Character Description

I'm never sure how much time and effort to spend on character description. I like to give a look and feel to the characters in my work, but I sometimes struggle with what to include and how to do it.

One of the problems I have with my novel, Seven Seconds, is that it is written in the first person perspective, so descriptions of the protagonist are hard to encorporate into the narrative. In fact, the main character, Steve, is hardly described at all, as I found it was like talking about yourself. Maybe I'll have to work on this, as leaving the reader with little impression of the main character is hardly likely to encourage empathy with his or her feelings or experiences.

My short, Unfamiliar Country, is written in the third person, so character description is easier to provide. Boyd is described as;

Boyd looked at himself in the small mirror above the sink. He was tall and thin and looked every one of his forty seven years. What remained of his hair was closely shaved to his head which he did himself with barbers clippers every month. His forehead was lined with wrinkles and he had almost a weeks worth of greying stubble on his face. He looked tired. He felt tired.

This is pretty much all the descriptive text I provided for Boyd, the main character, and you get it in one burst. Had it been a novel, I probably would have drip fed more description into the narrative, but I felt this was enough to give the reader a sense of who the man was and how he looked and felt.

Another character in Unfamiliar Country gets similar treatment when he is introduced to both Boyd and the reader. Farmer Griff Hughes is presented and described almost wholesale when he first appears, with a few little references to his physical attributes and mannerisms later on.

The farmer was like a children's book depiction of a farmer. He was short and stout, in his late fifties and wore green wellington boots with dark corduroy trousers tucked into them. He had a beer belly beneath a moth eaten jumper and wore a battered Barber jacket. His face was broad and weather beaten, his cheeks red and healthy looking. Wiry snow white hair escaped from beneath his flat cap which looked like it was permanently attached to his head.

Some writers spend a great deal of time and effort on character description. Dickens is revered for it. I think this is a fantastic skill to have and is often employed to great effect by accomplished novelists. I don't think this is one of my strengths, but I do like to provide something for the reader to engage with. I like to make up for my brief character descriptions by showing how characters act and the way they talk and the words they use, building up a mental sketch and profile that the reader can take away with them.

Steve's Lithuanian lover Katja in Seven Seconds is described as;

… petite and well proportioned with an almost heart shaped face with blue eyes which are maybe a shade lighter than my own, surrounded by dark eye shadow. She smells of subtly flavoured perfume when I lean in to talk to her.

This is our (and Steve's) first introduction to Katja, so he shares our first impressions. Later, as their relationship and Steve's feelings for her intensify, we have this;

I wait for Kat by the gates in the shade of the stone pillars and watch the flow of cyclists and tourists pour in and out of the park. She arrives wearing a white vest top and a cotton knee length skirt. Her sunglasses are pushed up onto her head holding back her henna coloured hair. Her skin is a soft golden colour and in the almost tropical midday heat her beauty is enough to revive my flagging energy levels.

Again, this is brief physical description, but more is revealed about her through Steve's thoughts and emotions, hopefully helping to build a more complex picture of the novel's characters.

How do other writers deal with character description? Do you enjoy revealing protagonists' characteristics and traits? Do you do it one direct delivery as they first appear or more gradually, building a portrayal as the story develops around them?