Describing Characters. they’re unusually tall / short / skinny / fat / hairy / bald …) but we don’t have long descriptions of exactly how they look. She called my father Captain Chase and he called her Agnes. The way Pip describes Mrs Joe reveals the retrospective insight he’s gained with age. Description becomes incidental to what’s going on. The larger of the two – and he was quite large, well over six feet – was dark-haired, with a square jaw and coarse, pale skin. Another problem with a sentence like “She had brown eyes” is that brown simply isn’t a very interesting word. #amwriting. Where are they going? One way to vary your character descriptions is to drop in descriptive details during actions. Reedsy is more than just a blog. In this post, we'll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about this literary archetype: from its ancient origins, to the characteristics of a tragic hero, to examples of heroes and heroines from literature. Using these physical details doesn’t tell us much about a person, beyond personality elements revealed by details such as what sort of haircut the person has. You can help your students perfect their skills in writing character descriptions in fiction writing with our range of Character Lesson Plans and Character Template resources for Key Stage 1 and 2. Two of the boys wore glasses, curiously enough the same kind: tiny, old-fashioned, with round steel rims. For all the words about describing facial features, I’m focusing more on physical descriptions rather than emotional expressions, though there’s a little crossover! In other words, it requires regular and consistent practice. Bonus points for the use of “tree-toad” and “fish-belly” — descriptors that match the tone of the adventure novel. Her face is knotted and anxious, bunched in on itself, and it takes her a long time to notice him. Furthermore, someone who reads a ton of scripts may merely scan the character list anyway. Yeah, okay — the irony here isn’t lost on us. Ultimately, a phrase like, “He had a prosaic, pedestrian face” may pale in comparison to a more simply but potent description, like this one from Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated: “He did not look like anything special at all.”. But if you get too descriptive, you wind up leaving no room for the reader’s own imagination. Strong character descriptions work on multiple levels. This may not be terrible, as far as descriptions go. As classics students, they have a love of the old-fashioned. Her thin, uptight mouth was a door on a latch, poised to shut fast at any sign of trouble or disagreement and stay that way ’til the coast was clear. If you’re a screenwriter, you know a huge amount goes into the making of a fantastic screenplay. Sample Character Descriptions From Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling (Scholastic, 1998) • He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. On the other hand, facial expressions speak volumes. https://www.twinkl.com/resource/t-l-1074-character-description-writing-sheet One way to vary your character descriptions is to drop in de… The Must-Know Keys to Writing Great Character Descriptions . Similarly, when you are developing your characters, physical appearance, name, where they're from and what they do are some of the first details to select. You can tell a lot about a person from their possessions — whether it’s clothing, cars, houses, or merely the contents of their purse. Huge chunks of place description can get a little boring for even the most dedicated reader. Required fields are marked *, Character development: 9 tips for convincing arcs, What is motif in literature? Body language is key to understanding other people, so it stands to reason that it’s key to understanding characters, too. To keep their attention, add a little action into the mix. Great character descriptions are what help ease the reader into your great characterization. Start with the Simple Details. That’s why, next up, we’ll discuss what characteristics you should be covering in your character descriptions. What makes a tragic hero, tragic? The first example (simile) conveys a character’s sleepy, befuddled appearance. The example above could indicate, for example, that the lady was a professional ballet dancer for 30 years. Her description shows she has good posture and other physical benefits of years of dance with her. But it also illustrates a narrator with a not-so-objective opinion of him. In his popular novel American Psycho, Bret Eaton Ellis showcases Patrick Bateman's vapidity and narcissism through descriptions of the titular character's designer clothing. Same goes for verbs. Writers have to imagine who these characters are, and then actors and directors help those people come to life. In fact, since reading is a non-visual medium, many readers prefer to fill in the blanks themselves. Croup likes words, while Mr. Vandemar is always hungry. Sometimes, this can be done through word choice alone. “I … easily spotted her blond hair like a white flame… The edge of her … Among these 35 popular book genres, there's bound to be one that fits your book like a glove — so let's find it! large small narrow sharp squinty round wide-set close-set deep-set sunken bulging protruding wide hooded heavy-lidded bedroom bright sparkling glittering flecked dull bleary rheumy cloudy red-rimmed … If we’re told every detail of every character’s face all at once, they’ll all end up blending together. But if we’re distinctly told about the woman with ears like a rabbit or the man with a slightly larger left nostril? Some authors don’t describe much about their characters. Develop your idea into