When it comes to side characters, it's easy for me to write how they look by describing so when they first arrive on the page.
With protagonists, it's trickier for me. As of late, I've described how they look when they inspect their reflections in the mirror. It's starting to turn to a cliche but I don't know how else to insert their physical descriptions without it being either random or out-of-place.
How do y'all write your characters' physical descriptions.
You're right in that it's a tough undertaking. It all depends on the story you're writing, but I find myself describing the protagonist, sporadically, through out the story. For instance, in the novel I'm working on, I describe the character a little at the very beginning, then a little farther into it, my character sits on a bar stool and notices a picture hanging over the bar of when they were younger and that leads into new descriptions. Stuff like that. It's tricky, but it can be and is fun.
*Edit: I suppose it also depends on whether you're telling a first person or third person story. Third person is easy to do in that you're a narrator giving every detail at any given time. But, I would recommend trying to get away from the mirror thing if you find yourself using it too much and try other ways that your charcter would be described. A newspaper/magazine article. An old home movie. Nude painting by VanGogh. Etc...
This is a problem that is constantly fucking me up because I primarily write in first person. Sometimes, I will have a character comment on their appearance (Why did you shave your head?) or I'll have the narrator get a reaction from somebody (She grimaced at me. A pierced nose gets that reaction sometimes.) or I'll have the character feel things (The embarassment turned my face red, highlighting the scar running down my cheek.)
Other times, I'll leave it to the narrator to mention her clothing or body image in a more natural way (I pulled the tight jeans over my slender legs, but they snagged at my wide hips. Momma calls them 'birthin' hips', but I just call them fat.)
Clothing tells me a lot about a character pretty quickly. Someone wearing an Army jacket from Goodwill is much different than a man who finally undoes the $300 tie as he unwinds with a beer. That gives me a good idea of what they look like, sometimes.
But I always have to work at this part of a story. It never feels very natural. I've written plenty of stories where I never mention the narrator's looks, and it doesn't work as well as when I write a physical description.
For protagonists, I usually don't try to describe them too much unless they have more distinguishing characteristics that define them, such as red hair or a telling scar of some sort.
I personally feel that all you really need to know about a character's appearance is their gender and age-range (ie. teenager, middle-aged, senior, etc.). I'm a certain story, the character's body type might come into play, but not always. The important aspects of the character is the personal stuff: history, thought-process, needs, desires. Those are the things that really need describing (though showing, though, not telling!).
When I'm reading and I come across a large description of a character, I feel as though the author is trying to force me to picture the EXACT same person that he or she pictures, and that just ain't going to happen. Every reader is going to picture the main character differently, so I never usually bother with trying too hard to describe them.
First person descriptions of the main character are tough because you don't want to just say, "I'm wearing this draped with this and I was holding this in my hand. My hair was down around my shoulders, messy because I'd decided to not shower before heading into the office." Stuff like that is tricky, at least for me, to get away from.
Clothing and relative cleanliness do not a character make. Tell us about the character, via the physical description. You can have plenty of the former with none of the latter, so unless the description adds to the character or advances the plot, skip it.
There was a sci-fi author who would sometimes reveal at the very end of his stories that the protagonists were black or female or what have you. Anybody remind me of who this was?
Now that was an interesting use of description.
My views are close to JGB's. You can get by without a lot of description in a story. If it's first person, comment on what that person finds interesting about themselves. Like, if I were narrating a story, I might mention the deep-dish dimple I have on my right cheek. If it's important to the character, they don't need a mirror to comment on it. An anorexic. Someone vain. A burn victim. Whatever. Maybe they're wearing their favorite shirt. If it's third person, you might note things that toy with readers' perspectives.
But stick to the important things. This person is descriminated against because of his skin color or weight or gender or birthmark that covers half their face, etc. This person is missing a hand. This person's knee-lenth hair gets them noticed. You get the picture. The best way to get around finding new ways to describe your characters is to describe them prudently or not at all.
Howie, good examples. I'll just add to make sure you describe the things that could surprise a reader. As a female writer, if your protag is male, make that clear from the beginning, unless you're trying to trick the reader for some reason. As Bek said, give an age range. You do not need an exact description, unless it's important to the story for some reason. For the physical description, just give some highlights. A rough sketch. However, if the lightning bolt scar on the protag's forehead is important, then make sure you get it in.
