In this post, we discuss the importance of using unique traits and quirks to make characters stand out in a story. We emphasize the need for balance in descriptions, allowing room for reader imagination and avoiding over-explanation. We also discuss the importance of including motivations and emotional responses for a deeper character profile.
Writing character descriptions can be overwhelming, but quick start templates can help you begin the process on the right foot and customize them to your needs and interests. This will help flesh out your main character, villain, and even secondary characters that need brief but compelling descriptions.
To write a great character description, try to be original with your prose, focus on details that reveal personality, slip description into actions, use revealing movement, and try these tips. Under the minimalist approach, focus on what is not there instead of what is, such as a handy man without a tool belt or a clip pad.
Practice writing flash fiction or keeping a piece under 100 words to get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t. Reveal physical traits gradually through the words and actions of other characters and the impacts of those traits on their lives. Make sure your description is accurate while withholding information to make readers complete the image for the story.
In summary, great character descriptions are essential for creating a believable world for readers. By focusing on unique traits, incorporating actions, and using revealing movement, you can create a compelling and accurate portrayal of your characters.
📹 How to write descriptively – Nalo Hopkinson
The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But as a writer, how do you …
What is an example of character description?
New writers often use the list-style of description, which is often more concise and effective for minor characters. However, this may not be suitable for major characters that require an intimate understanding. To improve the quality of character descriptions, it is essential to consider the character’s personality traits and the specific traits they share. For example, a character named Halina, a white brute from the South, could be described as a powerful and ambitious dog. This type of description can help convey the character’s unique qualities and make them stand out from the rest of the characters.
How would you describe a minimalist person?
A minimalist person is someone who values simplicity, usefulness, and clarity, focusing less on material possessions and more on what makes them happy. They avoid non-essentials and enjoy what truly matters to them. Benefits of being a minimalist include improved mental health, less stress, and more time for enjoyable activities. Some signs of a minimalist person include:
- Minimalist lifestyle
- Minimalistic approach
- Minimalistic mindset
- Minimalist mindset
How to describe eyes in poetic way?
The speaker expresses admiration for the eyes, describing them as deep, beautiful, and possessing a multitude of other qualities. These include a depth akin to that of the ocean, a dreaminess reminiscent of a starry night, a prettiness akin to lotus petals, a mesmerizing quality akin to that of a sunrise, a serene quality akin to that of morning dew, and an intriguing quality akin to that of a child’s laughter.
How to describe tired eyes in writing?
To avoid clichéd eye descriptions, focus on the eye area rather than just color. Eyes with dark circles, swollen, puffy, or ringed with red can convey tiredness, anxiety, hostility, suspicion, drowsiness, or mischievousness. The shape of the eye can also be described, such as almond-shaped, hooded, monolid, wrinkled, or smudged. Wide open eyes may indicate innocence or naivety, while flamed eyes can convey a range of emotions.
Pay attention to how eyes change in dim light and consider medical conditions like ptosis, which is an excessively droopy eyelid. By describing eyes in various ways, you can create more meaningful and impactful eye descriptions that contribute to your story.
How to write a personality blurb?
In order to create compelling character descriptions in your work, it is essential to begin with an accurate portrayal of the character’s physical appearance. Carefully selected adjectives are then required to convey the character’s attributes. It is also important to consider the character’s interests and to incorporate descriptive details drawn from your own life experiences. Finally, it is beneficial to practise writing for people in your life, in order to gain insight into how to engage with your readers.
How to create an OC personality?
To create an original character, consider several factors such as age, gender, style, job/role, and basic personality. Identify good and bad qualities, as well as quirks, and use tools like the Enneagram or Meyers-Briggs to determine your character’s personality type. Art is a popular way for kids to express their personality, exercise their imagination, and tell their stories. Many young artists also enjoy writing, which is a great combination of creative activities.
To draw an original character, first ask yourself where and in what time your character lives. This can be in our world or in a universe you love, such as Star Wars, Marvel, or Studio Ghibli. Knowing this world and time is a great starting point for drawing and writing, prompting questions about the character’s visual design, such as clothing, backstory, and style.
