Write On! :: Comments :: Character Descriptions

But thanks to you, I now know. Three things and that's it. Roughly speaking, of course. But nevertheless, a hard number, three.

No, a rule of thumb is not a hard answer. A rule of thumb means 'start here and adjust to fit.' A good rule of thumb rarely needs much adjusting, but the option is still there and that is why it is a 'rule of thumb' and not a 'rule.' I personally find that, for the purposes of introducing a character, three details fits very well with little adjusting. You might find that four fits better, and that's fine. You might even find that ten fits your style better; I may not agree, but then writing style is a personal thing.

It also varies with the situation; my WIP starts with a deluge of description - but then the opening scene is a child 'playing pretend' with all the detail of her imaginary world actively in her attention. When most people talk to someone they know already, they don't usually have the looks of the person they're talking to foremost in their minds; the point I was trying to make in this article is that choosing what a person notices about another tells a lot about the person doing the watching - the '3 items' rule of thumb was incidental.

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Who needs to be big and burly when you can just apply physics?
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As far as descriptions communicating something about the observer, this is only true if the observer is not an omniscient one. Otherwise, if the observer is omniscient, the observer knows how everyone looks from every side, dear.

Also, as far as picking material for description, I think (I just got the idea) that points of description can be compared to hash keys. I mean it. You see, friend, our brains, have a faculty called memory, which works in a weird fashion, such that by thinking of a hash-key idea your memory recalls a whole network of information.

They say that to memorize a bit of information it is useful to imagine an image that is somehow related to the data you want to memorize. And the more memorable, colorful and remarkable an image the easier it will be, in the future, to recall the bit of info that it connects with.

So, I'm thinking, now, do character descriptions serve this job of a hash-key for our memories, helping us to remember the characters we read about? (Afterall, reading is learning, isn't it?)

Accordingly, it is logical to conclude that the points we want to describe are the points that make the character somehow outstanding, remarkable, different, unusual, strange, or even silly.

In any case, points of description are points of contrast relative to other characters. Like, if both Jane and Jill satin dresses, I don't want to describe them in the same way - I'll make sure to describe those aspects of the dress that are distinct, unless, of course, I want to communicate a sense of lacking individuality, like, let's say, in an army, where everyone wears the same type of clothing, where everyone is equaly as bald shaven as the next guy, and where everyone, pretty much, listens to orders.

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