I'm not sure they do, but I wondered what you guys thought. Physical descriptions feel a little like an afterthought and sometimes when I work these things in they feel forces and/or unnecessary. Yes, there is a lot to be said for small details, but are small details enough? I don't really know what my characters look like and I don't really care. I think there are ways to develop character other than descriptions. Am I wrong? I would love to hear what some of you think.
No, I don't think they do. Personally, I prefer sparse descriptions--maybe a feature or two--in the vast majority of cases (the exception being when I'm reading something that is very dense and lush in terms of prose, which sometimes I feel like reading). I tend to create an image of a character in my head almost immediately. I think many readers do. So any description the author tries to push off on me other than maybe one or two pronounced characteristics are immediately discarded and I go back to my own mental image. I'm sure I've read works where the author didn't bother describing the characters at all, and that's just fine with me.
I was going to say describing characters isn't always necessary. I've read a few mysteries in which the mc's aren't described at all -- the tone, their likes and dislikes and little statements like -- her jeans were getting too tight time to lay off the cheesecake -- give you enough to put an image in your mind. But this statement that you don't know what you're characters look like seems a bit odd. Is the story new? or are you a person who doesn't daydream or isn't very visual because I can't imagine not having a clear image of what my character looks like. I might never have to relate that image to the reader but it seems odd to me that you haven't taken the time to clarify a picture of him yet. Maybe this is why descriptions are seeming like an afterthought? If you haven't made the characters a looks a priority to yourself how can you convince a reader of what he looks like without it sounding forced.
I don’t know, I usually only have a blurry picture in my head of most characters. I write in close third. I’ll probably have my MC pretty well pictured (though not always, especially in shorter works). But any character the MC isn’t specifically noticing? I don’t really have much more than a blur in mind. But this is also the case when I read other works. The characters are usually varying degrees of blurry. Takes too much mental effort to render a fully detailed face and body every time I picture a scene.
Maybe it's just me, I'm pretty visual and everything plays like a movie in my head. Apologies to Deadrats then, maybe you don't need a clearer image. If not I'd just still with a real wow-em detail.
I can understand things being a bit of a blur, which is why I sometimes draw out my characters or connect them to a song. I don't like adding every single detail, because that's not what my story is about. As long as I have a few pinches of description, that seems to make the story flow better.
I often err toward minimalist description personally. For my current WIP I have specific character appearances in mind for my MCs but for more minor characters I won't always bother. I don't think you need much of any description regardless of how important the character is though. Of course, your major characters will accumulate minor descriptions over time.
Despite being a visual person, I'm not hugely into character descriptions. I'll admit that it's to some degree a leftover from my younger days of exceedingly purple prose, including loving descriptions of every little detail of every character's outfit and individual freckle -- I bounced hard from that into stark minimalist descriptions for a while. Kind of finding a happy medium now. I definitely don't enjoy laundry list type descriptions of "here's the color of everyone's hair and eyes etc" but I do try to hone in on what would make the character stand out. I don't think you need descriptions. They can add some flavor, but I think they rarely add to the narrative in a truly substantial way. I usually add them in because I know they're more meaningful to some readers than they are to me.
I find that sometimes description of clothes can provide breaks between conversations: for instance, if I want to describe a character taking off their jacket as they talk to another character, it gives them something to do during conversation so as they're not just stood completely still when they're talking. But I have to hint beforehand that the character is wearing a jacket - otherwise the reader might assume that the character is wearing a sweater, and they'll end up with the mental image of a sweater transforming into a jacket.
Just my opinion, but if they're a blur or a totally blank slate, there's a problem. I like description, when it's well done - the right touches can add immeasurably both to characterisation and to the reader's sheer enjoyment of the prose - but a lot isn't needed, just a few touches to turn blank slate with a voice into a human being. Not the bog standard tall, colour of hair and eyes stuff but touches of imagery and vivid visuals...
I also think that some general description of the character is more than enough along with parts of the looks that comes across as important in the story.