In summary, creating an original character is a creative way for kids to express their personality, exercise their imagination, and tell their stories. By asking these key questions, you can create a unique and engaging character that will inspire others to create their own unique and captivating stories.
Are minimalists happier?
A survey by the Simplicity Institute found that 87% of 2, 500 people living with fewer possessions reported being happier now than when they owned more. This may seem contradictory, but considering the benefits of living with less, such as less debt, stress, and cleaning, it makes sense. Happiness is not about owning as many possessions as possible; it’s about living life consistent with one’s greatest passions.
How do you write a simple character description?
This article discusses the importance of describing a character in a novel, focusing on six key aspects: physical appearance, speech, movement, treatment, unique tics, and interaction with their surroundings. The author cites famous characters like Heathcliff, Fagin, Scarlett O’Hara, and Matilda, who have remained memorable due to their descriptions. The article also discusses the fourteen questions every writer should ask themselves when describing their main characters, aiming to create a realistic and engaging story.
How do you write a good character personality description?
To create a relatable and realistic character, it is essential to define their goals, desires, needs, motivations, fears, insecurities, interests, hobbies, opinions, flaws, imperfections, and quirks. Consider their backstory and how their past affects them. Drawing character traits from real people can make them feel relatable and realistic. Think about people you’ve known whose personalities made an impression on you and what stuck with you. Write down key personality traits such as shyness, outgoingness, bubbliness, animation, reservedness, interests, hobbies, and beliefs.
Using real people for inspiration is not the same as basing a character directly on a real person. Just borrow traits that you find interesting, such as your best friend’s smile or your brother’s fear of flying.
What are 4 qualities of a good character?
The fundamental principles of respect, courtesy, responsibility, fairness, and caring are essential aspects of human behavior. These principles require the development of specific skills, including diligence, self-management, and empathy.
📹 How to Write Effective Description & Imagery | Writing Tips
TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Intro 1:34 – Purple prose vs. descriptive writing 4:07 – Clarity 6:44 – Specificity 10:25 – Surprise and insight …
I was once in a writing course. The teacher was a huge Hemingway fan. He read my manuscripts and told me something that I’ve been traumatized with ever since “Your texts are too descriptive. Tone them down a notch.” I was baffled because I always thought making the texts “descriptive” was the goal. But I took it as constructive criticism and now every time I write I’m stuck in the limbo of not knowing whether my writing is “too descriptive” or “not simple enough”.
I think the advice “when you walk into a room, you only see things you’re interested in” should actually be “you FIRST see things you’re interested in”. I, an avid reader, will probably notice a bookshelf first, then a boyband poster. Viceversa, a boyband fan will notice the poster first, then the bookshelf. It might be a more accurate twist that shows the POV character’s personality and interests, without making it seem like they have tunnel vision. I mean, I’m no boyband fan, but a giant poster would be pretty hard to miss.
Hi everyone! I’m seeing a lot of comments about the example I chose for my point on descriptions being insightful & surprising, the line from K-Ming Chang’s story “Baba” that describes a city as ‘sizzling out in my mouth like a match.’ To me, this is an original, sensory, and surprising metaphor, that engages the senses and feels truthful and original, even though yes, it is still abstract in its meaning. It’s not conveying a concrete quality about the city, but rather, the sensory experience of being there for the narrator. I’m sorry my phrasing made it seem like an equivalent to a concrete description of what the city looks like, when rather, it’s a description of the narrator’s physical experience of being there and her relationship to the place. This line was the first line that came to mind when I thought of lines that are surprising and insightful, because that was my first reaction when I read it. I’m very sorry that I chose a line that is causing so much confusion. K-Ming Chang is one of my favourite writers, but she is also young, new in her career, and very talented, and I feel awful that I may have used a line of her work in a way that is now causing some pretty mean comments about the excerpt. I chose all the examples in this article because I wanted to celebrate the authors, and because I think the works in question are skillfully written, but now I feel awful that the opposite seems to be happening regarding one of the pieces. I wish I had chosen a different example.