One "trick" I use is when the protag describes another character, I compare them: He was a kid, like me, maybe 12, but a lot bigger. Big boned, as my mom would say. She always called me her stick. I couldn't decide if that was a good thing. But where I had the ruddy complexion of my Irish parents, he was as dark as a storm.
And if I'm mentioning the ruddy complexion and Irish parents (being that specific), my story is probably going to have something else to say about it, even if it's just to add depth to him, his family, and the story.
I somehow thought first person narrator can be more creative with description when mentioning another character. "That warty pear that they called her face, I never stopped having nightmares about it."
It's true, it's harder to describe the self, but for that, too, the narrator can be creative and use the reflection that comes from other characters. "they always said I had a warty pear of a face, but my boyfriend said it was voluptuous and those were beauty marks."
I assume we're talking about writing in third person rather than first, but writing the protagonist's description seems really easy for me to do as long as I don't rush it so it appears in the first few paragraphs and the descriptive details are all together. Instead, reveal the details slowly over the first chapter or so and only mention them if they are related to the plot or what is occurring in the scene. Using a mirror is just bad unless you're also trying to show something like how the protagonist is narcistic or has a negative body image (although the reader shouldn't exactly trust a description like that).
My thoughts are in line with Wayne's. I pepper the description throughout the characters opening introduction and only give the crucial details. In my experience, part of the fun for the reader is to picture their own version of the character. You need toead them along, but not too much.
Howie, as usual, is correct in letting the description give the reader clues to the nature of the character. Anytime you can do double duty with your wordplay, do it!
I agree with Bekanator. When I write, I tend to write either in limited-third person or in first person, and for either one, description can be tough. You want it to come up naturally, as if it fit in with the flow of the story all along, but you don't want to lose details or have important ones come up too late in the story.
I read a series recently where the protagonist's physical description wasn't shared until the second book, and it ticked me off.
What I do is what Bekanator does: I tend to only highlight the important features, like hair color and build, and if there are any important marks/scars/tattoos/etc. This allows the reader to visualize the missing parts on his or her own. If there is anything extra I feel like adding, I do it through the opinions of other characters. For example, if I wanted to tell my reader that Edgar was the hottest guy ever, I'd have the girl waiting in line behind him in the coffee shop whisper it loudly to her friend. That doesn't mean the reader needs to picture him hot, because it's the side character's opinion -- Edgar could be hot to her, but ugly to someone else later. But if I said, "Edgar had blond hair, green eyes, and was the hottest guy ever," I'm telling my reader that is how he or she must picture Edgar forever. Well, until he's in a terrible bus accident and loses all his front teeth.
All in all, I avoid telling my reader (as the narrator) how to picture my character, except for when it comes to basic physical attributes. Everything else comes from character observation, which is mostly opinion from them anyway.
I don't know if this makes sense at all! but I tried.
I always liked the incredibly detailed description Philip Marlowe gives of himself in The Big Sleep, ridiculously intrusive. Paul Tremblay does a good satire of it at the front of his book The Little Sleep, I think.
Yeah, I think the cool thing to do is just mention it when you absolutely have to regarding protag descriptions, just pepper it in here and there when you need it. Most of the time that shit doesn't matter at all, the only readers who'll miss it are the ones actively searching it out instead of paying attention to some real story, and I don't care to write for those people, or at least pander to them in a way that affects my writing. Narrators, I think gender, maybe ethnicity, especially age range can be pretty much entirely implied through the voice, if there's a moment where you absolutely have to spell it out then yeah, put it in there when you need to, should come off pretty naturally like that. With the narrators, too, they're basically talking to you, telling this tale, so what kind of descriptions would they give you in that setting and why would they say it right then? I still pretty much think that way in 3rd pp, only if to have the reader take over some of the aesthetic design and cast the characters with whoever dreamy actors they like.
No mirrors. I pretend that I'm Peter Greene in Clean, Shaven and cover up all the mirrors with newspaper in my stories, to totally avoid any chance of cheesy plot devices or excruciatingly bad metaphors.
