Write Better Character Descriptions (With Examples!) | Writers Start Here
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
- More information on how to write good Character Descriptions HERE: writing-theory.com/posts/2403...
Writers Start Here Playlist: • Writers Start Here
PS. Sorry for any audio issues!
Are you a new writer who wonders how to write a story? Or simply how to write? Are you a beginner writer who needs a push in the right direction as your write you plan your novel? Are you a practicing writer who just wants some inspiration?
Writers Start Here is a comprehensive series on writing. It's about writing stories, novels, books, fiction, and nonfiction. It breaks down how the greats like Brandon Sanderson or Stephen King or George RR Martin put together their complex stories. While this is the first of the series, Writers Start Here will cover every aspect you've ever been curious about with writing.
BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover - amzn.to/3IKn2qF
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover - amzn.to/49WWKNh
The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding - amzn.to/49Kp9q7
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - amzn.to/3wIJVrC
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - amzn.to/3Tp4bav
The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice - amzn.to/4c0GZXr
TIME STAMPS:
Introduction Skit - 00:00
Essay - 02:42
Ugly Love - 04:00
It Ends With Us - 05:28
Ember Blade - 07:05
Ender's Game - 10:00
The Vampire Amand - 12:50
Actionable Takeaways - 14:25
The best advice i ever got on writing descriptions was, “Write what your narrator would not only notice, but take note of.”
When we meet people in real life, the first thing we take into account isn’t their hair color or eye color. It’s the strange things about them: the things that differentiate them. That’s what i like to point out.
This is why you should go back and revise the description after the first draft since we know the characters much better then.
Brother is our generations Madea with these openings
I'm just at the start of the vid but I looove the sketch! It shows that descriptions are not just about the character being described, but also the character doing the describing and the relationship between them.
Writing Theory! King of the best openings
lol I don’t know about that 😂😂😂
The Aura goes where it wants to.
Great advice! I always liked when descriptions meant something rather than just described for no real reason.
I like a description from an East of the Sun West of the Moon retelling. At the midpoint, the female character finally finds out what he looks like (no one's allowed to look at him cause of a curse, but she's fallen in love with him and sneaks in with a candle to see who he is). She realizes he’s a dwarf and the description makes sense with the fact that the dwarves live in the mountains, so the nature comparisons aren’t random. And it also fits his personality, the way he speaks it's as if wherever he comes from he's considered attractive, but makes fun of tall people all the time, now it all makes sense.
“His cheekbones were the marbled cliffs of the mountains. His beard brown and warm as the earth. Long lashes fanned out over his cheeks and tumbling curls of dark locks spread across the pillow.” It's a love story, but I liked that we didn't know what the male lead looked like until the midpoint on purpose. The cover of the book is a bear because he's a bear by day, only his true self at night and no one is allowed to see him.
It's also a great way to make people care about what they look like- make the audience wait a long time to know!
These are fantastic insights and this is a great example! I really appreciate your comment. Also, this sounds like a really beautiful story
That candle scene was a cupid eros psyche story. (I cant remember the names lol) Did he catch her looking and then they had a big falling out too?
This is so valuable! I love your point about Peter's character description! "Telling" that deeper understanding of his personality made "showing" all of his later actions so much more clear to the reader.
When I started as a teen, I took example from the Vampire Lestat- full rundown in the mirror. I still sort of fall into that if I'm not careful. Thanks for some tips!
I think it could be argued (for the last example), that vampires, how they present themselves and unveiling’s are always a constant theme in vampire stories. That description gave the impression it was meant the chapter was wearing luxury clothes therefore it’s an element of his charisma. It might have been written better if the author’s intentions and/or POV were clearer to the reader. Putting the description in the correct context to know why it matters.