As a 17 year old dude who has no one irl to talk about any of this stuff with, these articles have been a godsend. They’ve genuinely helped me hone my craft, and especially helped me with fine tuning my prose. I’d already subconsciously figured out a lot of stuff, but having a name for it helps tremendously.
I’m finding my preferences as I discover my own style as a writer. I tend to minimally describe scenery and focus more on dialogue, body language, and character interiority. Ironically, some beta readers still dislike specificity I include, preferring more plot than setting. I’m reading City of Bones right now and cringing at the descriptions. I feel like too many metaphors make my brain stumble and take me out of the story. And the style of prose ought to shift within each book. In action scenes, I focus on strong, economical, short prose. But if I’m talking about a romantic stroll on a beautiful spring day or the wonder of a character discovering how to use their powers, I’m taking my time to express it and wax poetic. And there’s no perfect book for every reader. Some people want to spend 3 pages taking in a scene–able to smell the fresh-cut grass, hear the call of a swallowtail from an ash tree rustling in a slight breeze, watch a butterfly flap it’s way through the sky and land on a dandelion, all while sitting on a homemade denim quilt and tasting an ever-so-perfectly sweet peach, feeling the juice dribble down your chin, reminding you of the summers you spent with Grandma Walters in North Dakota as a child. Other readers want: the next day, they went to the park for a picnic.
I always love writers who can describe something in the simplest, plainest words and still make you look at it in a completely new way; making it feel much deeper and impactful than it looks on the page. This is why I was so impressed with Paulo Coelho (writer of The Alchemist). He always describes deep, spiritual concepts or experiences so simplistically, which actually shows that he knows what he’s talking about more than if he’d use complex jargon.
Idk when it happened, but these articles shifted from perusal a peer figure things out to perusal a Real Writer TM explain their craft. Its weird to have the content be this high quality–like she is going to teach writing professionally, and I feel like that’s something you can sense now, perusal this. These last few articles have been so good I’m legitimately a little emotional abt it lmao. Anyway, I’ve been perusal since highschool and I just finished my last semester of graduate school today–can’t wait for the next article!
I think descriptions can be fancyful, rich and “decorative” without being purple prose. As long as not everything is described like that all the time, and as long as it doesn’t become vague and so tick with similes that you almost don’t get what it’s saying anymore. XD Or it becomes a little silly (overly dramatic). Sometimes it’s a fine line between a beautiful description and purple prose.
I wish I could like this article a hundred times. I’m getting back into writing from a hiatus for work & school reasons, but listening to this makes me anticipate finishing and editing my novels in progress so much more!! I’m genuinely excited to take my writing to a new level and this type of content has been instrumental in priming my brain for the work in the next couple of months. Also, Shaelin–I love love LOVE when you use examples. The highlighted portions of the excerpts really clarified your points. Lastly, excited to try check History of Wolves and K-Ming Chang’s Baba. Thank you!
This was a FANTASTIC article. Thank you so much. I had a fiction writing professor who basically just stressed “concrete, sensory detail” over and over, but never got into the nuances you covered here. Thank you again. I think another thing to think about is how much FUN getting specific can be! In that same fiction writing class, I was writing a character’s drive home, and at first he was just in a car. But then I realized, “Well, wait. He’s not the sorta guy who would’ve bought a car recently, and even when he bought one in his younger days, he wouldn’t have prioritized coolness.” So then I got to research lame cars from twenty years ago, and discovered something called a Smart Fortwo, which was not only a fun process, but it also provided a specific detail that ALSO said something about my character! It was a really great moment!
Hey Shaelin. I’m a 24-year-old journalist from a small city in Ontario. I’ve been writing for about 10 years as well and I have been trying to fulfill my dream of crafting a novel as of late. Your articles are so helpful. I enjoy your work. I also randomly worked in Whistler, B.C. for a while and want to move back to the west coast.