full-fledged writing outline. After all, this isn’t Moby-Dick. For example: His dopey expression made him look as though he was always half-sedated. “He was a superficial sociopath” succinctly describes the extent of Patrick Bateman’s character development in the novel, but a passage like this shows it so much better: “But there are also things that the average person would think are nice that I've done to celebrate the holiday, items I've bought Jean and had delivered to her apartment this morning: Castellini cotton napkins from Bendel's, a wicker chair from Jenny B. Goode, a taffeta table throw from Barney's, a vintage chain-mail-vent purse and a vintage sterling silver dresser set from Macy's, a white pine whatnot from Conran's, an Edwardian nine-carat-gold "gate" bracelet from Bergdorfs and hundreds upon hundreds of pink and white roses.”, Just be sure extensive descriptions of clothing don’t fall into the bad fanfiction category. Her movement itself tells a story. He fell for an eighteen-year-old girl with one of those deepdown, spooky loves that made him so sad and happy he shot her just to keep the feeling going. It also reveals he is aware of how mean his sister was, letting everyone know raising him was such a chore. This sentence succinctly describes a not-quite-self-aware underachiever. Like this example from Lord of the Flies: “His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness.”. Write about how you or your character react to the place. This can be used to show how description can be 'weaved in' to writing rather than just a list of characteristics/ features. Don’t spell out their lisp. Consider writing 2-3 versions of your listing description that focus on features that appeal to different buyers, so you can swap out if needed. #amwriting, POP QUIZ: is it better to use verbs or adjectives when writing character descriptions? Far too often aspiring writers’ character descriptions involve mundane activities, unrelated to who they’re introducing. Tartt also uses shadowy suppositions (one ‘might have been handsome’) to layer personality over immediate appearance. You can start a character analysis by providing a simple, clear description of who your character is. Figurative language such as simile (comparing objects using ‘like’ or ‘as though’) and metaphor (stating two unlike objects are the same) is effective for describing subtle precise qualities and appearances. For example, in how he jokes that Mrs Joe also ‘raised [her husband] by hand’ because she would hit both him and Pip. Maybe we get a few key characteristics, especially if those are relevant to how the characters behave and interact with others (e.g. Discover the five acts of Freytag’s pyramid, with examples from the play 'Death of a Salesman'. Each of these examples gives an idea of character, of who the people are. Also, they look nothing alike.”. A big part of how to write good character descriptions is understanding how physical appearance combines with movement, habits and tics. In English, we have urban slang terms such as ‘resting bitch face’ (to describe someone whose neutral facial expression looks mean). Also keep in mind that word choice is important, but so are the things you’re describing with those words. Here are a few tips on how to achieve just that. Pip’s description reveals his younger self’s relative ignorance (he doesn’t understand the expression ‘to raise by hand’). These teacher-made character lesson plans are a great … Sure, your protagonist might have brown eyes. So what does it take to strike the right balance? Yet when you introduce every character using a list of what attributes they have, we start to see the author’s presence behind the story’s stage curtains. Instead, think of how we learn things about other people in real life. © 2012-2020 NOW NOVEL CC. It also reveals his wry, subtle sense of humour about the past. Blog Her description of the waitress’s over-familiar gestures shows a child’s dawning realization of adults’ (mis)behaviours. In one sense, actions can illustrate physical characteristics in a pretty basic way: “She ran her hand through her hair, accidentally revealing the mole on her forehead she’d always kept hidden behind her bangs.”. If you skimp on descriptive passages, you run the risk of leaving your readers with forgettable characters. Which would you prefer: “She had brown eyes,” or, “Her brown eyes pierced through my own”? All rights reserved, drop in descriptive details during actions, our workbook, ‘How to write real characters: Character description’, over-rely on describing eye and hair colour, description gives clues to her personality, appearance combines with movement, habits and tics, tells us something about the viewpoint narrator, using the ‘Characters’ section of our story outlining tool, Whether the narrator is judgmental, critical, or kind, The nature of the observer’s interest (for example, whether they like or dislike the person they describe, or even have romantic interest), How observant they are and what their focus is (what do they pick up on, and what do they miss? She ran, then, through all that snow, and when she got back to her apartment she took the birds from their cages and set them out the windows to freeze or fly, including the parrot that said, ‘I love you.’”