or - Writing Good Character Descriptions
By now most of you have probably heard it’s a bad idea to list out all your character’s traits at the beginning of your story. That’s true. Writing character descriptions like that takes the reader out of the story and - quite frankly - makes your story read like really bad, old school fanfiction.
Janine had ebony black hair and cerulean eyes that sparkled like moonbeams. Her most defining trait, however, was the curiously shaped scar on her left cheek.
The above is a fairly small chunk of text and perhaps a bit innocuous at first glance. But if you take the time to stop and describe every character as they enter the scene, your story gets bogged down really fast. This leads me to my first point -
Decide Whether You Need to Describe That Character
Not every character needs to be described in detail. It’s enough to leave it up to the reader’s imagination when it comes to many of the secondary and tertiary characters that appear in your story.
Additionally, in many stories - especially short fiction - the character’s appearance just isn’t all that important. In this case you can get away with not saying anything about their appearance at all, unless there’s something really striking about them that you want to point out for the sake of characterization.
Sprinkling Details into Your Text
In my example above, the really interesting detail is the scar I mentioned. Now - how do we actually get that into the text? Well, it’s up to you as the reader to find a reason to mention it.
“What’s a shame?” asked Janine, but I could tell she was already bracing herself for the inevitable.
“That scar on your cheek. You’re such a pretty girl.” The woman tutted. “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Janine gave the woman a tight smile. “Werewolf attack,” she said - her usual reply. It was the was the same answer she’d given me when I’d dared to ask. That, and “fighting off a zombie horde” and “sword fight” and a dozen other iterations of “I don’t want to talk about it,” until I’d finally gotten the hint and dropped the subject.
Comparisons and Contrasts Between Characters
Casually drawing comparisons between characters, especially in the beginning of a story, is a good way to relay a lot of information regarding description quickly and efficiently. It works especially well if you’re in the middle of discussing relationships because it can serve to highlight just how similar - or different - your characters are. Comparing/Contrasting characters does work best when there’s a close established relationship between characters though - brothers, best friends, etc.
- It was hard to tell Julie and Casey apart at first. Only a couple of years apart, they’d both inherited their mother’s blonde hair and their father’s infectious smile. But when you spent a little time around them, you started to see the differences.
- Andrew was used to being ignored when Titus was around. His friend’s dark skin tended to draw more than a little attention. It wasn’t just that, though. Titus towered over him - over almost everyone he met, in fact.
Using Appearance to Mark a Character
This can be a do or a don’t, for some of the same points I’ve already mentioned. First and foremost, it can be kind of obvious that you’re hammering in character description unless the detail you’re pointing out is really striking. Hair color is the go-to for this sort of thing, but honestly - it’s overdone. Unless your character has bubblegum pink hair or something else that really stands out you might want to hang on to your descriptors and find a better place to insert them into the text.
Additionally - remember that it’s easy to be insensitive or just plain racist/ableist/etc. when you use appearance to mark a character. Always think twice before making your character’s defining trait re: appearance “he’s fat” or “she’s Asian.”
I’ll say this once: no mirrors. Do not have your character look into a mirror and describe themselves.
Now. If you really find it necessary to describe a POV character’s appearance, how DO you do it? Well, there are the points above, which still work - dropping in descriptors as they become relevant, or a character comparing herself to someone else. But you get the added benefit of the character being able to quickly relay their thoughts and feelings about themselves to the reader in first person POV.
Example: It would be easy for me to say ‘I hate my body,’ but I don’t. I love it. I love every inch and every curve that God gave me. Some people can’t deal with that - a fat girl who’s proud of the way she looks. That’s fine. I just don’t deal with those people.
…and there you have it. That’s not everything of course, but it’s a quick starter guide to help you begin inserting descriptions more naturally into your story. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to leave them in my inbox or as a comment on this post and I’ll get back to you if I can.
