Description of One-Time Characters
This is a little detail I’ve noticed recently, while writing a scene: I tend to not describe what I call “one-time” characters. You know, these characters you’ll see once in the novel, then never again—or so much later that it’ll always be time to give a more accurate physical description about them if they’re important enough at that moment. The taxi driver that has only one line of text to say, the new manager that the main character will only meet briefly before being fired from the company… I like to call them “courier-types”, too, because I often use them to carry a message or fetch a more important character; in themselves, they don’t have any role.I realize that I don’t describe them because I don’t see any point in doing so. At most, I’ll add a bit of sentence about one trait, such as “he met the big, watery eyes of the girl a last time before leaving the room” (right, this sucks, it’s just an example provided by a mind suffering from a starved stomach waiting for dinner to be ready). Actually, at certain times, I find it even awkward when, out of a dialogue line for instance, comes some bit of physical description, such as the color of the character’s sweater or the shape of her pants. I may be overreacting to these, but when the writing itself strikes me as weird, I’m thrown out of the action pretty quickly, and as a reader, I really dislike that.I’m not sure whether I should work on this more. On the one hand, I have the feeling that it’s “not enough”, that even one-time characters should be described with more accuracy, and that not doing so will label me as a bad writer. On the other hand… I just don’t see the point, really. If my main character is running after her archnemesis in a crowded street and asks directions to a random passer-by, does the reader really need to know that said passer-by is wearing a light-blue coat, has her hair neatly gathered in a ponytail on her neck, and is holding her umbrella in a very distinguished manner?So… Am I lazy and not caring enough, or is this indeed a matter of tiny details that can be left out of a scene (or at least just touched on, not described with precision)?
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Nels
Something fun you can do (if it works with the plot, obviously) is make a character that appears later a one-time character the first time they’re encoutered. It probably works best if you do it for multiple characters, many of whom are only one-time characters. (I’m thinking Charles Dickens getting paid by the word here)Of course, then you run the risk of readers wondering who else is going to reappear when no one else will be coming back.
Yzabel
I’ve done that at times, although it wasn’t in novels (yet), but in roleplaying chronicles. It indeed produces a nice surprise effect when wielded with care—and not too often. 🙂
Lee Carlon
I don’t think you should worry about it too much, as you said you’d don’t want to distract from the action with a needless description of a passer-by. Often people will fill in the blanks on their own anyway. I certainly don’t think it is lazy writing.
Yzabel
Yes, it’s probably a good idea not to worry excessively about this. At times I’ll write a full-feldged description if needed, for instance if a character really wears striking clothes, or something specific. For the rest, I’ll go on passing on the tiny details (or only distillating them here and there). It’d likely work just as well without any add-ons.
paper shredders
It probably works best if you do it for multiple characters, many of whom are only one-time characters.