Writing Protips on Character Description
Describe body parts as body parts, not as objects. Example: Eyes are eyes, not orbs or optics. Legs are legs, not supports.
Eyes are windows into the soul is bullshit. You can tell a lot more about a person from their hands than from their eyes. Spend more time talking about what a person’s hands look like/what they’re doing with them. Do they bite their nails or cut them? Are their hands scarred? Strong? Delicate? Long? Covered in pen drawings?
Refrain from spending three paragraphs describing a person. If something is important (for example, a red hat that gets stolen, or a scar that defines the character). Your readers do not need a grocery list of what your character is wearing/looks like/identifies as. Just the basics.
Unless you’re going to describe every white person as “the caucasian” DO NOT describe every person of colour by their race. That means you’re constantly reminding the reader of their race instead of their character. It’s annoying and kind of racist.
Avoid redundancy. “He grinned a full smile with his teeth.” Is redundant. You cannot grin with anything but your teeth.
Metaphors and similes are rad. They can describe a person in one sentence in a way that a full paragraph can not. Here’s one from a Third Eye Blind song: “That girl is like a sunburn.”
Slip description into dialogue. Friends and family will remark on your appearance. How they remark is also an indicator of the closeness of the relationship. It’s a two-in-one! "I like that shirt. It really brings out your eyes!" "Wow, long night last night?" "You look like shit." "Did you do something new with your hair? Maybe it’s cause I’ve never seen you wear it up before."
SAID IS NOT DEAD. Said is all you need. If two characters are talking you can have he said/she said or Karen said/Ming said. Punctuation is the indicator for yelling and questions. You can also use dialogue to convey how a character is communicating. "Jesus, you don’t need to yell." "Speak up, Dear." "I can’t understand what you’re saying when you have food in your mouth." "Don’t you take that tone with me!" "Was that a question or a statement?"
Don’t describe characters by their hair colour either. This applies to the dialogue. Often I see “The Brunette said” or “The Blonde laughed”. It’s redundant. They have names. We know what the characters look like by now and do not need a reminder.
Describing a person’s laugh is a good way of telling the reader about the character and putting their voice into the reader’s head. Is it a booming laugh? Do they cover their mouth? Do they snort? Are they a silent laugher?
Not everyone smells like strawberries, jasmine, vanilla, cinnamon, or whatever fruit. Some people smell gross. Some people smell nice in a weird way. It can also reflect someone’s diet or lifestyle. People who eat a lot of red meat smell like iron, vegetarians often have an earthy smell. You can tell if someone has a pet. Scent is an important description, but it’s not always pretty perfumes and shampoos.
How does the character make others feel? This one can descend into cliches pretty quickly, so it’s a difficult descriptor. Go from your own experiences though. Karen didn’t really want to run into Ming. Ming has this nasty laugh that Karen always feels is directed at her.
These are just a few things that came to mind today. Feel free to add to the list if you’d like or ask questions about writing. Again, writing is a skill and takes practice. It’s always good to have fun.