and then things like Ophiucha said - things that can be fit into a larger sentence so you hardly notice it, but it's there and it builds.

It drives my boyfriend crazy, because he's very visual and NEEDS to know what they all look like, so I've promised to add that to my website in book extras if I ever get that far. I'm not going to put it in the novel (like how Cassandra Clare does, how everyone's swishing their ___ ___ hair around (length and colour where the ___ are) and describing what they're wearing in every scene. It really, really comes across as if the author is playing with barbie dolls.

 

[Kate]

I have to agree with the above. I find the best physical description comes in what's crucial to the story. Of course, lot of writers give specifics down to the finest detail. I often find that distracting to read, but I guess if the whole story is good enough I'll get by it.

I think good description in good writing is a very hard thing to get even close, let alone master.

 

[Worldbuilder]

Yup, I agree with what the others have said. If some part of their physical appearance, clothing, etc. is important to the story or to the general atmosphere of the world, it should be described, but a full physical description of every character (or even most characters) is not necessary and a full description of what every character is wearing in every scene comes off like a particularly crappy piece of chicklit, especially when it's obvious authorial self-insertion and wish fulfillment. I don't pay that much attention to my own clothes, if I wanted to pay that much attention to someone else's fictional clothes I'd go read Gossip Girl or something.

 

[Kate]

I just had a thought in addition to what I posted above, kind of what Worldbuilder was saying with the chick lit comment....I suppose if a character had a particular reason to be aware of every little thing they were wearing, if they were a fashion obsessee, or maybe wearing something they found unusual, I guess it'd do well to describe it all then.

Could go for physical features too. One of my characters has a tail and isn't really sure why. It gets some description, as does the coat she wears to cover it. I don't know (or care) what colour that coat is, so I'll let my readers decide for themselves.

 

[Worldbuilder]

I just had a thought in addition to what I posted above, kind of what Worldbuilder was saying with the chick lit comment....I suppose if a character had a particular reason to be aware of every little thing they were wearing, if they were a fashion obsessee, or maybe wearing something they found unusual, I guess it'd do well to describe it all then.

Could go for physical features too. One of my characters has a tail and isn't really sure why. It gets some description, as does the coat she wears to cover it. I don't know (or care) what colour that coat is, so I'll let my readers decide for themselves.

Good point, though I think this would also have to have logical reasons behind it. To name an example just off the top of my head, a peasant girl in a typical medievalish fantasy wouldn't necessarily pay attention to other people's clothes beyond the level of "rags" and "finery," but if she had social-climbing ambitions she might pay much more attention because of the importance of dress as a marker of social class in medievalish societies.

 

[Amanita]

When reading a book, I like to have some information on how the author imagines his or her characters, at least for the important ones. Hair, skin colour and built should be described somewhere because I don't think there's a "default" for any of these. But I prefer short and neutral descriptions. "Long black hair" is enough, I don't need "raven black curls cascading down her back". Generally, I'm not a fan of too "creative" descriptions. Referring to eyes as "saphire orbs" or some such is especially annoying but I don't think anyone does that outside of fanfiction, do they? I also don't like people getting described as pretty or ugly by the author, if it's the narrators opinion this should be made clear.
Clothes should be described if they're of any interest to the plot. If the MC is allowed/has to wear something "womanly" for the first time, when she's coming into a different country with different clothing style, or when she joins a magical organisation with a specific dress code. If the character always wears a dress, there's no need to describe everyone of them, though.

In my own writing, I try to describe the things, my MC would notice. In her home country everyone has dark hair, brown skin and eyes in various shades of brown. Therefore describing these things about any of the people around her wouldn't make much sense but I think I should describe that this is the way she's looking at some point because readers probably wouldn't realise this right away.
When she starts meeting people from different countries, she's going to notice more, even though I'll try to keep it to the necessary bits of course. Concerning clothes everything described above is happening to her but I don't intend to get into long details about that. When she's receiving her white alchemist novice robes for example, she just thinks that the colour is good because she won't get white stains on it when using her magic.

 

[Dr.Dorkness]

I myself like the 'creative' discriptions. it some times gives a more personal feel to the description you are giving to the reader. but do not give to much info at a time.

for example, at one moment my MC is late for her work, at that point of the story i did not give anything away on her looks. so as she is darting down the street I write: 'Her black hair which has a blue shine in the bright morning sun swirls behind her as she darts down the steet.' later she bumps into a young man and both fall to the ground and then I write some thing like. "He looked into her ocean blue eyes...." Then I do want her to be a pretty character. so a bit later I write: "He blushed and forgave her in an instand. Mila seemed to have that effect on the young men in her village"

An other way I use when you introduce a character: "a man with black hair and a scrufy beard, that was already turning grey, spoke."

