Is a lack of character descriptions a problem?
I have written a novel in which none of the characters are ever described. It started out by accident (3 chapters in when I realized).
Question: Is this a good/unique approach or shot myself in foot?
Note: Due to a number of characters being cryogenic subjects, it was not necessary to describe them. All characters do have names but no descriptions. Thank you.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45737. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
You are accessing this answer with a direct link, so it's being shown above all other answers regardless of its score. You can return to the normal view.
First, good for you, it is a good sign that you aren't feeling compelled to describe characters.
To me, physical descriptions stalls the story, it is a lot of "telling", not showing. I always avoid prose that describes the physical characteristics of a person and does nothing else.
IRL physical traits make a difference, and if they do, the reader must be informed of that somehow, but since they do we can invent scenes where the physical trait matters and let the consequences inform the reader.
Or we can be vague; say my heroine is not attractive -- I don't have to describe a laundry list of facial features of why she is plain or unattractive for the reader to get it. I could give her a friend or a sister that is attractive, and the experience of walking into party and her companion getting all the attention (for her looks) and her being ignored -- and in her memory has always been ignored, and has always faded into the woodwork, no matter who she is with. She wonders what it would be like to command that kind of attention, but more as a curiosity. She doesn't begrudge her companion the attention. She knows she was born with different gifts.
To the extent physicality is important to the plot, I'd rather it be revealed without much detail. If it is important that Josh is tall, invent a scene in which his height plays a factor; for example Josh can reach something another character wants but cannot without a stepladder. I don't want to read "Josh was extraordinarily tall, six foot eight."
I can even introduce Josh's trait before we ever 'see' Josh. Here's a sketch of scene as an example:
Lewis, a kid with a ball stuck in a tree. His sister Kate is trying to get it down.
Lewis: "Josh could reach it."
Kate, waving at ball with stick: "Yes sweetie, but Josh isn't here, is he?"
Lewis: "Let's call him."
Kate: "He's playing a game." She throws the stick, and dislodges the ball. Lewis chases the rolling ball. Kate watches him get it, then run next door. She speaks to herself as she walks back into the house.
"Thank you, Katie. Think nothing of it, sweetie. I already have, Katie!"
If it doesn't matter to the story somehow, don't tell us.
If the reader has to know because appearance influences the story or personality (positively or negatively), don't just info dump it.
Reveal it within scenes where it determines how people treat the character, or make it matter in emotions or thoughts of the character, revealing how it affects them. Traits that do NOT matter to the plot, action, or inner life of the character, they really do not need to be described; the reader will fill in their own interpretation without even realizing it; often with their own traits if they identify with the character. So leaving out the traits that don't matter can actually increase reader identification with a character in a way that being specific would not.
0 comment threads
Since your novel is already practically finished, you can ask your beta readers if no character descriptions works. Ultimately, that's the only way you can really know if something works or not.
As others have pointed out, having no physical description of your characters can theoretically work. As an example, I have very little recollection of what the men in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises look like (other than Pedro Romero). Maybe Hemingway described them, but if so, it didn't leave much of a mark on me. Or, another example: it is not until midway through Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness that we get a hint of the MC's skin colour, and I don't recall a mention of any of his other physical features.
It could be, however, that for some reason or another, it doesn't work in your story. It could be that for whatever reason your readers would feel they need a description. Or maybe it does work, and you're worrying without need. Let your beta readers tell you.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads