Describing the appearance of characters

[Sexualobster]

I've always seen describing the look of your characters to be a bad idea. It enforces an image of a person you might not want to imagine. The point of reading is to allow your imagination to run wild, and keeping the appearance of the characters up to the reader has always been a good idea to me.

But what do you guys think?

[Alexis Rune]

In general, I agree with you for most stories. I think not describing the characters well, but describing the actions in immense detail is a great way to allow people to imagine themselves in the shoes of the characters. On the other hand, some people have fantasies about people with specific physical or character traits. Describing people in detail might appeal to a narrower set of readers, but at a higher level if the characters described fit into their fantasy.

[Sarge90]

It depends entirely upon the story and the audience, but I find when reading a story, no matter how detailed the character descriptions I create my own image of them, sometimes completely different to the intended description.

I think that it can tell you a lot about the writer, but I see it as more of a template, not vital to the story, but it doesn't need to detract from it

[littlegrey]

I completely agree! You shouldn't describe someone. To be honest, if the character is described and I don't like it - 9 times out of 10 I won't read on! It just ruins the story for me! It's strange, I know. But I just think that everyone, including the writer should be able to envision the looks of the characters. I know that the writers want everyone to see the characters the way they see them, I'll admit I struggle with that as well, but it's only fair that the readers can enjoy the story with thier own vision of what the characters, especially the girls, look like!

That's just my opinion!

You know you love me
Xoxo
Littlegrey

[twotothetenth]

When I read a story, I don't care if the author describes someone or not, I will always picture the character the way I want. To be honest, I cannot concentrate on descriptions at all, half a sentence into reading any kind of description, my mind starts to wander (whether I want it or not) and I always end up making up my own picture of the character. When I write something, I provide only as much details on character('s appearance) as is necessary for the story and leave the rest to the reader's imagination.

[Komodo Jones]

I don't mind a description of the character I personally have described the chracters in y sotry. What irritates me though is that at the beginning of a lot of stories I see a format like this:
Name:
Age:
Likes so and so.

Those things irritate me and often times I won't read things like this. If you're going to describe chracters include it in the story instead of a profile you would see in a Final Fantasy instruction booklet. A lot of times I also view the characters as I see them anyway and as long as it's not blatant set in stone, every detail completely described to even the miniscule, the descriptions of a characters' physical appearance is still open-ended. I mean if you don't like brunettes and the character has brown hair, well you can't change this. But if you could care less about the hair character and you have a specific trait on a face that you like that wasn't addressed, you can add it yourself whether the author intended it or not.

[Anasub]

When I write, I find it A) difficult to add a description without sounding like a list and B) I can never get the description right. But I also believe that it is okay to add in hints of what they look like. "Her green eyes flashed blue in the sunlight, and he was mesmerized." This is ok to me. However, "She had green eyes that were soemtimes blue. Her brown hair reached almost to her butt and was pin straight." This, to me, is boring.

[silverdarknight]

It's a tricky one, especially with this kind of material.

As people have said, you want to leave room for people's imaginations to run riot. Imaginings are part of the object, after all. If you can, I think you want to leave space for the reader to insert themselves into a story like this. I think a large quantity of this board will be reading something like "He bent her over his knee and spanked her" as "He bent me over his lap and spanked me".


Otoh, that doesn't mean you want to shy away from description. It's what storytelling is - describing things. And it is an area where I struggle, so you may want to listen to other people's advice.

But my guess would be that this is a classic example of 'show, don't tell."

Compare:

"She was a brunette with huge tits and she smelled like roses"
To:
"She walked up behind him, leaned forward, and bit him on the neck."
To
"He could almost taste her rose perfume as she stood behind him, the firm press of her ample chest as she lent forwards, her dark hair brushing the side of his face as she bit gently into his neck."

What do you think?

[Sanpow]

I think a very short description of a person is ok. But it's enought just to give one or 2 information, like "He opened the door and there was Sally, one of the hottest girls he know".
So you dont realy say how she looks like but you know "she's hot" so you have your imagination now. You could also use some other adjectives like "big", "tall", "small", "cute",... Sometimes age or just one simple thing so you have at least a idea of the person.

But what i hate: If the author starts with a list like:
Dave: 18 Year, Tall, 6inch cock, Brown hair,... etc
John:....
Lisa:...
...

I never read this storys because i never know who's who. It's much better if persons will be added slowly to the story.
And always with just a one-word-description. Some other can be added later in the story, like:
>>It was Lisas turn to chose Truth or Dare. "Uhm.. Truth" she said the shy girl, who usualy isn't the first person who chose dare<<

(sorry for bad english. Usualy write storys in german ;-)

[Desperate]

Information overload is annoying. Imagine you're meeting someone for the first time - you normally notice one or two particular details that make them stand out, right? You don't profile them. It's more powerful to give a general impression, and then let the viewers fill in the details for themselves. If a woman is voluptuous, just say it, don't include her measurements.