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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38439
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38439
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### You have to ask yourself, "does it matter in any specific way?".  
The answer is usually "no."

I usually describe characters very generally, and NEVER in prose. If they are described, they are described by characters or by themselves, in dialogue, and that dialogue is always connected to the immediate action of what is going on. We describe the characters because it **_matters_** in some way to that immediate action or to the larger plot. Examples:

> "If I were as tall as you with forty pounds more muscle, sure, but I'm not. You do it."

Or

> "We have to go see Sherry. Now, she's four foot five and ninety pounds, looks like a kid from middle school, but don't let that fool you. She's got the power and she wants to make sure you know it, you know what I mean? Show some respect."

Physical characteristics **can** matter to the plot. An attractive character may find it easier to seduce somebody, an unattractive character may find it harder. It can be plausible a young college girl meets a very handsome young man, a stock market worker dressed in a suit, that offers her a ride somewhere, or she agrees to go get a drink with him. It is less plausible if our young college girl meets a mismatch, a fifty year old guy, 75 pounds overweight, wearing a tee shirt and loose pants, sporting full facial hair. She is not going to agree to go get a drink with this guy, or accept a ride.

Likewise, a very tall person can reach things a very short person cannot, a guy that looks like the high school sports star is more likely to handle himself in a fight than the guy that looks like he gets frequently bullied.

If you need to be specific about description, **do not** do that to try and fix an image in the reader's mind.

Do it because the description has specific effects on the character's decisions, thinking and actions that will influence the course of the story. If I ever describe a woman as being particularly small breasted, it will be because this can influence her psychology and self-image of her own attractiveness, and perhaps the perceptions of others about her attractiveness, and those are going to influence her decisions and thus the plot. You have to ask yourself **_does it matter,_** in any specific way? The answer is usually "no."

Secondly, avoid "telling" instead of "showing". Written in the prose, by the narrator, can work if it is kept to one sentence, the first impression kinds of things your MC might see _as a first impression._ Stay general, do not describe "average". That is the base assumption of the reader. Only describe noticeably unusual features that are **necessary** for the plot to progress later.

Thirdly, avoid hyperbolic description. A girl does not have to be extraordinarily beautiful for the hero to fall in love with her; unless he (or she) is shallow as hell, and then that isn't love anyway, it is just lust.

You don't need the perfectly formed, and it is best for the story if your characters are **not** paragons of ideal femininity or masculinity, are not over-the-top homosexuals or even villains. They should have flaws and weaknesses. I give every significant character (meaning, they appear in multiple chapters) some exceptionally good trait, and some particularly poor trait, and sometimes to help make them distinct, some weird but harmless quirk or habit, in speech or behavior or dress; a marker for the reader to connect them. "Oh the hat guy..." [The only character always wearing a hat].

Original score: 2