Do you mean by "if the author’s intentions and/or POV were clearer" that if the direction of the story was clearer? Like, if it is a horror setting, you would be wary of any little deviation from the norm in a description, like, "He caught a waft of soil and mildew when he past by her." or something that could mean she is an undead. (I know it's not a good examplse, lol)
Yeah physical descriptions always bug me for the reason you mention: you should only mention them if they're important. But there's a little extra piece that stems from that that I think so many people are unintentionally disregarding. Physical descriptors of characters that show a deliberate choice of that character. How did they do their hair? What clothes did they pick (or settle with)? How do they cover up or emphasise their features? These can easily be disregarded as irrelevant from a superficial perspective but can be an overlooked tool.
IMO what the character looks like does matter even if it’s not directly ‘important’ to the plot, because the author is sharing the universe they created. How they imagine their characters to look is a part of that universe. Would you say that how the setting looks is unimportant unless it’s directly plot-related? It’s all part of painting a vivid picture for the reader. Some readers enjoy being immersed in an author’s vision like that.
Of course, how closely the readers need to see the character like the author’s vision of them can vary depending on the genre and the author. I could definitely see how the insert-your-own-description model could work more in romance than in fantasy.
Having just read the entire Vampire Chronicles recently, trust me, Anne Rice goes into just as much detail about their hair and eye colors as she does the clothes. After a couple books, you’ll never forget that Lestat has blond hair and blue eyes or that Armand has auburn hair. And yeah, Marius kind of always dresses like that, so it is almost a part of his character. Only thing that ever really changes is that he actually prefers wearing red. LOL
Also, if you want an actual example of characters only being described by their clothes and that being important, American Psycho is the best example I can think of. EVERY character is ONLY described by the clothes, and it’s a very deliberate choice. Might have been interesting to examine, but the character descriptions in that particular book could honestly be its entire own video. LOL
i always loved ender's game and how acute the descriptions were, from ender's point of view. i remember there being very little fluff in the way things were written. i need to go find a copy.
Literally writing a new story right now. Came in just in time.
Describe what is important to the story and defines them.
I got you, fam 💪
@@Writing-Theory Should the same rules apply to a short story?
That’s a tough one. Short stories are like the Wild West of writing. You can kind of do anything, break any rules, and experiment. It depends on what your short story is trying to accomplish. If you want it to be a full story, with a beginning, middle, and an end, then you can treat it like a novel or novella in structure and practice. But short stories are also your place to experiment with subverting expectations or purposefully trying something that you wouldn’t in a long-form story
I read an article somewhere that found when given little character description, the reader does fill it in- in the article they used an example of no gender first person story, and found that people most often imagined someone most like themselves. They were immersed. This could prove useful to a wry, mindful writer with a message that is best served with subtlety relateability and empathy...
For me i just write what is relevant. If the character is short, i will show them needing to find ways to reach things. But i leave things like skin tone and such to the reader. What matters most to me after all is character actions and dialogue, their story. Not interested in worrying about getting cancelled anymore- a thing which will happen any which way if it is going to because you cant win and please everyone.
Little may be worse than reading, then along comes in a character description given too late- you already formed an image in your head of that character :/ the best time to say what features a character has- such as glasses- is as soon as possible. This can be a character noticing them saying hey looking good or dishevelled, or showing by having them need to duck, clean glasses, so on.
this is crazy to me, i came to this video not knowing it was about novels but it made me realize why i never read books my whole life. i have really bad ADHD and can't visualize what the author is describing, which makes me lose focus and have to reread the same page over and over again until i get frustrated and give up, so I've always hated books and would never read one willingly. now i'm realizing it's probably because the books i read probably focused on dumbass shit that isn't even relevant like the colour of someone's shoelaces or something, and my brain is wired to discard information that it deems irrelevant THEREFORE i would immediately forget everything i just read or the words wouldn't make any sense, making it incredibly difficult to ingest any story. anyways sorry for that personal rant idek if that made sense to anyone but me. awesome video man the way you describe things is really easy to follow and helped me understand alot :D
Hey! I recently also read something about the different ways that people visualize the things they read. There are different levels of Aphantasia (difficulty imagining things) and Hyperphantasia (vivid imaginations). I’m no expert, but I think that’s also a big difference in how some people handle reading retention. Imagine how easy it would be if, every time you read, you vividly saw the world of the book. It would be so easy to focus on the book. Anyways, just saying that not everyone’s brain works the same way and sometimes it’s shocking for people to discover that different brains work different ways. Feel free to do more research if that’s something that interests you!
