Character Development For Authors, Part One: Appearance Basics

I've decided that, since one of the parts I love the most about writing is the idea-forming phase, that I'd like to write a series of tutorials on the subject. This time around, we're going with character development. Each section of the overall topic will be further broken down into parts; for example, the first section, Appearance, will be broken down into Basics and Details. There may also be a third part, Other, if we don't cover everything in the first two.

The first section of this series is Appearance, since that's where most people start when they're designing a character, whether it's for a roleplaying game, a short story, or a full-on novel. The appearance of a character is the easiest thing to set up, because it doesn't require a whole lot of thought or planning to set the basics. But the first thing to keep in mind is that your character's appearance will probably evolve as you go along, so that it matches more closely what you're going for in later sections. What we're doing now is setting you up with a basic template, something to go on so you can fill in the blanks.

A basic outline for character appearance usually looks something like this:

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Height:
Weight:
Hair/eye color:

Feel free to copy/paste this template if you'd like something to work with in your own document.

Now, with this template it's very basic, and everything is open to change. It's important to not get too attached to any aspect of this character yet, since the appearance of them may change significantly as their development continues. But you do need something to start with.
Name

If you're planning a fantasy book, this is one of the areas where you can get really creative. The name doesn't have to be one you've ever heard, it doesn't have to be one that you've seen used before; in fact, in a fantasy world, it might be better if it's one that hasn't been heard before. But you need to make sure it's still easily read, and, more importantly, pronounceable. You don't want someone reading your work to stumble over the name, or spend several minutes trying to figure out how to say it. One of the benefits of naming a character in a fantasy world is, if you have the time and are so inclined, you can name them using a language from that world. (If you want to do this I have a basic guide for language building available on Amazon to give you a push in the right direction. Prime members can borrow it for free. )

If you're writing a book where you can use a normal name, then have fun. There are many, many names out there to choose from. There are many sites you can use to search for a name, like
But your character's name is often one of the things that changes. I had a character once who had their name changed three times before I was finally satisfied with it, and it matched both their character and their culture. That name may change again in the future, as my knowledge of their story increases.

Age:

Depending on the type of story you want to write, you can choose any age you want. But you do want to consider who's going to be reading it. A seventeen-year-old will probably want to read about another seventeen-year-old, or someone a little older, rather than an eleven-year-old. This isn't a rule, of course (think Harry Potter) but it is something you want to consider.

This is also something that also changes pretty regularly. This can be altered if your character is acting too mature for their age, or too immature for their age, so it better fits them. It can also be changed to better serve the story, or offer more options for conflict within the plot. For example, romantic conflict is more reasonable with a fifteen or sixteen year old than an eight or nine year old.

Gender:

Pretty self-explanatory. I've never switched the gender of a character, but as long as you don't randomly switch from she to he or vice versa in the middle of the book, you'd be fine doing this while in development as well. That can also be done to add more complexity to the plot, or better fit a personality or role. It can also be changed if you want to contrast gender with role. A protector, for example, is typically portrayed as a male, but if you are so inclined, you can make it a female, and so on.

Height:

Height can complement a personality, or contrast it. This is something to consider when choosing a height for your character. Are they going to be tall and have a big personality? Are they going to be small and have a big personality? Are they going to be small and have a small personality, or tall and have a small one? The physical attributes of your character give you an opportunity to present contrasts with their personality. If you want to do this, then height is a big way to start.

If you decide you want a tall character, you then also have to figure out what "tall" means to you, and there are many different heights in that range. The same for if you want a shorter character. What is "short" to you? And how short are you thinking? There are many, many options, and, again, if you want to play with character and appearance contrasts this is a great way to do it.

Weight:

This has been one of the harder things to choose, for me personally. I have a challenge with measuring things like height, weight, and distance just by looking at them, which presents a difficulty for me. There's also the fact that weight isn't always an indicator of health, since someone who is technically overweight could easily be carrying most of that excess weight in muscle. I've found that a good way for me to get some idea of how much a character appears to weigh, if not how much they really do weigh, is by taking a look at a
Weight is something that comes to play in the lifestyle of your character, as well. If you're writing about a woman with unhealthy eating habits, you can portray her as overweight as a result of that, or you can portray her as a thin woman that shows a healthy face to the world but has a secret junk food addiction. You can have an overweight man that doesn't care about what he eats, and simply eats whatever he wants, disdaining any efforts made to help him halt heart-disease or diabetes in its tracks.

On the other side, you can have a couple that is extremely healthy, exercises, eats good food, and that causes conflict at, for example, family get togethers, where there's pressure to eat unhealthily. You could have a normal weight woman that has an addiction to health food (that can happen, believe it or not). A character's weight can be just a background thing that doesn't really come into the story at all, or it can be a major point of contention, depending on what you're looking for.

Hair/eye color:

If you haven't picked an ethnicity for your character, now would be a good time to start thinking about it. If your character has naturally blonde hair and blue eyes, then it wouldn't make much sense to make them of African descent. Otherwise, this is one of those things that, in my experience, rarely changes during the development of a character.

This is another chance to present physical contrasts, this time in colors. You can do dark hair and light eyes, or light hair and dark eyes. If you want your character to be particularly striking, you can choose an unusual eye color, or give them a different color for each eye. You can also be more creative with hair; in a fantasy world setting, you can give them a strange color of hair. In a real-life setting, you can have it dyed. You can even give them no hair at all.
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