Writing Apparel

[Aoibh]

So I'm stuck on writing a character description in a story as an observation in the narrative, I was wondering if anyone has any tips on when and where not to place a character description.

 

[EternalSunset0]

For me, I think it's good if the description can be spread across multiple lines, paragraphs, one at a time.

You don't need to spend an entire paragraph telling people what a character looks like. Start off slowly, probably telling a bit about his/her height or basic attire in the first one. Then have the character interact with the environment or something like said character's hair or clothing, and sneak in some other descriptions while he/she's doing it.

That will not overwhelm your readers while giving you a chance to be descriptive.

 

[Aoibh]

For me, I think it's good if the description can be spread across multiple lines, paragraphs, one at a time.

You don't need to spend an entire paragraph telling people what a character looks like. Start off slowly, probably telling a bit about his/her height or basic attire in the first one. Then have the character interact with the environment or something like said character's hair or clothing, and sneak in some other descriptions while he/she's doing it.

That will not overwhelm your readers while giving you a chance to be descriptive.

Ah that's good, thank you!

 

[thedude3445]

You want to describe a character when they first appear, but it can be pretty short. Unless your writing style is already pretty flowery, you'll probably want to just do a sentence or two, however much it takes to convey the character's personality and demeanor. That's what the descriptions are about; not just giving a picture for the reader, but informing them of who this character is before they even do anything.

Fitzgerald is definitely on the flowery side, but here is an example from The Great Gatsby of a character's entire persona being shown to the world in just one paragraph:

[Tom Buchanan] had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body — he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage — a cruel body.

Tom is fleshed out a lot later, with more description throughout the rest of the first chapter that reveals a lot more about him, but just this first intro gives the reader all they need to know to start off with.