I'm just not coming across a lot of physical character descriptions in a lot of the stuff I'm reading. I mean sometimes you see it, but more often than not it's not really there. And if I look at what I've published, maybe there was some, but no clear picture of what anyone really looked like was presented. I'm not trying to cut corners. But aren't there other ways to bring flavor to a story? Can our small details paint big pictures? Or do we really have to be able to see these characters in our heads?
One of the reasons I really like having models on my book covers is so I don't have to worry about describing the characters in the book itself! I think one problem is that it's really pretty hard to describe human faces in interesting ways. We can give impressions, maybe, but a true description? Ooh, I'm going to make a thread to test this out. Hang on... Okay... go! https://www.writingforums.org/threads/testing-our-powers-of-character-description.158751/
If you're going tom describe the characters physically, I think a slow accumulation of details is best. Otherwise it starts to read like a suspect the police are looking for. That having been said, I think you can describe with actions, or by how the character is perceived by the other characters.
There are people even on this forum who come across as interesting characters even though I have no idea what they look like. My guess is younger people probably care more about character description.
As a reader, I sometimes find too much character description to be off-putting. This is because I'll often have a completely different image in my head based on their personality/dialogue than to what the author is physically describing, and it takes me out of the story if they keep commenting on physical elements that just don't feel 'right' to me. When I write I keep character description minimal, except for one project where the protagonist is extremely vain, shallow, and fashion-obsessed.
I think if an author is going to describe characters it needs to be done early, like within a few lines of the character appearing. Otherwise, I agree, I'll have already formed a mental image and any description that clashes will be a problem.
Hello to all!! I'm surprised by these replies here. I didn't know so many people didn't care about description of the characters. When I read a book it's actually one of my pet peeves if they don't describe the character or state the age. Several books has turned me off that way. Or either they describe the character too late in the story after I created an image in my head for them. So when I write I tend to go into great details of the character early on depending on the story of course
I have an idea in my head of what my characters look like, but I think writing out a full description would be detrimental. For example: "Then there stood Jim, six feet tall, sun-kissed skin, with his wavy black hair combed back. His arms, swollen from hours in the gym, lead to large meaty hands which were gripping a 12-gauge." Out of place for the scenario, right? If a character is coming into the scene to slaughter some zombies, rescue a hot chick, and save the day, just putting a description of said character seems out of place. What I am trying to do is add in details here and there of the characters physical traits.
Very often the impression the POV character has of another character is enough. What is it that strikes your POV character about the other person? Think about being on a bus, and looking at the people walking up the aisle. You will get an impression of them ...very tall, or maybe unkempt, or stylish hair or fat hanging out below their t-shirt, or something like this. You are very unlikely to 'describe' them fully ...eye colour, hair colour, height, weight, who designed their clothes, what they are wearing on their feet, what they are carrying, etc. Just pick out the bits that matter at the time your scene is taking place. Of course the more time your POV character spends with another character, the more they will notice. But it won't happen all at once. Taking 'time out' from the story to list character traits in minute detail is nearly always detrimental to the story. Readers simply won't remember all these details. They want to get on with the story. However, they will remember your POV character's impressions of that other character. Impressions are more than visual. The visuals will trigger other things in your POV character ...admiration, disgust, interest, envy.... Play with these emotions and thoughts as your POV character sees the new person. As for your POV character ...well, you can describe them if you're writing in third person omniscient. However, if you're writing in close third person (or whatever that's called ...I can't remember the term and can't be bothered looking it up just now) then the POV character can only see what they would see themselves. They can be aware of a detail of their appearance, or be proud of a few details of their appearance, but they won't be describing these details directly. That's where what 'other people' say to them can be illuminating. And of course if you shift POV within your story, a description or impression of that character can be relayed through the eyes of the new POV character. My own philosophy, when it comes to description is 'less is more.' By 'less, I mean less at any one time. More details can be brought in as needed, but shouldn't be presented as a laundry list—especially when we are just meeting that character for the first time.
I remember reading this years ago, it's from Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing: Not everyone should want to write like Hemingway or Elmore Leonard, but they show that it's possible to write successfully with very minimal physical description.
