Character descriptions: a poll
By Kathleen Bolton | March 23, 2009 |
Light posting today as I’m expecting a major load of work from my publisher Working Partners.
I’m also having a bit of a crisis. Maybe you can help.
I’ve always liked character descriptions as long as they are fresh. But lately I’ve been reading books where the author refrains from describing the character, and I realize I don’t miss it at all.
I’ve also read a fair few books recently where the author gets “listy” with the character descriptions, and it bugs me to death.
I’ve gone back to my WIP, and I’ve been obsessing over my character descriptions to make sure they are unusual and fresh. Now I’m wondering if I need to bother at all.
I know. It’s a small issue in the sum the makes up a whole manuscript. And yet, it’s become a major source of angst for me.
So I thought I’d ask you all. How do you like your characters described? How do you describe your characters? Where do you draw the line?
Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.
She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.
Like you, as a reader I often don’t miss character descriptions because really, most readers have good imaginations (that’s why they like to read and not just watch movies!) and can formulate some decent visuals of the characters based on “clues” from the book, such as setting, time, actions, etc.
As a writer, I try to include descriptions only if the scene/situation/moment calls for it, or if I think there’s no way the reader is going to get it right.
In general, I think there are various shades of gray that work for each writer, as opposed to a clear-cut black-or-white way of doing things. We’ve all just got to find what works best for us, and most importantly, what works best for the story.
(However, I do notice that amateur writers tend to cram in too much information about their characters, i.e., “Suzie was fourteen years old, with blonde hair, freckles, perfect straight white teeth, and the prettiest blue eyes anyone had ever seen,” or some such. They dump the information instead of weaving it in.)
Frankly, in day to day life, I have no clue how to describe people unless I happen to be staring at them. The only person I’ve ever met that I remember their eye color at the moment is my boyfriend. Hair color I mostly remember, but not always… And when you throw out descriptors like “lantern-jawed” or “delicate cheekbones” or “strong nose” I can rarely think of a name to use as an example. So I don’t find it at all surprising that I pay very little attention to physical descriptions in books. What I do remember is the interactions with other characters. Most of my favorite characters, I couldn’t tell you what color their hair is supposed to be, but I do remember from 20 years ago reading Little House on the Prairie series that Laura had brown hair and Mary had blonde hair and Laura hated that because it dictated what color ribbons they got.
I really hate it when an author wastes a paragraph or so, describing a character. I think it’s lazy writing. I read a lot of historical romances and I think they tend to be the worst culprits. I’d rather learn about a character by how he/she acts/reacts to people/things. I’m reading a historical right now and by page 100, I think I’ve read about his ‘riveting emerald eyes’ at least 10 time.
*boring*
The reader should get to know characters through their words and actions. That’s one of the things I love about King. As an author, I should be telling the story and not telling the readers about who the characters are. Doesn’t that get back to the tired old “show, don’t tell”?
I guess the reason I’m hyperventalating over it (I’m not a drama queen, no ;0 ) is that I’d had editorial feedback saying to the effect “well, but what does she look like?” I had to process the directive, because by this stage of the game I’d trained myself to “show not tell”. So it spun me.
I only use description if it seems necessary and important. If I go out of my way to describe a character, then I want attention directed at that story. Otherwise I don’t bother with it much…
I think SOME amount of physical description is necessary. I try to give characters at least one physical characteristic that the reader can refer back to easily. Saying a character is fat, for example, still “shows”, but it differentiates him/her from the others in the cast.
I agree with Becky…if it’s necessary to the story I throw in description – but even then only the minimal amount. I don’t want to bog the story down with pages of character description.
I’ve tried to make my character descriptions organic–weaving them into the story as the story allows and requires. I think I lean minimalist.
I agree with you, Annie, that the “show don’t tell” rule does seem tired.
If I may quote from, ahem, my book (coming soon! at the printer now!), I’m with Stephen King’s approach.
Don’t forget that you’ve got a reader out there, ready and eager to contribute to the vision. If you sketch in enough of a character’s appearance for the reader to distinguish the character from others, the reader is perfectly capable of adding details to the picture in their mind. Being a participant in building the scene is part of the fun of reading.
Also. . .
If there’s something remarkable about a character’s appearance that affects the story, then there’s a clear need to describe. A couple of examples that come to mind:
1. A character is so beautiful that she or he draws a crowd wherever she or he goes.
2. A man who is so ugly that he can’t find work because people can’t look at him.
Ray
I have more description of non POV characters than POV characters, and even that tends to be pretty minimal. What the POV characters observe is what the reader hears about. When I have more than one POV, though, the POV characters sometimes notice things about each other. I never did it this way consciously, but I usually like the way it turns out, so don’t change or add much as a rule.
I rarely notice whether authors have given descriptions or not — I usually have my own picture of a character in my head, and I honestly have no idea how much that picture is influenced by author descriptions or lack thereof.
I’m with Ray for the most part. An entire paragraph is a waste because people will still fill in details.
Picking out one or two obvious features and mentioning them, and occasionally using them to remind the readers of the character, is enough. Sometimes I feel that if the names are either everyday names or very strange names, a single bold detail about their appearance will help make the name stick to the character (kind of like in real life, since I can never remember names).
But I find that even with books that I treasure and reread, I sometimes substitute my own image of the character and I’m jarred when my image doesn’t fit the descriptions.
As a playwright, I rarely use character descriptions – not even on the title page because I don’t want it to limit the actors that can play the role. But there are times, when it is necessary, especially if it affects the action of the play or another character’s perception, and in turn their behavior. Obviously, fiction writing needs more, I think. The example above about Little House is interesting because the reader remembers the hair color because of how it made Laura feel. That’s a great way to build it in. But an uncommon detail that sets each character apart is certainly nice. Good luck.
I’m starting to realize that I don’t fuss about character descriptions because I tend to write in first person. “My blue eyes stared back at me in the mirror…” HATE. THAT.
Great discussion, folks. It helps.
As a writer, I’m still in the wannabe category. As a reader, I appreciate a few hints about a character’s appearance. Not lavish, but some clues to help me build an image. This is my first comment on Writer’s Unboxed, and I’d like to thank you all for this site. I found it fairly recently, and have been enjoying so many of your topics and interviews.
Welcome, Sue!
I usually have a full description on a separate page for myself, so I completely know everything about this character. But I find that it always comes out, like you said, “listy” when I try to put it all down into the story. So I generally describe the character as the story goes on.
I know that when I’m reading a book I get my own complete idea of the character’s appearance. And even when the writer contradicts my own imagination, I tend to ignore it and still view the character as my own creation. So I doubt giving the reader a false view of the character in the beginning and then bringing to light specifics when the time comes, will hurt the story or the reader at all.