When describing a character what should I mention.

[Topgun1908]

I finally finished writing a bunch of changes to my character's physical appearance and I'm finally getting around to going into great detail about what my character looks like so I wanna know what exactly I should describe. I know about hair colour and height. My character will mainly look the same throughout story so should I describe hairstyle? What the main clothes she wears looks like? Anything I might have missed that would allow readers to get a better idea of what they look like?

 

[SailusGebel]

Mention whatever you want. To get readers a better idea of what your characters look like, you need to commission the art of those characters. Doesn't matter how well you describe them with words. Also, as I understood, a lot of people on this forum dislike a prolonged character description. They usually forget it, skim through it, etc.

 

[TotallyHuman]

Unless you are writing a villainous noble girl, you don't really have to go into great detail about their appearance (and if you do and they don't have straight curls and blonde hair - you are a blasphemous little mf). If their appearance doesn't have any function in your story beyond just being there, then just give the general stuff to the reader (height, hair length/color, body type) and let them fill in the blanks however they want

 

[Topgun1908]

Mention whatever you want. To get readers a better idea of what your characters look like, you need to commission the art of those characters. Doesn't matter how well you describe them with words. Also, as I understood, a lot of people on this forum dislike a prolonged character description. They usually forget it, skim through it, etc.

Thanks for telling me. Though it sucks that my character description needs to be a few paragraphs long because everything I'm describing is a physical change that happened because of something in the character's past or something that will be relevant in the future. For example character is missing an arm because wolf ate it, hair colour changed because magic, and eye colour changed because foreshadowing.

 

[SailusGebel]

Thanks for telling me. Though it sucks that my character description needs to be a few paragraphs long because everything I'm describing is a physical change that happened because of something in the character's past or something that will be relevant in the future. For example character is missing an arm because wolf ate it, hair colour changed because magic, and eye colour changed because foreshadowing.

It doesn't suck. It just means that you can write whatever you want. I said people on this forum, not people on ScribbleHub in general. There is no rule about how to describe a character. You can mention whatever part of a body or face you think is necessary. Most advice here would be the same as the one Trashy made. "If it doesn't contribute to the story, omit it." And I naturally don't agree with this statement, because, look at the thing I mentioned before. It's a statement made by a very small number of people who won't necessarily read your book. People have different tastes, and someone would like how and what you write.

 

[LordJoyde]

I would advise not wasting too much of your efforts on describing non-mandatory parts of your characters. Most readers will tend to skip non-dialogue parts of stories anyway and those that do read everything will likely be interested in other plot hooks rather than a characters eye color.

Unless you've made it abundantly clear that a certain part of that character description is key within the lore of your setting itself, but at that point, you can already call it a mandatory description.

In short, follow your gut.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Eyes. They are the windows to their soul.

Boobs help too.

 

[bananapink]

Apart from physical appearance, how about adding their quirks, hobbies and how they treat people.

 

[Arkus86]

I would say describe what actually matters in the context of the scene, but skim through what is irrelevant or inconsequential.

 

[greyblob]

do whatever you want. if someone thinks it's too much, they can skim through it

 

[Ai-chan]

I finally finished writing a bunch of changes to my character's physical appearance and I'm finally getting around to going into great detail about what my character looks like so I wanna know what exactly I should describe. I know about hair colour and height. My character will mainly look the same throughout story so should I describe hairstyle? What the main clothes she wears looks like? Anything I might have missed that would allow readers to get a better idea of what they look like?

Ask yourself, what do you want the readers to picture when they read about your character? That being said, don't give an infodump, spread it throughout the whole chapter or through several chapters.

Also ask yourself, when you look at people, what would you notice first?

For Ai-chan, this would be what Ai-chan would notice first if the person is of ordinary looks and it's face to face:
1. Lips
2. Nose
3. Facial scars
4. Eyes
5. Moles (unless the mole is very big or have hair growing out of it)
6. Hair

If the person is of extraordinary looks, Ai-chan would first notice the eyes, then the hair.

So depending on what you notice first, you could explain it that way. And then describe the rest throughout the chapter.

 

[Maldon]

I think you should only write enough for the reader to get a basic idea of what your characters look like, but also describe anything about their appereance that might help further their characterization.

For example, if they like to get into fights saying that they have a few scars might help to drill that point.

 

[Lomyril]

It kinda depends on the scene. If the scene has time for it, you may simply want to copy what you do yourself.

Look up a photo of any random person on the Internet. What do you notice first? What do you notice second? Then you could do a top-down approach where you mention the color and style of their hair (straight black hair that goes down to their shoulders), their build (slim, stocky, etc.), their height, the clothes (including if it is neat&tidy, or messy). Then you could mention something about their demeanor. If they seemed timid, aggressive, etc.

For extra credit you could also mention what they are paying attention to. Are they looking back at the person? Are they looking at someone else or are they distracted and not paying attention to their surroundings at all?

Some scenes may get by with only a short description... an impression. Other scenes that go into depth like this would be more rare. Still, even in established stories it is best to go with a detailed description from time to time. It helps to build up a picture in the mind of the reader of the character and how they interact with the world around them.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

I finally finished writing a bunch of changes to my character's physical appearance and I'm finally getting around to going into great detail about what my character looks like so I wanna know what exactly I should describe. I know about hair colour and height. My character will mainly look the same throughout story so should I describe hairstyle? What the main clothes she wears looks like? Anything I might have missed that would allow readers to get a better idea of what they look like?

Throw the long version of that description into the glossary because readers are low memory

 

[Bartun]

I finally finished writing a bunch of changes to my character's physical appearance and I'm finally getting around to going into great detail about what my character looks like so I wanna know what exactly I should describe. I know about hair colour and height. My character will mainly look the same throughout story so should I describe hairstyle? What the main clothes she wears looks like? Anything I might have missed that would allow readers to get a better idea of what they look like?

I suggest only a general description, for example, if your character is human or human-like there is no need to tell the reader how many arms does the MC has unless he lost one. You can describe a character with broad strokes and still be accurate if you only include the little details that matter, you don't have to be precise like "she was 1,60 meters tall", I bet most people will imagine a normal height unless you describe said character as very short or very tall.

I personally described my characters through different chapters, to avoid a several-paragraph long detailed description. I just told my MC was a short teenage girl with long leather robes and a petite frame in the prologue, then added the blue eyes like her father and long green hair in the first chapter, later added that she dons her hair in a long braid in the second, what kind of boots she wears in the third and so on, you don't have to describe EVERYTHING in a single chapter, let alone a single paragraph.

The reason people dislike that kind of detailed description is due to its association with Mary Sues, even if your character is NOT one, people think it is just because of the way the author describes them, especially if you take your sweet time to describe clothing, avoid describing clothing unless it also serves a purpose, like "she hides a knife in her long leather boots", or if its armor. If it's only a fashionable item, just leave it.