Good luck

 

[Mdnight Falling]

I tend to detail the odder of my characters, like Macayla and Wynter because they one they aren't human and two their eyes are different then most have seen and to leave those details out would have the reader a bit lost when certain things in the story happen

 

[JCFarnham]

If I was looking for a way to justify a lot of character description (don't know why that would be the case but lets keep on with this train of thought), I tend to paint the POV character as an overthinker, some one who can talk at length about nothing at all, or just a daydreamer. Basically what I'm saying is nothing is wrong with description (especially '... of a character') if you can justify it. If you have no POV who would care about descriptors then ....

Definitely always something to think about. For example, I once had a character who thought too much about things, which meant she would often go into vivid detail. I meant I could get away with a lot more fiction cliches (a least in my opinion) than I could otherwise.

So yeah, if it fits the tone and your narrator, description is great, but if not ... something for the reader to grab hold of, something unique that you can use to remind them of a certain character when you need, is really all you need.

 

[At Dusk I Reign]

Beyond a rather basic physical description, I prefer to let character/appearance emerge through interaction with others. I've read books where the author felt compelled to bury the reader under the weight of description from page one, and I can't say it made me a fan. A slow unveiling throughout the novel works better for me, though obviously different strokes work for different folks.

 

[Ophiucha]

I reckon part of the reason I end up not describing my characters in detail does lie in POV. I write stories about friends, long term relationships, and families more than anything. The characters in my story are all within two degrees of separation. My main character, Theodore, went to university with Algernon and Nathaniel. His younger sister is Gertrude. Algernon's cousin, Laverne, is Theodore's best friend. Laverne grew up in the Occident and worked on building a submarine for Edmund and Harper (two submariners, now). Algernon's wife is also the leader of the Advisory, who works alongside (and eventually, against) Theodore. Nathaniel has a son with Dolores, who is Sebastian and the closest thing this ragtag party has to a 'hero'. Edmund is the great some-odd grandson of Bartholomew, whose ex-wife is Meredith and whose current husband is Archibald. The only other named characters are Jack Tollers (Dolores' husband), Natsume Goshima (Dolores' best friend), and the Charnel (basically the Grim Reaper, but also Theodore's great-some odd-grandfather).

The only characters Theodore hadn't met prior to the beginning of the story were Harper, Bartholomew, Jack, Dolores, Natsume, and Archibald. And since the narrative is basically just his journal, it would seem very odd if he spent any time describing his sister's or lifelong friends' hair color or something like that. Unless they dyed it or changed it in some way in the narrative, but none of them do, so...

 

[Sammy]

This depends on whether you're writing a novel or screenplay. Much more detail with novels, but with screenplay it's all about function and the type of character that would perform such function.

 

[Jadefire]

I am so glad to read how description -or the lack thereof- plays an important role in conveying a story. My MC needs to have a very bland appearance because I want her experiences to shape and change her not only on the inside but be reflected on the outside as well. I have noticed people who are confident dress and generally look better. I described her as having mouse-brown hair and tired gray eyes. But that is also how she sees herself, as tired and rundown. In the end, she will have confidence and realize she has great attributes to offer. I want it to be reflected in how she carries herself and what others observe in her. Such as a luminescence in her gray eyes...but that is only the outward appearance.

 

[Jabrosky]

I tend to concentrate my description on the most important characters, especially the protagonists. Usually I mention their skin color and other racial characteristics (e.g. hair texture or physical stature) and maybe their clothing just to give people a feel for their cultural background.

 

[wordwalker]

Here's a tricky point: sometimes the POV character's first impression of someone important would barely register, because it's only after a page (or a scene) later that the guy starts to show he's worth noticing. So it might be worth it to give a ho-hum description at the time, and later have the MC look again and realized he hadn't taken in the full picture.

(Or if this seems too tricky, never let a key character try to sneak by the MC's view.)

 

[Rullenzar]

Rowling in her harry potter series is a master of description. She makes it seem so simple and fluent that you don't even realize she just achieved descriptions of 4-10 characters within 2 sentences and made it appealing. A good example of this would be when your first introduced to the Weasley family in book 1. She describes the entire family in one or two sentences. For how simple her books seem to adults if you take the time to break down her writing technique you can learn a lot.