Ren, you are the newspaper-covered mirror into my soul.
If not a mirror, then an extremely well polished spoon.
I don't think there is any right place to insert a physical description, but as previously mentioned, it should be revealed a little at a time, instead of rattling off a huge list of physical details. And even then, I like when details are given in less specific terms with room for imagination. Like saying: "When he finally squeezed through the doorframe, we were shocked at his monstrous appearance. He had shoulders like a bookshelf. His brow hung low and shaded his face from the light above, as he lumbered across the room. It looked as though he'd fallen into a vat of spray-tanner." as opposed to "He walked through the door, and we were shocked to see this man, standing 6ft, 10inches tall. His shoulders were very wide. He had a prominent brow and orange skin."
bad example, but you get the idea.
That was a pretty good example, actually. I liked it. I love this discussion because it doesn't come naturally to me to describe myself physically, so my narrators don't do it very much either. Looking over a story, I realized I do it sometimes by contrasting the narrator to those around him/her - He towers over me. or She's a large woman, but small in my hands. or He's so pretty that he makes me realize how ugly I really am.
edit: But mostly I do it in dialogue.
I like the indirect description you can give through action, as well. (using my example) A reader may get a better overall picture when they consider the kind of person who would have to squeeze through a doorway, rather than simply passing through, or a person who lumbers along as opposed to plain ol' walking.
Dialogue is also very effective, Howie. I really should practice using it more.
red hair or a telling scar of some sort
Got both. Well, it's more of a showing scar. ;-p
By instinct, I tend not to describe people in my stories unless it's plot-related or immediately relevant (as in dialogue or action/reaction.) Having read it any number of ways, I've come away with the belief that it's better to stray on the side of too little, because the reader can always imagine (even if it doesn't matter what the character looks like) but they can't erase the experience of wasted paragraphs.
I love discussions like these. I wake up in the morning, log in, and LitReactor at large has worked out whatever issue I was wrestling with before bed. Like it even better when the consensus seems to agree with the track I took. I went for the slow reveal over the first chapter.
I concur with Renee, that it's nice that we have actual technique discussions admidst the other stuff. The other stuff is cool, too, of course.
I don't do much description, other than the basics: gender, age, something story-related (lightning scar on forehead). People will imagine the characters even if zero description is given. Hmm. That might be an interesting test. Write a story where absolutely zero physicial description is given (you can show what type of person s/he is, but nothing physicial. Not even gender). It'll be interesting how readers would deal with it. I bet most wouldn't be phased (as long as WHO they are is done well).
Also, even if a full description is given, I bet many people still picture who they want to picture. I just finished the Low Men with Yellow Coats novella in Hearts in Atlantis. Ted is described twice as looking like Boris Karloff. I just pictured an old guy on the thin side. The character who probably had the most physicial description given him, was the protag's best friend Sully-John. And SJ really didn't play a big part in the story.
"And SJ really didn't play a big part in the story."
It'll seem more important later.
I recommended that to you. What did you think?
I failed a semester of college because I stopped everything to read Hearts In Atlantis full stop, then dove into a writing project (unrelated to school) for another week after that.
Hearts in Atlantis is possibly my second favorite King book. Hard to rate. But it's way up there.
Depending on the work I switch narrators.
Whether protagonist or secondary character, I try to use descriptions as organic seasoning to the main course, i.e., naturally-occuring salt and pepper for the meat (plot and character action). If a physical trait enhances either plot or character action, then it should be included, but otherwise the reader should decide for themselves what a character looks like by connecting the dots you've provided.
That's why I'm not keen on Book Trailers that cast actors as the characters and present scenes from the narrative. Anyone who sees this preview will be influenced by the actor's appearance, and thus they lose their abilty to imagine a person on their own. This is also why lengthy, inch by inch descriptions of characters don't work - they discredit the reader's personal experience with the text.
I'm enjoying Hearts in Atlantis. I'm 5 or 6 chapters into the second novella (Hearts). We've just found out that the protag has a crush on Carol Gerber from the first novella.
Hearts is possibly my favorite bit, although there are some great memorable sentences from some later sections that I love.
