Just wondering what folk thought round here, I've never been a big fan of long drawling Character descriptions as I feel it can take control away from the reader, for example, I was reading Mysteries of Pittsburg by Micheal Chabon recently and as character came into it, then a few pages later there is a description of him which was totaly at odds with how I had imagined him and it just threw me completely.
What do you think?
I'm not a fan of any personality description, because I think that can be shown better through their actions. Physical description, I would rather not have a huge paragraph just devoted to the looks of the character, that take me out of the story a bit.
What's your opinion of lengthy character descriptions?"
Very poor. Dan Brown does it alot. Dan. Brown.
Seriously, yeah. Most of the time your character's personality and appearance can best be shown through action and dialogue. You can devote a block of text to set these things out, but stories tend to be read by an audience more as a motion picture than as a painting. You can do still-life if you want, but you have to fit it carefully with how your story moves.
Chabon's long-winded anyway and is openly a fan of pulp writers like Chandler and RE Howard, so it makes sense that he does that and it doesn't bother me when it's used well by someone whose style permits it. I would never write one though, only maybe if I were writing a period peice and want some antiquated stylings.
Same deal as you and avery. When it totally changes your perceptions of the character it also seems to change the whole POV for the reader, whereas it could have been any reader in the place of the character and then a lengthy description changes the character into just the author's construct...sometimes, pulls the reader out of the story.
And, when a lengthy character description is used rather than actions, the author is disengaging the reader's imagination and is now making the reader a passive, captive audience...IMHumbleO...
If the author is going to use a lengthy character description at all, it had best be upfront, at the beginning of the story - and for some purpose other than exercising adjectives...again, IMHO.
"What's your opinion of lengthy character descriptions?"
Meh. Give me a few major features. The rest I can fill in for myself.
I'm more a fan of getting the basics early, if there are details or not.
OMFG! Who edited that post! I love the picture. BWHAHAHA!
It wasn't me. - Utah
It depends on how wordy the rest of the writing is. If you write lengthy everything, it wouldn't be wrong to write lengthy descriptions.
I like shorter, creative suggestive descriptors rather than long ones. I like the sort that give you a snippet of the appearance but for the gaps left for you to paint in the image. This is one in book 2 'He had a face like an unmade bed. He smiled, but only with his mouth, revealing a neat row of yellow teeth that complemented is nicotine finger tattoos. His eyes remained dark slits and are a tell of shark like contempt.'
I love that lyrical painting with flavour rather than details that folk like Gordon Highland and Richard Thomas do so well. Another one I've used in book two, cos it makes me chuckle. 'A face like he was looking at himself in the back of a spoon.' Not sure why I find it so funny – just makes me laugh!
Shantaram (one of my favorite books) used really lengthy physical descriptions, sometimes 1/3 of a page. But it's beautifully written, and it's close to 1000 pages. In a short story or shorter novel, I think minimal physical description is best... unless a physical trait is a huge part of their character and the story, e.g. an extremely good-looking or not-good-looking person who has doors opened or closed to them based on their appearance.
@Jonny - See I think that was horrible. Is he a albino? Does he have all his limbs or some stumps? Is he black, white, Asian, mixed? Is he short or tall? Naked? Tall or short? Fat or thin? I am of the mind set you need to writie something that would let me pick them out of a crowd. I understand that he might have had a longer description that was part of, but I've seen ones as incomplete as that one.
It wasn't me. - Utah"
Damn you Averydoll!
What'd I do?! People say I'm mean and stuff, but maybe it's because people are always cursing me!
You told me you don't like to be nice, so don't give me that.
I'm fairly certain I did not say that.
I rarely include much physical description of my characters in my stories. That's mainly because when I read I end up creating them in my head, and anything the author throws at me, I end up discarding anyway. So...what's the point? Of course that's just me.
Personality I'm guilty of sometimes, but that's usually by mistake where I've inserted as a placeholder and never colored it in in my revisions.
@Doll - Facebook message May 15 2012, 10:31 A.M. EST. I assume(d) you were joking, but you said it. You can check your own.
In no way creepy.
Was that when I was trying to get people to compliment Matt's hair?
@averydoll - Best start to a post EVER. Fuck me that made me laugh so much! "In no way creepy."
Haaaaa haaaaaaaa....
Was that when I was trying to get people to compliment Matt's hair?"
I've been growing it out. It's curly now. Just sayin'
Yes, because anyone with a good memory who spent 30 seconds on Facebook must be a serial killer. Don't try to distract everyone from you being wrong and mean. Yeah, it was regarding Matt's hair.
These actions of avery's speak volumes more than any lengthy character description ever could...
RIght, but that only works because we've mostly seen her pic. It would be junk to bring up first time she is mentioned.
Mild digression, are there other people who see a film adaption's description in a book instead of the author's words besides me? I watched the Potter films first, see Dudley as brown hair instead of blonde. Watched American Psycho first, can only hear Christian Bale when I'm reading the book.
I'm not bugged if it's relevant. But I can't stand fluff, so I understand where your dislike comes from. I'm more annoyed by unnecessary overly detailed settings rather drawn out character development though.
