how to introduce a description of a character?

[Amber Winterrow]

do i put in little pieces over the first few chapters or do i put them into one paragraph? and when is a good time to put them in if the second is a good idea?

 

[Evie Connor]

Everyone has their own way of doing this. I prefer to do little pieces for your main character. Chances are he/she won't be thinking a lot about what he/she looks like, so it would be weird to dump all that info into one paragraph. However for other characters that your main character encounters, you can put the most basic info in one paragraph and then add more details later as your narrator notices new information.


~Evie
evelynconnor.blogspot.com

 

[?o°??i?? ?]

Regardless of how much it calls your name, avoid the mirror technique like the plague. Please.
See Nathan Bransford's blog post on Five Openings to Avoid.

For me, I use the paragraph technique when they're first introduced. Later, I might make references to their appearance once in a while. "She fidgets with a strand of her brown hair." "He blinks his blue eyes, surprised, and looks away."

I think the paragraph of description isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, no one likes having to piece together a character in their mind. "Oh, so that's what her arm's like ... now, there's her eyes ... now I'll wait until she does something with her hair to see what colour it is ..."
Nah. The paragraph is actually more effective than others make it out to be. Readers would rather endure a few sentences of description in order to be able to envision the thing perfectly and exaclty as it is for the rest of the book.

All the best with your writing.

 

[stripes with plaid]

LITTLE PIECES! I hate hate hate when someone gives a head to toe description of the main character. It's a very amateur mistake. Throw in a detail here and there. Its less memorable when you do it in a paragraph, your reader will get maybe past the hair and eye color before it all blends into mindless babble. If you're introducing a new character, one or two things is fine (A tall blonde-haired boy walked into the room) but keep it to a minimum.

 

[HP Wombat]

It depends. I personally like stopping and describing a character with a couple of sentences right when they're introduced, instead of randomly throwing descriptions in here and there. For my main character, it tends to come out more slowly, since the most important thing isn't about how he looks, but what kind of person he is.

 

[Sazwonderz]

I don't usually mind how they mention it. They could do it as two characters meet face to face, noticing their eyes or seeing their hair. The narrator can just jump in and tell me too. As long as it doesn't take up the whole story. I think maybe 2 or 3 lines to describe their exterior is fine in actual physical features such as hair and eyes and muscles etc.


Personally I don't like it when the first person describes someone, especially when they're talking about their love interest. I also prefer it when they just tell me what they look like. It annoys me when they try to make it subtle; it makes it cheesy and horrible to read. Just tell me that she has brown eyes that were slightly slinted, especially when angry . . . Not that she brimmed with rage, her sharp chocolate brown eyes poisoning anyone who crossed her path. Ugh . . . I hate the word chocolate when describing. It’s okay to use that when you’re not describing eyes, no need to mention the chocolate brown, or even the sharp in that case. But I won't stop reading because of it.

 

[Howlerz]

I've always given the reader a 'taste' of description right from the get-go. I think it is important to allow the reader to develop an image from their own mind, their own memories to fit someone that they can relate to the character. Now and then I will add a few things but you can't do it too often because by then the reader will have already become associated with the character's description and adapted it to their personality.

So, for instance, I may describe that Sally has short, curly red hair and an attractive body of average height. I may follow that with something she does, like smirk and make crude retorts to her customers. Already you have a vision of a woman who does not care for her job as a waitress. You do not need to go further and say that her eyes are blue (unless this is important to the character) or that she has freckles and tatoos on her behind. Just whatever is important to that character that you want your reader to remember through out the story. But let their own imagination fill in certain things.