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I have a tendency to forget to describe character's appearance. But I always describe them, though often a little while after their introduction. So, how long after someone's introduction is "accep...
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:16:17Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/46174 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
A. Kvåle
·
2019-12-08T12:16:16Z (almost 5 years ago)
I have a tendency to forget to describe character's appearance. But I always describe them, though often a little while after their introduction. So, how long after someone's introduction is "acceptable" to describe them? In my case, (the case that prompted me to ask this question), the character is described in the same chapter, 866 words later. A little less words if you count from when his name is revealed. Is this too long? And this is quite mild. Some of my character get no physical descriptions, until potentially many chapters later, when their appearance becomes **relevant** to the plot or narrative. But I have been told how important giving characters a face is. Without it, they're just grey silhouettes in the readers' minds. And though I believe other things like personality, plot importance and symbolism should carry characters, instead of appearance, perhaps the physical description is vital for the existence of the character.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-06-23T19:15:29Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 18