“Secret” descriptions blended into a scene are my favourite. Maybe try asking someone to read an excerpt of your text, then mark each sentence as Story or Description and see how deep they cut into your descriptions perceiving them as storytelling? If they manage to perfectly outline them – back to the drawing board.
Ugh finally! I always heard the phrase “purple prose” but for some reason whenever i looked it up to see exactly what it was, they only gave examples and basically just said “thats purple prose”, leaving me sitting there like “okay but how is it purple prose? What makes this purple???” I don’t know how this is the first time i saw the explanation be put like this but i am so grateful that i can go back in my writing looking for these things and actually know what to ask myself besides “is this purple”
The information in your article is useful and I appreciate your insight and opinions into descriptive writing. Please take this criticism constructively: you lose a bit of your audience, and you lose a bit of your impact by blaming a bunch of white guys for a particular style of writing. Speaking as a white man – who is seeking some ways to improve his use of descriptive language, it distracted from your message and shows there might be some underlying bias in your opinions.
In 2014 I took a creative writing class in college, and while I didn’t feel like I gained much out of it, there is this one thing that sticks out to me still to this day. A girl in my class described something a “caffeinated indifference.” I don’t even know what she was describing, but that description is burned into my brain to the point that whenever I see her post on social media, I recall her reading her poem in class and saying that. It’s so good.
Some extra points on clarity and specificity: – before you invent a word, always do a Google search and make sure it doesn’t exist an means something else (for fantasy sci-fi). Example is Joe Abercrombie who constantly talks about “flatbows” in his series because “crossbows” sounded Christian to him. But “flatbows” actually exist and you don’t use bolts for them or take long to load and a lot of fans were really confused. – genre and age group awareness. Which terms or images people understand differs a lot between genres. – sometimes, there is a tradeoff between the two. I’d rather write “bay gelding” than “horse” for specificity, but it’s possible a certain audience won’t know the words, right? – is my book supposed to be a gentle ride or something that readers want to put effort into? If second, I may include more obscure images or use words that people may want to look up. – clarity differs from person to person, so use beta readers and ask them for clarity. Your example about the “city that sizzles out like a match”. Honestly, I have NO clue what image to take away from that. But you love it for its clarity. It’s a personal thing, depending on age, Living situation, country,… E.g. in a book I recently read, people kept “sucking their teeth” all the time. I’m German and I was clueless until I googled and found out it’s a US thing people do to signal disapproval. 😅 So, if you want to be very specific but suspect that it might not be clear, drop a few explanatory comments that do not feel like an infodump.
It seems everyone struggles with being too convoluted and purple prosey – I in fact struggle with the opposite. I struggle with it in real life too. If I was to go visit the most beautiful rose garden and went back home to try and describe it to my friends – even though I can clearly see the picture in my mind, the best that will come out of my mouth is “The flowers were colorful and pretty”. Even if I try to describe in detail I feel like it comes out all clunky and out of order (perhaps its because I’m autistic and have ADD? so my brain just operates differently?). The majority of my editing is fixing my description because it always initially comes out sounding like a five year old described it instead of a thirty year old. I have such clear pictures in my mind but something gets lost in translation when I try to put picture to words, in both real life and when I’m writing. I still havent been able to find solid advice on how to overcome this :/
Describing things that are interesting to the character first, might be a thing though. Like, if someone enters a room, who is extremely interested in plants, they might notice if this room has any plants first. That said, the character wouldn’t miss if the room was otherwise clogged with sport-stuff. But description-wise the sport things should probably be described last, or as an offhand remark if it’s uninteresting or lacks any importance to the character. Also, if the character is uninterested, but is for one or another reason looking for something specific, they’d notice these things first, other things later. Unless the other things are too much “in your face” to avoid seeing. XD
Shaelin, I love description and imagery. I often feel like description and language can flow into a story. Imagery is the magic of a story because it is a tool used to bring the character’s experiences to life. At times, I write description and vivid details without even realizing it. I love when description is simply integrated through the layers of a story. I love you
Chengdu is capital of Sichuan province it is basically in central China and its know for it’s spicy food and more than 3000 different dishes. It also has a vibrant work life balance. So this description of it is so on point it’s amazing. Your articles are really well thought out and explained, I’m learning so much from you. Thank you.