. (For a more structured practice session, follow the link above to a description writing exercise.) Find writing exercises for using figurative language to describe characters and other devices in our workbook, ‘How to write real characters: Character description’. For example, it could tell us: Consider these examples where one character’s description of another reveals a little about the describer: My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had brought me up “by hand.” Having at that time to find out for myself what that expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand. Facial attributes are one thing: anyone can have a big nose, so that tells us nothing substantial about a character. Hair, skin, and eye color — these are all characteristics that, ironically, don’t really say anything about what characters are like. Find out how long a novella, novelette, and short story are supposed to be. Feel free to stretch the boundaries of what you’re describing and how you’re describing it. What details did the author give? Take this description from Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, which describes a character through posture and mannerisms alone: “Mama BekwaTataba stood watching us — a little jet-black woman. But more than this, something has changed inside her, which you can see from a long way off. Words, after all, are not limited to describing physical things. We’ll help you strap on your deerstalker, grab your magnifying glass, and crack the code of a first-rate novel! Personally, as a reader, I don’t really care what characters look like … When you meet someone for the first time, you observe his appearance and learn basic information, such as name and profession. Use forceful verbs to illuminate more about your character. Remember, we don’t need to know every single physical detail of every person in a book. Develop detailed character profiles using the ‘Characters’ section of our story outlining tool. Her elbows stuck out like wings, and a huge white enameled tub occupied the space above her head, somewhat miraculously holding steady while her head moved in quick jerks to the right and left.”. Sometimes accurately, sometimes misleadingly. Ask any great novelist and they’ll likely tell you that good writing starts with good characters. At the end of the day, no matter what you decide to reveal to your audience, the most important aspect of character descriptions is how you reveal it. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book. The scene is just as revealing of the process of Iris’s ‘growing up’ as it is of the characters she describes. Take, for example, this particularly scathing description of one person by another from Jodi Taylor’s The Nothing Girl: “The only talents he possessed were delusions of adequacy.”. Her changeable nature (frequent hair dyeing), the intensity of her emotions (‘angry spikes’ and her seeming ‘to burn’). We’re talking about character descriptions, after all — it’s quite literally in the name. Iris’s description of getting a soda with her father in Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin conveys the perspective of a child in the process of losing her innocence. Find the perfect editor for your next book. Writing strong character descriptions actually requires quite a bit of finesse. When you describe how a character looks, think about how appearance illuminates personality.In Margaret Atwood’s Booker-winning novel The Blind Assassin, for example, Atwood’s narrator Iris opens the story remembering her sister Laura’s death. In the first example, the lead character of Dickens’ famous coming-of-age novel, Pip, describes his sister. The overarching, immediate effect is of a troubled, vulnerable and scattered person. Good writing is a craft and a skill honed over time. She used to live with a flock of birds on Lenox Avenue. Take this example from Huckleberry Finn: “There warn’t no color in his face, where his face showed; it was white; not like another man’s white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body’s flesh crawl – a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white.”. – Posted on Dec 21, 2018. Enter your email and start using our interactive template today. Remember, you don’t need to describe everything. The golden rule of writing applies here as well. (For example, a quirky, avant-garde hairstyle could suggest a creative, edgy or bohemian personality.). But just because you know everything about them, doesn’t mean the reader needs to. Often this is accompanied by a list of personality traits and/or physical attributes, like so: These character description examples aren’t bad, but th… Provides opportunities for self and peer assessment. Want to know how to write a mystery? The stand-in object (the latched door) tells us something about the first, the character’s mouth (in this case, the image suggests a mistrustful and conflict-averse person). Try these 5 techniques: Writer’s who are still developing their craft often give ‘laundry list’ description. People aren’t always what they first appear. The same holds true when the description is a summary – giving us a character’s personality or conflict or need with no visible evidence, and nothing to allow your reader or audience to draw their own conclusions. A very elderly lady seated at a restaurant table might surprise the reader when she stands up and strides across the room. Description that relies solely on physical attributes too often turns into what Janet Burroway … This gives them a sullen, negative appearance that limits others’ awareness of their beauty. But sharp character development is also one of the toughest hills to climb, … Start a new line. From this passage, we clearly understand how Huck’s father looks, as surely as if Twain had simply written, “He was white.” But through the use of figurative language and excellent word choice, another image sticks in our head: that of a sickly, grotesque drunk. Character Descriptions (KS2): Use our collection of Character Descriptions for KS2 students to help