Another Matter of Description: Main Characters
Some time ago, I had been wondering about my lack of desire to describe one-time characters, but after having recently spotted a discussion on the NaNoWriMo forums, I came to realize that, all that simply, I don’t describe characters much, even the main ones, and especially when it cannot come in a natural way (when I write in the first person, among other things, unless one walks in front of a mirror or has a really striking feature that comes as important in a given situation, I very much doubt any of us would mention their brown hair or blue eyes in passing).No matter how I want to consider it, I’m always torn regarding how and when I should describe my characters. In first or even limited third person, it doesn’t come to me as natural that a character would immediately describe or notice how the others look like, unless she finds herself close to them (in terms of distance, not of relationships), has nothing better to do, has the time to observe them, or is hit, as said above, by a specific feature. I try to reason the way I’d do it myself: I don’t meet someone average and think “he has blue eyes, she has red hair”. This is what makes it awkward for me, in a way—it’s easy, in theory, to describe a person, but to make it in a natural way is much trickier. We pay attention to what isn’t ordinary. How many of us would really be able to tell the color of their friends’ eyes? We don’t exactly waste time scrutinizing their physical aspect, even on a first encounter. Our minds register appearances, but not in a conscious way (at least, not in my case, unless I’m of these people who don’t pay attention to the facial features, but to the persona herself?).One thing I’ve been doing so far is to describe them bits by bits, adding a detail here and another detail there, hoping that this goes with the flow of the story, and that the reader won’t be too confused by the fact that he can’t know right from the start what a character looks like. After all, adding a description really doesn’t fit every kind of situation. In one of my works in progress, for instance, the story opens on the main character fleeing from his country along with a renegade crew in a stolen aircraft; seriously, who in their right minds would think of looking around himself and realize that character A looks like this and character B looks like that, when they’re running for their lives and trying to make the best they can out of what they have under the hand? A description in such a scene would throw me off, and I’m not sure it would pass very well for any other reader, in fact. It’s already hard enough to give information about the context without making it sound like a lecture, or like data overload.Another thing I’ve decided to do, the next time I pick a word of fiction, is to look closely at how other authors do it. When a description comes in an awkward way, I immediately notice it, yet the contrary isn’t that evident. I suppose it wouldn’t harm to try and be more observant, rather than letting myself be carried away by the story. Not that I don’t like diving deep into the plot, of course; I simply need more comparison points, to see if there’s any kind of common rule here, or if I can trust my instincts and fully go the way I want.After all, it has to be pleasant to read, not only to write—and conversely
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N. Mallory
I have similar issues with character descriptions. I worry about where to insert the descriptions, etc.However, unlike you, I do notice specific things about even people I pass on the street. I guess I have an inner commentary. And now that you’ve pointed that out, I’m going to try to pay attention to when I think about such things so I can try to fit it more naturaly into my prose and dialoge in my writing. 🙂
Chris Howard
Sometimes I need a really well developed character description to start a story. Other times they seem to come out of nowhere. I usually sketch the main characters for any story I write, even if it’s just a quick scrawled figure. I can see a lot in a drawing, the way a character stands or is hunched over, a mean look, folds her hands, etc. I usually don’t bother with eye color unless it’s a tag that shows a relationship between characters, mother and daughter have the same eyes. First person is tough. I typically don’t describe anything about the character unless it comes out in the interaction with other characters, something like a boyfriend smirking and saying, “What’d you do to your hair?” “I got it cut. You don’t like it?” “You look like…” I don’t know, a poodle, medusa, stuck your finger in a live light-socket, something descriptive. I have a problem with the need to tell the reader in one swoop what the character looks like, in one paragraph, opening line, describe scene, describe protagonist. And the real problem is that I’ll fall in love with the words of the description and I’ll be unable to edit it out. I think the trick is that readers can pick up a nearly complete picture of the character in one line, and we have no trouble accumulating hints and bits of detail over several chapters until we know the character. We know a character through his actions. What do we get out the fact that his hair is brown? Great post.
