![]() ![]() “His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness.” The way they carry themselvesīody language is key to understanding other people, so it stands to reason that it’s key to understanding characters, too. Like this example from Lord of the Flies: On the other hand, facial expressions speak volumes. Here are some ideas on what those attributes might be.įacial attributes are one thing: anyone can have a big nose, so that tells us nothing substantial about a character. So choose two or three distinct, specific attributes to describe and leave the rest to the reader’s imagination. Good descriptions tend to be brief but evocative. In fact, since reading is a non-visual medium, many readers prefer to fill in the blanks themselves. Remember, we don’t need to know every single physical detail of every person in a book. That’s why, next up, we’ll discuss what characteristics you should be covering in your character descriptions. Hair, skin, and eye color - these are all characteristics that, ironically, don’t really say anything about what characters are like. But if we’re distinctly told about the woman with ears like a rabbit or the man with a slightly larger left nostril? We’ll remember them for the whole novel.Īlso keep in mind that word choice is important, but so are the things you’re describing with those words. If we’re told every detail of every character’s face all at once, they’ll all end up blending together. So as you’re painting a picture of your character, do two important things: 1) focus on a few key characteristics at a time, and 2) make sure to spread your descriptions out across the book. When introducing a character, it’s best not to dedicate three whole chapters to an exhaustive physical explanation and backstory. “He did not look like anything special at all.” Use descriptions themselves sparingly Ultimately, a phrase like, “He had a prosaic, pedestrian face” may pale in comparison to a more simply but potent description, like this one from Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated: However, keep in mind that overly descriptive words like these can easily turn cliché. Bonus points for the use of “tree-toad” and “fish-belly” - descriptors that match the tone of the adventure novel. “There warn’t no color in his face, where his face showed it was white not like another man’s white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body’s flesh crawl – a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white.”įrom this passage, we clearly understand how Huck’s father looks, as surely as if Twain had simply written, “He was white.” But through the use of figurative language and excellent word choice, another image sticks in our head: that of a sickly, grotesque drunk. Sometimes, this can be done through word choice alone. But so does half the world’s population! And characterization is all about showing what makes a character unique. Sure, your protagonist might have brown eyes. ![]() But that tells us nothing about the character and is frankly a waste of words. When describing a character that you see clearly in your mind, it’s easy to simply give a laundry list of attributes: she had black hair, brown eyes, and freckles. We’re talking about character descriptions, after all - it’s quite literally in the name. Here are a few tips on how to achieve just that. Character descriptions aren’t about doling out every detail in lavish language - they’re about succinct characterization. After all, this is the first time you’re introducing a character you’ve created from the ground up.īut just because you know everything about them, doesn’t mean the reader needs to. When writing character descriptions, it’s easy to get ahead of yourself. ![]()
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