How to successfully describe a character’s appearance
Description is an important part of any work of fiction. In order to engage with the characters in a book, the reader must have some sense of how the characters look. A character’s appearance not only helps the reader to visualise them, but it also tells us a lot about the character’s personality and at times, about their emotions and circumstances.
It might be tempting to think that the best way forward is to sketch out in words how the character looks all in one hit – one large paragraph or series of paragraphs that visually describes the person the reader is about to learn more about. However this is quite a stilted approach to writing and can leave the book or that particular section of the book, relatively flat. Instead a writer needs to weave in information about a character’s appearance in an almost subconscious manner, so that the reader finds that he is learning a lot about the character, without having to wade through large chunks of descriptive text.
Within fiction writing there are 5 key ways of showing appearance:
- Static description
- Dialogue
- Emotional reaction
- Thoughts
- Actions
Static description is useful if you want to convey a quick piece of visual information about a character in a short sentence; ‘his hair was grey’, etc. However this form of description is usually quite disinteresting and flat. It also doesn’t allow the reader to learn anything more about the character; yes we may know that he or she has grey hair, but we don’t know anything further about their personality. Readers of fiction need to feel something towards the characters they are reading about, so in all characterisation there is a need to add some emotion to give the writing life and vitality.
Names can be a useful way to add life to a character through the power of description. A middle-aged female would not for example conjure up the same image in the reader’s mind if they were called Lara as they would if they were called Wendy. The name Lara suggests someone who is younger, perhaps thinner and certainly an individual who is contemporary. In comparison, a character with the name Wendy does fit with her middle-aged description, and the reader would assume that she is a more reserved and traditional character than Lara would appear to be. It is therefore important to ensure that the names you give your characters fit with the way in which you will want to describe them, for even just through hearing a character’s name will the reader begin to form visual images of him or her.
When adding in character description, remember too to think about all of the senses. The perfume that an individual wears will tell the reader a lot about them, the way their skin feels will help the reader draw parallels with the character’s personality, as will any distinctive accents or particular patterns of speech. Clothes are also an important element of characterisation as they tell us so much about what the character likes to wear, how they feel about their body, their social status and their personal self-esteem.