Jennifer
A brief thought…I usually do a brief physical description when I start writing (though it’s not always the first thing I write) but what I find is that through the characters action you actually give the character a description. It’s how they act when they’re mad or happy that these charactristic (sp) traits start to come out and define the character.Description doesn’t have to be told to us. It can evolve and show itself through the growth of a character. It’s kind of like when you meet a new person. First thing you notice is their physical look. After that you start to get to know them through their speach , their actions, what they don’t say, how they react to a certain situation…to me that defines the character.Hope that made sense.
Gone Away
Thank you for this post, Yzabel – it is just what I needed to hear. I agree completely with your thinking on character description, in fact I feel that most critics miss the point on this.My first book was criticized because only a very cursory description of the main character is given at the beginning. Apparently, I was expected to describe the character’s appearance right from the start to enable the reader to imagine him. This ignores the fact that the first half of the book takes place in a gloom that only enables us to discern very basic facts, such as he’s old and has white hair. So I think the critics are just plain wrong, apart from the fact that the readers should be expected to create appearance for themselves (indeed, this is why films of books so often disappoint us – they don’t envisage it quite as we had). The important thing about characters is character and this should come through the telling of the story. Character will also affect appearance and gives fresh material for the reader to construct his own image of the person.I think there is a gender thing at work here, too. Women notice the color of eyes, men don’t. That’s a generalization but on the whole, it’s true. Consequently you’ll see eye color mentioned in women’s books but not in men’s. Is it important? Of course not. And the same applies to plenty of other details of appearance – they neither add to nor subtract from the telling of the tale. Some details may be important in explaining aspects of the story but this is the exception rather than the rule. In the end, all we can say is: does the book work, is it enjoyable? That’s all that matters, not whether it breaks every rule of writing invented by the critics.Indidentally, the main character I mentioned is described in detail about halfway through the book when some light is allowed into the situation. And then I was castigated for daring to change the reader’s image of the character. Sometimes you just can’t win… 😉
Yzabel
Mallory — I guess you’re lucky 🙂 I wish I’d be more observant myself, without having to “force” myself to observe, but it looks like my “instinctive perceptions” don’t go first through visual cues. I don’t even know through what they come. Impressions, perhaps? In any case, I suppose it’s a good thing to note down details; it doesn’t mean one has to use them fully, but at least when you need them, you have them!
Yzabel
Chris — Sketching helps me a lot figuring it out, I admit. In fact, I think I tend to sketch rather than write a description of my characters, which is perhaps part of why I don’t feel the need to offer a full portrait of them early in the story? I don’t know. Depending on how it’s presented, too, I don’t like the opening-describe character thing; it often feels… artificial, and like something the author wants to get rid of quickly. (I know, i’m a little weird regarding that.)
Yzabel
Jennifer — Agree on that. Mostly it’ll be psychological traits rather than physical, though, and these seem to be easier for me to describe, because they’re after all integrated into one’s behavior, more than the color of the eyes, at least! Of course, I must be doing things the reverse way in real life (often, I won’t even remember the eyes or hair color of a person I’ve met once, but I’ll remember what they said about their hometown, or some of their language/body quirks). Go fig.
Yzabel
Clive — You know, as much as I should probably keep my big mouth shut, given that I haven’t been published myself, I’ve found that many critics are in fact completely disconnected from what the readers want. Unless I’m just a weird reader myself? The “problem” about the conversion from book to movie, on the other hand, is true for me; I don’t need much description to start imagining how a character looks like, and once I see him on the screen, I’m almost always disappointed. Interestingly enough, in the example of your own book, I probably wouldn’t imagine the character at all during the first part, and would go with the psychological description, the actions, and so on, because in the context, it’d seem “logical” to me to not imagine any appearance for him… er, if this makes sense.
N. Mallory
You know, maybe the difference is in personality? For example, I suspect you are very extraverted, while I go through life in a very intraverted way — well, when I’m alone (which is most of the time) or among strangers, etc. For example, perhaps you are in the scene, living the scene and I am observing and hanging back. ;)Just a random thought.
Yzabel
I wouldn’t say “very”, but I guess I’m more on the extraverted side, yes, or at least I used to be.
Gone Away
Perfect sense, Yzabel. 🙂