Only one I have yet to decide on is a little more overwrought than what you describe. I may still leave it as he's making the point about his sister being kind and perfect down to every last detail except she hates him lol It's about two sentences.
A pet peeve in some of my creative writing classes was when people would complain that they couldn't "see" my character. To be fair, I often go to the opposite extreme and forget to give any description of the main character. This is because I try to stick with the main characters thoughts, so the reader will get basic descriptions of other characters as the POV sees them, but I think most people don't think about what they look like all that often. Personally, if I have to choose between "She scanned the room with her sky blue eyes while her golden blonde hair flowed in the wind of the closing door," or getting no physical description whatsoever, I'd take the no description. Maybe this is just because I have no problem just making up the character's appearance if I have to (I probably just use a handsomer version of myself, or a girl version of myself as the case may be). Something that wouldn't bother me: If a character is combing his hair for a plot relevant reason (job interview, or date or something) I have no problem with "He combed his brown hair." In fact, I prefer it if the writer keeps it simple "He had blonde hair and green eyes," is totally fine by me, "His eyes were the color of the green sea and his golden locks flowed like fields of grain" is as annoying as all heck.
Maybe its the girl in me lol but the one thing I do like to know is what the character is wearing, just a basic description. I have no bother working out what a character looks like but somehow the dress gives me an insight into the world they live in. Its just a simple thing and it frustrates me when its not in a book. Because of this thread I went back and looked at my favourite book. It does describe the main characters not hugely its just right - hair colour, the smile that scandalised her family lol and the fact she is beautiful, her cousin has the same smile and hair (it was used to establish family relations). Then there are beautiful sumptious descriptions of the clothes its cleverly done she takes shopping trips one is an arguement with her puritan sister and the other is her pure delight at seeing and it worked as a way to introduce the peddlar that died. The descriptions of the taffeta, lace and velvet just give a sumptous feel. What Robert Neill did in Mist Over Pendle is amazing because he uses it to contrast the Puritan verses non Puritan factions, poor vs rich and then just the idea of the shimmering peach material and white velvet or the orange trimmings is then built upon against the fires at christmas. I don't know anyone who weaves description into a story as well as Robert Neill, I am using him as my model for them in my book though. He packs his books full of description after description of people, and places, each one building the story.
I keep character descriptions light and I never, ever have a character look into a mirror or otherwise describe herself. When I encounter an info-dump of a character's appearance I cringe (especially when written in the first-person). To me, it's a hallmark of immature writing. Often it's obvious that the author has this character crystal-clear in their imagination and thinks that painting a highly detailed picture is of greater importance than letting the reader fill in the blanks. This usually causes me to lose faith in the author, in a way. Every reader will react differently to this, though, and I'm sure some people enjoy that level of description. I'm on board with knowing how a character looks (when it's not vital to the story) if it's done well and limited to one or two key physical attributes--but I'd prefer something more unique and memorable than just a reporting of eye or hair color. Something that truly fleshes the character out and gives me an idea of the type of person they are, not just a list of attributes. Key for me is that character description happen from the POV of another character whenever possible. If that's not possible, I want the self-description to feel organic to the narrative and not like the character is pausing to check herself out or muse about her looks. There's nothing I hate more than a narcissist. By organic I mean that a character could bemoan her height when she towers over someone else, or perhaps wish her mousy brown hair was a more exotic red because then she'd have a better chance of getting Mr. X's attention. Basically, the more an author stays away from "MC has blond hair and blue eyes", the better. A huge pet peeve of mine is when an author drops in descriptive stuff while writing in third-person limited POV in a way that totally disrupts that POV. For example, "Nancy combed her fingers through her chestnut brown hair and widened her blue eyes." Okay, Nancy cannot see the color of her own eyes, and I doubt highly she's thinking about the shade of her hair as she's running her fingers through it. That's just clumsy writing. So I guess my opinion is that if it can be done elegantly or it's vital to the story, very basic character description is just fine. But if not, avoid it. As a reader, it rarely matters to me anyway.
