any tips for when to describe a character? ive written two chapters from Adam's point of view but have yet to describe his physical appearance at all.
Hi! Thanks for this very interesting Ask.
I totally visualize everything when I read (unlike some people who don’t picture characters), so I do pay close attention to descriptions.
That said, idk if there’s, like, a right ‘time’ as such to describe a character? It depends on a couple of things imo.
For one, most people who read your fic will already have an idea of what Adam looks like. So, fanfiction is not like original work, where you really do need to give the reader a visual description of your OC straight off. But if Adam looks really different in your story - like he's 25 and wears an Italian suit to work everyday, telling the reader more about that asap would make sense.
Also, the description needs to be organic, not abrupt. So, if your third person POV is quite... ‘close’, you would need to segue into it. Because if you’ve been writing from inside Adam’s head, it’s unlikely he’ll be thinking about how he looks.
He would need to maybe catch sight of his reflection and go off on a tangent about it, or think about how people perceived his appearance. And I find it helps if things do double duty - so, you could describe him and move the story forward.
For example: His freckles and tanned skin misled people into thinking he spent a lot of time in the sun. He actually spent most of the day chained to a shared desk at his soul-sucking corporate law firm.
Alternatively, you could wait until you were in another POV, if one was coming up soon.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your fic!
