Writing How often do you re-describe a character appearance?

[LuoirM]

As an author, one of the problem I've noticed is keeping my character fresh and flesh. Either via their motives; speech patterns, characteristics. But one thing I could not seems to grasp is their appearance, or look (hair color, length, eye shape, male or female,.. etc)

Of course; the first time I have to go through and describe their appearance for the imagination of the reader is when they are first introduce into the screen and the readers could have a view of them via the narrator. But then I soon learn at a certain moment, maybe after 5 or so chapters, I have to do that over again to remind the readers and not just refer to the character as their name anymore. Maybe subtly describe how their hair flew, how their eyes brightened up so you can adds in the color and shape. Or have another character talk about it, it's just the matter of what I fear; overdo it or underdo it

So how often do I have to do that? Do you have this problem? Is it resolved by feel or is there a pattern you follow? Please help, thank you.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

Once or twice and whenever they change styles or outfits.

 

[AiLovesToGrow]

Depends on genre, often. However, the best rule of thumb is whenever there is a change. New clothing? Describe it. Taking off the bandages and looking at the scar? Describe it. Been a few months and the character has put on weight? Describe it.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

I describe once or twice, depending on frequency of character. Then I have a glossary item that contains their appearances. Maybe have a mention of prominent feature every now and then.

 

[Corty]

Only once. Everyone can imagine them after that and form their own mental image of the character. Done.

 

[LilRora]

You should definitely do it every now and then - each time there is a change, that's for sure, but you can also insert tiny remarks into small interactions, like instead of saying "She looked at me in confusion." you can do "She looked at me with confusion in her blue eyes."

It becomes a little annoying if done often, but it's really hard to overdo it unless you are blatantly putting it wherever you can. I'd say it should be done especially in some meaningful moments, where pointing out a person's trait can ephasize some action or event. For example "It only now hit me how little she was as I held her close to my chest, caressing her silky, black hair comfortingly." or "I had a peculiar feeling well up in my chest as I saw his thin frame - too thin for someone his age - disappearing behind the door."

In both examples here I could easily skip the descriptive parts (in cursive), but it would rid the sentence of its... imaginative power? Dunno how to put it properly, but those are valuing adjectives that help imagine the scene in the intended way. You could say the more things like that you put in, the richer, less bland your story will be.

Apart from that you should not describe appearance in detail after the first time, because people pay attention to someone's whole image only once in their lives, unless something important is happening or happened causing the appearance to be important, plus, just like before, in emotional, meaningful moments that allow the long description without breaking immersion - so not in the middle of something quick-paced. So seeing your long-lost friend or watching your crush do things - those are definitely alright to describe in detail.

As for that:

So how often do I have to do that? Do you have this problem? Is it resolved by feel or is there a pattern you follow?

I don't think there is anything dictating how often do you have to do that - it's really helpful if it happens relatively often and reminds of some key points in appearance, plus it can really help with immersion and conveying emotions, but it doesn't really hurt when you don't do it all. Just that your story will be more bland, hopefully making it clear it's better if you do it at least a little.

I generally do it by feeling, like when I imagine the scene in my head, I try to think what I'm paying attention to - there are always those couple of things that are distinctly most noticeable in a scene. If that's an element of appearance, then sure as hell I'll include it, not skip it just cause it was mentioned sixty chapters ago.

Edit: *Me after 15 minutes of editing and adding important details:*

 

[Yairy]

Never!

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Just change their clothes every day, and show whether protagonist is lazy on bathing schedule or not.

It's easy if the clothes is just uniform and casual clothes. Make sure to change the color regularly tho, use your own clothes as reference.

Also show smells accumulation after not bathing for several days, itching due to wrong shampoo/bugs, and how hairstyles clothing choice, and equipments affect characters movement and activity.

It shows the author's diligence on putting details and keeping it non-filler.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I often skip describing them, period. Descriptions get in the way of the story.
It's called the glossary. Put a picture in there.

 

[Tsuru]

In chinese novels.
If we ignore the bullshit old novels where they portray the FL as a peerless beauty with paragraph at her first appareance in the story, the recent chinese authors now are better and describe shortly her. THEN no more big description of her.

But of course sometimes they must readers not forget her or her looks. Because despite chineses writing 1-2 chaps/day, lot of readers read 30+ novels daily updates (just like us with manhwas), or they stockpile for months so it's easy to forget "Yan Zue/Yi Mo/etc-etc" characters.

So, similar to adding stealthy advertisements for products in TV series like the water bottle in the dinner is a certain "XXX company" that don't disgust spectators unlike usual ads, authors have scenes where that sometimes remind people of her looks.

= It can be FL putting her "long hair" behind her ear, or "she put down her usual red muffler on the sofa", "she closed her big green eyes in anticipation".
= It can be MC looking at her : "Yan couldn't help touching the smooth long legs of Yue", "I couldn't stop myself to keep looking at her energetic eyes", "I chuckled at her usual tsundere complaint", "My eyes couldn't help but keep looking at her flamboyant red hair that flew in the wind" / "Her small feet stamped my foot under the table" / "I grabbed her hand that were cold that had long fingers with big callus from prolonged kando learning"
= But often it's "spectators" : "They gasped when looking at Yue that entered the stage, that had perfect looks with long legs, wavy blonde hair, and fox-like eyes" / "Looking at her fox eyes looking at them in the public, they couldnt stop blushing and adverting their gaze from her because of shame".

