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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42863
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42863
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I've noticed a quirk with the narrator voice of one of the two novels I'm working on. This **narrator only describes the beautiful aspects of every character's features.** You might think the women are all beautiful, the men are all handsome - this one has beautiful eyes, that one moves like a swan - a world of Hollinwood actors.

Only, it isn't. I have a character - the narrator mentions repeatedly his keen gaze and proud step, and once, when the character is first introduced - that he survived smallpox as a child, which thankfully spared his eyes. Other characters mention how this character appears to have two noses, and how enemies flee from the horror of his face. But the narrator - nope. Keen gaze, proud step.

The novel is narrated in 3rd person, omniscient narrator. I mostly follow four or five characters, all well-educated high nobles. They would consider it beneath them to think of a person as "ugly". If they look down on someone, it's in the "oh, they're less fortunate, I should help" way, which can sometimes be misplaced. Commenting on the shortcomings of another's natural appearance would be considered by them crass, a mark of bad manners, something fit for a commoner - not for them. So **the narrator voice is in tune with the world-view of the main characters.** (With how they believe they should act, not necessarily with how everybody always does act.)

**Without sacrificing the narrator's voice, how can I make it clear that my characters do not live in a Hollywood film** , that the people are regular people, who, it being ~5t century, do not have access to decent medicine or good dentistry, and it is _a conscious choice_ to only speak of beauty?

Original score: 11