Character physical traits

[CrimsonGenius]

Should you describe the characters or let the readers imagine what the characters look like.

 

[Satansoul]

Describe the characters. If you don't do this, you will probably get negative comments about it. Some people who like to imagine the character themselves do so even with your descriptions. (This is the advantage of the novel over things like movies and manga)

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Should you describe the characters or let the readers imagine what the characters look like.

Describe them, but do it briefly and when it's relevant. I tend to skip long and drawn-out character explanations.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Depends on the story and character.

 

[RepresentingPride]

Depend of the character and if you love it or not, but at least try to give your readers an idea of what your characters look like, except maybe the one who will disapear the next second.

My mc have like one line to describe him, but when it come to the most beautiful woman in my novel, weirdly, I can write two paragraph for her description.

 

[BouncyCactus]

I usually only include something that is standout or something that is important to the story, or that should leave an impression. I tend to include only three things at most when describing a character and leave the rest to the imagination of the reader. I like to characterize my character through their action, interactions, and how others perceive them as well.

If someone is the designated Tank/Brute of the group, as an example, then I don't usually include their height, steely abs muscular body. Instead, I would focus on something like a scar that just jumps right out at ya, telling a story about how dangerous that role actually is, or how he/she has a tattoo of a child's scribble, to tell a different side of the character, to deepen their character.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

It’s a spectrum. You'll definitely want to spend more detail on the main character than a character that’s only in one chapter. Still every character needs some level of description, everyone’s imagination works the same.

If it‘s a main character go into as much detail as you can. Lately I’ve been doing a bit less, but only because I have illustrations I plan to post with the story.

For a side character, I try to go with easy to understand adjectives. Things like height hair, color, perceived age, and outfit are good for describing with minimal detail. Here’s an example of something I wrote for a one of character with no plot relevance.

A waiter approached the table. He was a portly man with a rough brown beard. His clothes were casual, just a brown jacket and khaki slacks, the outfit spoke to the pub's atmosphere.

 

[georgelee5786]

Describe thoroughly if a main character, if a side, you can get away with a loose one.

 

[LilRora]

My general rule of thumb is, describe how it looks in general, maybe with a couple of details you want to specified such as scars or color of eyes, and leave the rest up to the reader's imagination.

The focus should also be on emotions and impressions, not on dry facts, so it's usually better to say someone was a bear of a man than he was muscular and bulky and 6'2. Or in regards to clothes, just writing something like a light, green summer dress that fluttered in the wind is easily enough, instead of trying to specify it reached down a bit past her ankles, had a round cut and short sleeves, and was made of light, green fabric that fluttered in the wind.

The thing is, the exact details, such as height (generally measured sizes), hairstyles, details about clothes, they realistically don't matter in a story. Even if it comes up and it somehow matters, you can always mention it there, there's no point adding them beforehand, because the readers aren't gonna remember someone's got 170 centimeters in height, which is precisely four less than their partner's, or that someone's got a skirt reaching halfway their thighs.

Or, well, that last one might be a bad example.

 

[Azure_Fog]

Should you describe the characters or let the readers imagine what the characters look like.

Descriptions are great, even if I ignore them half the time.