In short. Try to think of POV of readers. And that now lot of readers are teens and have rebellious mentality = so it's always best to influence slowly or be like them.
It's kinda like youtube videos, now you can't directly expose your oppinion but say "Its just my personal oppinion and everyone got theirs" or you risk being "sprayed/cyber-attacked".
The reason 2022 chinese novels (or jp animes) stopped having retarded beta or dense MCs is because teens grew up disgusted by them, so they created their own series that aren't like that. 2022 successful creators are grown-up-readers that kept their readers' mentality. (Ex: advertising The true endgame (SH) chXX.5, author and readers know it's enjoyable to see a flashback-story of the previous games of trolling-MC, even better as it's about a sci-fi space vrmmo with entire freedom, readers like seeing a 1year-construct-giga-spaceship hijacked and dive in the sun ! / Readers were also disgusted of all this vrmmos mangas or isekais where MC want to get strong as main goal so this series isn't about it ! MC WANT TO FISH ! / Dense MC ? Fck that ! it's still a beta but not dense realistic MC !)

PS : Repeating myself again and again, the best tip of any author : READ MORE, MORE, MORE.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I don't bother, at least not for the MC. It lets other Kaiba fans imagine themselves as her . . . as long as they don't look too closely at the commissioned art.

 

[BearlyAlive]

+1 for every change that's more than minor. A short description on wether new outfits compliment certain features or not should be enough but if it's bigger than that there's no problem to describe the whole package again.

 

[Beeteetee]

Here's some examples you can use of using different reminders of appearance:

Minions like receptionists, bouncers, clerks talking about them - "Boss, a team of blue haired adventurers came by and asked to see you - They left about a hour ago and mentioned coming back tomorrow."

Chasing guards can ask about them, "Have you seem a short blonde girl passing by here? She's about yea high."

You could have objects describing them like wanted signs, "Elderly dwarf with a scar across the left cheek and about the height of three knots high, 1200 royals information leads to arrest or capture."

Arrogant people commenting on the character's looks and making an assumption on it - "Red hair and a hand-me-down robe. You must be a Weasley."

commentary of intent, The count sniffed, "Pointed ears, horns and pasty skin but no collars - I'm surprised to see an unclaimed demonkin here, how..." He smiled cruelly, "unfortunate."

Magic items altering appearance, "Instead of a shiny iridescent hair, the headband casted an illusion of a dull brown hair."

I hope that helps.

 

[georgelee5786]

Once, but throughout chapters, I'll drop little reminders, like mention his eye or hair color in passing.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Aside from the first introduction, I reinforce my characters' images by illustrations. Usually, that'd be enough for the reader to form an image of what he/she looks like. (Benefits of writing in LN style)

 

[StrongArm]

Depends on the writing style.
If i am doing first person then I rarely comment on the appearance of the MC. Number one, its difficult to see your own face except in a mirror. And number 2 , if the mc talks about their appearance all the time then they come off as narcissistic. Its better to concentrate more on mannerisms and ticks that give a first person narrative character life, such as 'brushing their hair back with their hand when nervous' or something like that. You can however talk about what they wear, but again you must not do this too often or risk your MC coming off as a douche.

For third person perspective, you should describe appearance often. In third person you are painting a picture of the world. It needs to properly describe its main actor E.G. what they wear, body type, hair style. sweat, dont skimp on details too much in third person, but also no need to write a chapter just describing a dude.

An important part of describing a characters appearance is variation. A random person might notice a character has blue eyes and move on, but a love interest will notice that their amore's blue eyes has green flecks when the sun hits them just right.

 

[NotOriginal]

I describe them once and any notable features the character have. Other characters can comment on their appearance when they meet.
But should I have to re-describe my characters it will be after a noticeable change in their appearance like when they are children to a teenager to a adult.

 

[MajorKerina]

Heavily serial chapters with a lot of characters sometimes need it a lot. Glossary helps but typically I will describe character appearance in the framework of a mood. Like you can say, “Her brown eyes lost their fire/felt dim”. Typically a good rule of thumb is that the focus of any description you should be to reveal something new even if you were reviewing previously established things.

 

[melchi]

I agree with @LilRora throwing in little reminders here and there is good. I think the bigger the cast the more helpful those things are. <eye color> or <hair color> really just add a couple extra words. Body type might be a bit more confusing. How many people in your novel are slim or short? Is deb the short one? There could be more than one short one.

I'm of the opinion one can never be too clear. Just try to be creative and switch it up a bit.

Rora glares at melchi.
The red-head glares at melchi.
Rora glares at the brindle dog.
Rora glares at the slender canine.
The crimson-eyed girl glares at melchi.
Rora glares at the brown-eyed greyhound.

There are lots of ways to say the same thing but not use someone's name.

 

[Iamnotabot]

Every now and then when there are changes to the character