A Wolf with Feathers

Today I'm going to talk about how your characters look (and how you describe them).


First, a small rant, aimed at a vast number of authors, especially on-line, who I can only assume are prepubescent or male because they've obviously never bought a bra in their lives. If your character is described as slender or skinny she does not have a 40DD bust. The number is the measurement in inches around the ribcage. If that is their chest measurement below the bust then they are either triangular or they are not skinny. And as a general rule - people don't describe women by their bust size. They may refer to them as big busted or flat chested, but rarely do they ascribe a number to it. I won't go into the fact that women are not all either busty or flat chested or the fact that the phrase 'curves in all the right places' has no place outside of noir detective fiction and even then it's clichéd... But I may well come back to this theme later.

Secondly, you can't please everyone. In researching for this I came across two different professional authors, one of whom is complaining that people tend not to describe their characters in detail and the other who is complaining that too many people give detailed descriptions instead of just giving the basics and letting her make the rest up herself.

Personally I lean towards the second opinion, mainly because a detailed description of your characters is probably only interesting to you and anyone you're commissioning to draw them. Give the salient facts by all means, a rough height and build, hair colour, maybe hair style if it's relevant, age, but don't try and paint too detailed a picture. However, I am a big fan of casting your characters so that you know exactly what you want them to look like, if only because without visual evidence I find it far too easy to contradict myself.

However, before you start casting them, you probably want to come up with an idea of how they look yourself. Now, to some extent what they look like is entirely up to you, but it's also a vital part of characterisation. Our physical appearance has an effect on our behaviour; this is doubly true if your character is physical in some way - an athlete, a dancer, a fighter, whatever.

Eye colour, this is probably entirely your choice. However, if your character has eyes that are unusual in some way remember that this isn't always a good thing. Sure one person may look at your female lead's stunning violet eyes and fall instantly in love (although I can pretty much promise you that person won't be your reader unless they're twelve or there's a very good plot reason for the strange eye colour), but another person might find them creepy or in an historical or fantasy setting may consider them as proof that your character is a witch.

Hair - again as long as you're sticking to the standard palette for your character's race/species, colour is probably up to you, but style is important. Is the style in keeping with contemporary fashion? If not, why not? Is your character deliberately rebelling? Just styling it for convenience? Doesn't have the time or money to visit a hairdresser? If your character works with machinery then floaty free-flowing hair could lead to serious injury. If they're likely to get into hand to hand combat it could be a liability. A long fringe can be used to hide behind if your character is shy or wants to avoid eye contact for some reason. if they work with food they need it out of their eyes (and the food) and in a style where they don't have to keep touching it because that means they'd have to keep washing their hands.

Height - Are they average height? Tall? Short? If they're taller or shorter than normal think about the problems that might cause them in day to day life. Is their personality loud and demanding because they're compensating for an unimpressive physical build? Do they try and slouch to disguise their height so they can blend in more? Being short means a shorter reach if they fight hand to hand or fence, how have they compensated for this? Do they dress in a certain way to emphasis/hide their height? Does your female character wear six inch heels because she's short? Does she wear flat shoes so she doesn't tower over her partner or does she not care about that? How does he feel about being taller/shorter than his date?

Build - Are they thin, fat, muscled? How do other people react to them if they're build like a body-builder? Do they look frail but are actually very strong? Someone very bulky is unlikely to be as agile as someone with a more athletic build. And we're back to bust size - look at professional runners or gymnasts or martial artists, most of them conform to specific body types. This is partly because those body types are best for those activities but it's also because those activities may affect the person's build. Women who are professional runners do not tend to have large busts, both because it's a pain in the ass running with big boobs, but also because boobs are mostly fat and runners are mostly muscle. How does their build affect them when they buy/acquire clothing? If your character is in a pre-industrial world and has big boobs, how is she supporting them? Because those puppies are not self-supporting and if they're left free then running and riding may be uncomfortable. If the character is an abnormal size then how does that affect the armour they wear/weaponry they use?

That's just an overview of some of the issues, but it's enough for now I think!

Now for the links section -

Trust Your Readers - an article about trusting your readers to fill in the blanks and not info dumping a detailed description on them.
Casting Your Characters - an article about collecting images to cast your characters.
DNA Models - Modelling agencies are great for finding images, especially as many of them let you search for specific types of appearance.
New Faces - My favourite model agency for casting.