@Writing-Theory so true!! i do believe i have some degree of aphantasia so i think that definitely plays a part in my struggles 😅
This is so interesting to me. Thank you for commenting and enlightening me on this take whether intended to or not.
@@Writing-Theory what’s cool is trouble visualizing images could mean that imagining other sensations can help. I myself am really good at feeling and auditory imagination. Meanwhile my visual imagination is best described as a vibe rather than an image lol
@@alpha1solace that's so cool! i love hearing the different ways people's brains work. I've listened to some audio books for novel studies back in school and it was definitely better but I still would find myself zoning out and having to rewind to listen to something over and over again sometimes. So for the most part I've written off audio books aswell. Which might not be fair since the books I listened to were books I was forced to read and not actually interested in.
That first description sounds like it's meant to tell us more than what the person looked like. He was nice-looking and disposable. I'm guessing he's not the love interest.
Great video! Will certainly be using this series going forward to aid in my writing. I really appreciate the analysis and what types of descriptions matter in a novel as well as mentioning the genre/style of novel helps to determine what type of description matters most. Also really enjoyed that opening skit. Hope that kid gets some good deodorant soon!
Wow! I’m so glad it was helpful! Look forward to seeing you around in future videos 🤘
Ooooh interesting note about the character descriptions being vague in some stories, allowing the reader to attach their own physical traits. Loved this intro! And the Ender's Game voiceover was on point.
8:26 Kevin Lieber: *WRONG*
8:30 *insert VSauce music*
Really got a lot out of the advice in this one, thank you.
Very glad to hear it! See ya in the next video!
I like your videos and it helped a lot in the progress, although I'm writing in another language, but these tips are really useful especially when you dive deep into every piece and give an examples of it. Thank you.
I'm experimenting here....
Vee looks at herself in the mirror, and laments what she had lost- laments what was once a brimming insecurity but now a nearly foreign entity to her. The loss of self.
Her wavy, long black hair that only shone brown in the sunlight- replaced by dark blue raven locks akin to midnight’s gaze. Her shapeless, unimpressive bangs that occasionally framed her face in ways she didn’t like had become striking and sleek, iron curls of calculation that kept herself look put together. There was no flaw to be found here, no hair out of place, only perfection. Perhaps she only thinks this way because this is not her own. No more did her huge, big bug eyes disturb her ideal of face proportions; she now possessed cold, very cold, and they were very sharp eyes- the very essence of dignity and character. But what of hers? What of her character? Had she not deserved to live as herself?
As she fixed herself in the mirror, there was a constant tightening in the throat. It tightened and tightened even when she released it- until it formed little blobs of tears in her eyes. It’s not as if she had liked herself that much, so it confused her when she was gone. The well went dry before she was able to hoist up some water.
What do you think? This video came in just in time when I was facing a writer's block trying to decide if it's okay or not to exclude my character's description in the beginning when it wasn't important.
Guess I'm weird lol. I always want to know what a character looks like when I'm reading (I read mostly fantasy and scifi), even the eye color that means absolutely nothing to the story. If it's not included, it takes me out of the story a bit. I like to be able to picture the character in my mind, and if I'm filling in details, it makes the character feel a little less real to me. This is just me though. I get why others don't see it as necessary.
🔥🔥
Yk what after that Colleen Hoover character description I feel a lot less bad about my character descriptions. Giving an description off of actions is the better way for it, if a character smiles you can describe the way their teeth looks. Whether if they’re clean and white or yellow and rotten. Not the bare bones of a description like “nice”.
what if the chacater looks human but isn"t
Then we vote to send them out the airlock
You could find a way to physically describe that, I think. Like "their skin wasn't blemished but, whenever they turned, it didn’t catch the light with the right sheen"
Did his aura also stink? Inquiring minds want to know...
Asking the hard-hitting questions…
😂