Character Development: Appearance
Your character’s appearance is pretty useful for a reader. This doesn’t just include hair and eye color, but accessories, how they view their own appearance, and body language. The character’s appearance helps your reader to not only visualize the character they’re reading about, but also to let them know something about the character. Here’s a list of the different components in a character’s appearance:
eyes (color, shape, emotion, etc.)
hair (color, style, wavy/curly/straight/etc., long/short)
skin (color, texture - like is it smooth, pockmarked, covered in spikes, etc.)
build (height, weight, muscle, type of body)
body language (how they stand/move)
clothing - normal (e.g. what they’d wear while out and about in public or in general)
clothing - dressed up (e.g. when they’re trying to be fancy)
clothing - comfortable (e.g. when they don’t care about what they look like, only comfort)
footwear/accessories (shoes, bags, hairthings, jewelry, tattoos, etc.)
how do they feel about their appearance (e.g. are they proud of it, ashamed, or just don’t care?)
how they see themselves vs how others see them (tied into the one above - like if they don’t care about their appearance and see their appearance as perfectly fine, but other people think that they don’t wear good clothes. In other words, how does your character’s appearance influence their interactions with others?)
items/things that they carry around with them or that appear with them that don’t really fit into the accessories category (e.g. Disney princesses and their animals, or the Log Lady and her log in Twin Peaks)
Of course, not all of this information will appear in your writing (unless you’re working with visuals, like film or comics), but it’s good to keep in mind as the author.
When you do describe your character’s appearance in writing, remember:
I know, you’ve heard it all before, but it’s pretty important.
For instance, if you have a tall character, instead of saying
He carried himself the way many tall people did - slightly bent down so that people could talk face-to-face with him.
He was always accidentally hitting his head on doorways that were too small for him, or on strings of lights at parties hung to accommodate people much shorter than him.
From these descriptions, the reader knows that not only is your character tall, but also how his height affects him and others around him - he’s courteous and tries not to loom over people, and his surroundings aren’t built with his height in mind, indicating that there aren’t many tall people where he lives.
By showing, not telling, you’ll be giving the reader more information about your character and in a way that develops character/the story.
However, there are times when you shouldn’t spend a lot of time on description. If it’s not important to your character or story, don’t feel bad if you say something very simply. And if your character isn’t the type to notice appearances that much, then it wouldn’t make sense for them to suddenly notice appearances with no explanation.
We have two characters noticing the same guy. The first character is a girl who loves art and poetry; the second character is a girl who likes math and science.
Character 1: “The stranger had deep blue eyes, like the depths of a still pond. I kept peeking at him all through second period, dying to pull my sketchbook out and start drawing.”
Character 2: “The stranger was good-looking, I guess - all the other girls were cooing over him in first period English today. I wasn’t really listening; problem number 87, part b, was a bit of a challenge.”
To the first character, description with colors and metaphors are important, and so it makes sense that she would describe the stranger this way. But to the second girl, who isn’t very poetic, it wouldn’t make sense, so all she would say is “he’s good-looking and the other girls like him,” and the reader can fill in the blanks.
not all of your character’s appearance is going to make it into the story
keep descriptions in character, and make it relevant to the story or character
This is part of a character development series I’m doing. You can find the rest on my blog, under the tag “character development series.” Other topics already covered: body language and speech.
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