The bad advice about not seeing things that aren’t important to you, is bad, but it makes my think of a story an interior design once told. There was a stain on his front door that he meant to paint off, but ever got around to it and in time he stopped seeing the stain. He forgot about until a friend came to visit and asked why the stain was still there. I think that is one way to take the advice that makes since. A character won’t describe something that’s uninteresting and/or unimportant to them/the story.
Id say very flowery prose is good for characters that are that. Like theyre charming, old fashioned, perhaps a stereotypical dreamy vampire, a philosopher, a scientist that questions the world, but then it works. If its for a character thats straight forward and not artistic, its weird. ALso, depends where you use, which scene. Purple prose to me is scenery, can be cynical, usually indirect wandering of with thoughts. An action scene to me just wouldnt work with purple prose if it happens NOW and isnt a a storytelling from the character. Good example I found: Anne Rice, Interview With the Vampire. Really good at distinguishing when the vampire is storytelling or doing something, whether short bursts or longer movements etc.
This article is packed with extremely essential insights and advice! Thank you for putting those into words for us! It hits several writing issues on the nose and is very well put! Very edifying and much needed! I haven’t seen many other articles on this topic address all the potential pitfalls of descriptions (and narration in general) in prose with such precise depth, clarity and perspicuity! ===============================================================================================================================================================
I feel like this is very adolescent writing but I find nature descriptions quite calming. Here’s my little description, lmk how to improve. At first glance it was perfect – too perfect. In the centre stood a proud evergreen; its limbs dancing in the light breeze, enticing its visitor to come a little closer. Blades of nature caress virgin skin, as a malevolent sun seems to beam down upon this tiny piece of Heaven. The leaves are painted an almost unnatural green and splayed open – an inviting hand quivering with anticipation. Yet despite its carefully crafted facade, the brambles lurking behind spoke of rot and disease.
“abstract qualities presented in a concrete way”….. my question has to do with this: the abstractness of the description, i would assume, affords the reader an opportunity to imagine what the phrase about the city, is saying about the city. how, then, are we to ensure that the message we want to convey actually comes across as what we mean about the place or object we’re describing? if it’s abstract, it’s abstract: everyone is afforded their own imagination. a building, however, is a building. sure, “a building” is abstract in its way (there’s no specificity ABOUT the building), but generally, you’re expected to know what a building is. so then, what of the abstract quality, which might be presented in such a way that it has concrete language and all the rest? what if i have a vastly different picture in my head, as i’m writing it, from what my readers will get? what if it’s, by and large, something that my readers, across the board, get a collective idea of, in terms of what i’m saying in a passage, but then that collective idea has little or nothing to do with what i actually meant by it? if that happens, have i messed up, because i didn’t convey what was in my head?
Great article overall, but an issue I have with overly specific examples like your one about the “nice guy” is they may not be as relatable. Granted, I’m super inexperienced in life, i.e. I’ve never gotten drunk and hooked up with a random dude, but I feel that even if I had done that sort of thing I wouldn’t have an experience as specific as trying to hook up with an accordion player, getting dumped to end up at another guy’s house at a specific time. You could’ve left it at “he’s the kind of guy you can go to the movies with and not have him think it’s a date”. All the other info just felt like the character was bragging about their experience with guys, but maybe I just think that cos I haven’t had those experiences and they’re actually super relatable to normal people, LOL.
6:38 I just would like to add that you don´t know who the reader will be. So if you write complex you would make some readers adapt to your writing style! But you as the autor should do something that most people could get: you are NOT smarter or nobler than most people so have no chance to rely on this things to write something…! No, you are NOT a genius, I´m sorry!