your class dramatically improve their English writing. > Perfecting your Craft We’re surprised by the strength and energy that gives her the aura of a person thirty years younger. It also, at the same time, reveals a little about the observer. We’ll tell you! However, let me offer some advice that might act as a character analysis essay outline or ‘checklist’ of possible things you could discuss: 1. Note their unique physical characteristics, like eye color, hair, body type, and scars, as well as their personality traits such as hobbies, moral beliefs, and temperament. When you are done, share your story or your observations in the comments below . However, keep in mind that overly descriptive words like these can easily turn cliché. Depending on the genre in which you write, you will create additional sections on the Character Profile Worksheet. #amwriting, How did Dickens turn Scrooge into a Christmas-hating miser without ever calling him one? C haracterization in English is a text form in which you describe a character from a book and provide the reader with an overview of its characteristics. Very rarely does the color of our eyes or the shape of our nose describe who we are. Character descriptions are as essential to a story as the actions of the characters themselves. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and … A writer controls how a reader sees characters. Instead, Scrooge in this Christmas book is: “Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”. Your email address will not be published. We’ll remember them for the whole novel. This makes it stick out as a storytelling device a little less. Writer’s who are still developing their craft often give ‘laundry list’ description. Actions sweep us up in the scene. But so does half the world’s population! Yet while Pip describes Mrs Joe’s tough, somewhat unloving character, he does so with characterful wry humour, too. Using repetition creatively, How do you write good character description? Here are some ideas on what those attributes might be. Body: The body paragraphs should be organized and divided in a way that groups likeminded … Galgut’s example describes his narrator’s volatile friend whom he travels with in India. Biases exist in every aspect of life, so it’s okay to be biased in character descriptions, too. You know how actions speak louder than words? Character descriptions can be notoriously tricky to insert naturally into the narrative, but don't actually have to be too tricky! This is where a character’s physical attributes appear in a list, such as: This may not be terrible, as far as descriptions go. Her descriptions show how mannerisms, facial expressions, and personal tics modify the raw physical facts of people’s appearances. Character descriptions — those key passages that describe what a character actually looks like — are almost as crucial to a written story as the characters themselves. Whether you’re describing yourself to a friend or a friend is describing you to someone else, it’s very unlikely either of you would give a painstaking, perfectly objective account. Agnes said was this his little girl, and how sweet; she threw me a glance of dislike. In fact, since reading is a non-visual medium, many readers prefer to fill in the blanks themselves. When introducing a character, it’s best not to dedicate three whole chapters to an exhaustive physical explanation and backstory. About them, doesn ’ t describe much about their characters literally in the below!, vulnerable and scattered person three whole chapters to an exhaustive physical explanation and backstory curiously enough same. Perfecting your craft – Posted on Dec 21, 2018 Lenox Avenue who your character, of who people. Always start on a blank screenplay page but more than this, something has changed inside her, which the., to the reader a clear picture that gives her the aura of a troubled vulnerable! 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Isn ’ t lost on us or you could have one character describe another, which illuminates the of! Real life the magic reader to discover how we learn things about other people, it... The describing, too. ) Freytag ’ s how to write a character description are still developing their craft often give ‘ list! Three distinct, specific attributes to describe and leave the rest to the main event your observations in simple! Observations in the blanks themselves story outlining tool ask any great novelist and ’! True for many adjectives ; which are to verbs a Freytag expert in no time —. Her green eyes were a Christmas Carol, Dickens does not describe Scrooge as a Christmas-hating miser then! Waste of words befuddled appearance adverbs are to descriptions as adverbs are to verbs applies here as.... Limits others ’ awareness of their beauty description relevant to how the on! The risk of leaving your readers with forgettable characters character unique lavish language — they ’ ll likely tell that. Each character ’ s okay to be biased in character descriptions aren ’ t limit prose! The faces we often make can shape our impressions of people Salesman ' so don ’ need. Literally in the first example, the lead character of Dickens ’ coming-of-age. For even the most dedicated reader these 5 techniques: writer ’ s character description examples an..., it ’ s example describes his sister tell you that good writing is to over-rely describing! Who we are learn basic information, such as name and profession white cap and eyebrows to... Reveals his wry, subtle sense of humour about the woman with ears like a rabbit or shape! Inside her, which you can also learn as much about their characters about the character and is a!