 

[Nameback]

I enjoy plenty of books with minimal description, but I don't write that way personally. Here's the description of my main POV character in my WIP (in limited third person):

"​She was already tall for a girl, just an inch or two shy of six foot. Her skin was the brown color of dark, life-affirming ale—a joyful brown, the color of things well-baked and warm. Her features were broad and strong, full lips and cheeks with high bones. Her pear shaped frame—a slender torso that blossomed into wide, round hips and thick thighs—appeared soft, but was in fact potent with explosive strength and stamina, as many of her rivals had learned growing up alongside her. Leti had taught them lessons with knuckle, elbow, tooth, and foot.

Her beauty was not native to Arade: *as Phylon said, Leti was a mutt. Her skin was darker than a Spirolian’s, yet lighter than an Uppad’s. Her features were a mix of cultures and nations, from her Colturik hazel eyes to her wide Uppad mouth. Thankfully, Arade was a city where a mutt could make her home. Different quarters of the city were ever striving to prove themselves the most distinct and strongly-flavored; one street found a person wrapped in the smells of fennel, smoked fish, and garlic, and the next block breathing in the heavy steam of boiling lentils, laced with cumin, nutmeg, and pepper. The finely-draped chitons of the natives gave way to southern men in linen skirts and women in cylindrical dresses that stopped just beneath their breasts, or to northerners sweating through the peninsular heat in their wools and furs dyed in the colors of the wild.

​Spirolians often took her for one such immigrant, though she had never known another city, never even left the gates of Arade. Hers was a country of tenements and market stalls, a continent of twisting cobbled alleys, a world of white-washed mud bricks and painted stone. She was a loyal citizen of them all."


Here are some things that I think make it work.
1. I avoid cliches.
2. I use descriptions that are more subjective than literal where possible. Instead of brown, "joyful brown of things well-baked and warm." So whatevee color the reader associates with those more subjective, emotional descriptors is what they fill in in their minds. Plus it colors our emotional perceptions of the character as well as literal perceptions.
3. I try to do double duty. Like meshing character description with description of location, history, etc.
4. Provide character history. We know Leti is tall and strong--we also know she was a brawler growing up.
5. Good prose. I'm proud of the similes and metaphors I use in the description, and hopefully the prose is worthwhile on its own merits.

 

[Jabrosky]

I enjoy plenty of books with minimal description, but I don't write that way personally. Here's the description of my main POV character in my WIP (in limited third person):

"​She was already tall for a girl, just an inch or two shy of six foot. Her skin was the brown color of dark, life-affirming ale—a joyful brown, the color of things well-baked and warm. Her features were broad and strong, full lips and cheeks with high bones. Her pear shaped frame—a slender torso that blossomed into wide, round hips and thick thighs—appeared soft, but was in fact potent with explosive strength and stamina, as many of her rivals had learned growing up alongside her. Leti had taught them lessons with knuckle, elbow, tooth, and foot.

Her beauty was not native to Arade: *as Phylon said, Leti was a mutt. Her skin was darker than a Spirolian’s, yet lighter than an Uppad’s. Her features were a mix of cultures and nations, from her Colturik hazel eyes to her wide Uppad mouth. Thankfully, Arade was a city where a mutt could make her home. Different quarters of the city were ever striving to prove themselves the most distinct and strongly-flavored; one street found a person wrapped in the smells of fennel, smoked fish, and garlic, and the next block breathing in the heavy steam of boiling lentils, laced with cumin, nutmeg, and pepper. The finely-draped chitons of the natives gave way to southern men in linen skirts and women in cylindrical dresses that stopped just beneath their breasts, or to northerners sweating through the peninsular heat in their wools and furs dyed in the colors of the wild.

​Spirolians often took her for one such immigrant, though she had never known another city, never even left the gates of Arade. Hers was a country of tenements and market stalls, a continent of twisting cobbled alleys, a world of white-washed mud bricks and painted stone. She was a loyal citizen of them all."


Here are some things that I think make it work.
1. I avoid cliches.
2. I use descriptions that are more subjective than literal where possible. Instead of brown, "joyful brown of things well-baked and warm." So whatevee color the reader associates with those more subjective, emotional descriptors is what they fill in in their minds. Plus it colors our emotional perceptions of the character as well as literal perceptions.
3. I try to do double duty. Like meshing character description with description of location, history, etc.
4. Provide character history. We know Leti is tall and strong--we also know she was a brawler growing up.
5. Good prose. I'm proud of the similes and metaphors I use in the description, and hopefully the prose is worthwhile on its own merits.

Wow, I love this passage and the world you create through it. It reminds me of the ancient Mediterranean world with all the different kinds of people who populated it.