Character Appearences

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by UrbanBanshee, Feb 2, 2012.

  1. The Tourist

    The Tourist Banned

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    Yes, I do the same, when something like mentioning the character being left-handed is a plot point later in the story.

    In fact, later on in the chapter now being written, my lead character is given a new pair of boots endemic to the academy from which he has graduated. These boots are a vehicle for showing a distinct turning point in the life of that character. I think I go into more precise detail and a longer explanation for the look and feel of this footware than I did for the character himself. I also show how they measured the character's feet.

    I felt that having a few military officers lift him up out of an infirmary bed and stand him up to get a proper measurement pretty much set the scene. After all, he was shot and almost killed at the graduation exercises...
     
  2. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    i have a very precise picture in my head what each character looks like, but I only reveal a few details on actual physical appearance.
     
  3. RowenaFW

    RowenaFW New Member

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    Why does everybody mention eye colour? It seems totally bizarre to me - normally, how often do you observe people's eye colour? If you're trying not to do the cliched introduction of a character is immediately followed by a description, then you shouldn't be mentioning eye colour, unless it's important.

    I often do introduce my characters with a description, but not always. Minor and main characters don't always get a description - it's the characters you need in for a while or have to build familiarity with fast who get the description. Characters my POV character knew before the book started, and the POV character themself get very poor write ups. This partially differentiates them from other characters, and partially performs a role in foreshadowing elements of their character.

    For example, I introduce the antagonist as being startlingly handsome, as being tall, well formed, and having a wicked smile. Throughout the book I enhance these things, give further details about his expressions, the shape of his lips, his eyebrows, the way he moves... It is important to build sexual tension. The main character closely observes him, but pretends that shoe does not.

    On the other hand, by the end of the 155k book all you know about the main character's appearance is:

    She's attractive, but not beautiful or anything.
    She's on the taller side of average.
    She has brown hair and brown eyes (everybody in my "world" does).
    She looks like her cousin in profile (plot point).
    She has more angular features like her father's side of the family.

    And of these, only the last one tells you anything at all!
     
  4. Yoshiko

    Yoshiko Contributor Contributor

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    I always notice a person's eye colour. I can still remember the eye colour of a bus driver who let me ride for free when I was in London three years ago. :p
     
  5. RowenaFW

    RowenaFW New Member

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    That's really unusual! Though it certainly doesn't apply to most people...
     
  6. Pyraeus

    Pyraeus New Member

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    @RowenaFW I just realised that I don't know the eye colour of most of the people I know. I always describe the eye colour for some reason; I suppose the characters probably eventually notice the eye colour at some point.
    Quite a few of my characters have especially weird eye colours (about 4 of the main characters are described as having silvery-grey irises.) The reason is they are all related-the first is the father, the next two are brothers, sons of the first character, and the third is one of the brothers descendants (The brothers and there father are long living, as you have probably already guessed.)
     
  7. Nakhti

    Nakhti Banned

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    Yeah, I do too. Eyes are very important to me for some reason - they are the fisrt thing I notice about a person, and you can tell a lot about a person from their eyes. Strong eye contact is also important for communication and body language - you can fake confidence with it, intimidate with it, or just show a person you are really interested in what they're saying. So I spend quite a lot of time looking into people's eyes. As I'm a keen observer of people with an almost photographic memory, I notice eye colour :)
     
  8. shadowwalker

    shadowwalker Contributor Contributor

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    I couldn't tell you the eye color of the people I work with 8 hours a day. Unless someone has very unusual eyes (like Betty Davis) or wearing outlandish makeup, I don't really pay that much attention to them. I look at the quirked eyebrow, or the crinkle around the eyes - but color just doesn't seem that noticeable to me.
     
  9. RowenaFW

    RowenaFW New Member

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    I look at eyes, and I look at mouth, but I look at shape, motion, expression, not colour. I try to minimise mention of eye colour, but imbued as I am with a long literary tradition of it, I keep doing it. Still, I try not to.

    Nowaways I mostly talk about dark eyes, and like to think this could be interpreted as overshadowed eyes as well as/instead of dark colour eyes.

    I know the eye colour of most people I know. I once realised I didn't, and went around taking note of them. :p
     
  10. suddenly BANSHEES

    suddenly BANSHEES Senior Member

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    I don't go into nearly as much detail with descriptions as I used to, but I think it's important to have something there, to help your readers visualize the story. I usually at least give their build and hair color/style, and at least one defining characteristic about them, like a crooked nose or a long face or something. Like others have said, I don't notice eye color in people unless they're particularly striking, so I usually leave that out.

    But my physical descriptions have some variation from story to story, depending on what kind of person the main character is. I pay attention to the things they would pay attention to - I've got one protagonist who's somewhat superficial, and when I write from her perspective, she takes note of a person's clothing style and passes some kind of judgement on them (something like "She was dressed plain, with a long skirt and a shirt buttoned to the very top. Real schoolteacher-like; professional.") But then another character doesn't even notice clothing, and will pay extra attention to a person's face and body posture, and always looks at peoples' hands.

    I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about it, but that's what I do.
     
  11. RowenaFW

    RowenaFW New Member

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    Love this!

    My style varies so wildly between different books that that has always dominated my descriptions, not the POV character. But I will bear this in mind, as it's a good idea.
     
  12. SeverinR

    SeverinR New Member

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    I write in depth descriptions for their bio, but use maybe 1/4 if even that much when describing them in a book. (Hair: length, color, style, neat or not, jewelry worn in it, as an example of information in the bio.)
    I would write "shoulder length shiny black hair" in the book, and mention other descriptions as needed.

    The bio should cover every aspect you could ever want to know about a character, so you don't have errors in your description in different sections of the book.
    I mentioned long tangled hair in one paragraph, and several paragraphs later I said she had braided hair. In my mind both were correct, the braided part was in a circlet around her head with the rest straight and hanging down. But after months of editing, if I didn't write it in the bio, I wouldn't know what I was trying to say.

    Eye color is restricted to unique color that stands out, or for a love connection. (Ask me what color any friend is and I probably won't know. My daughters a hazel, for a short period my oldest had violet eyes(contacts))

    How a person dresses and keeps themselves shows their personality, so it matters. Well kept hair is a sign of wealth, neatness and self respect, while dressing poorly and ignoring how ones hair is, shows laziness, uncaring or poverty.
     

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