How to Write Physical Descriptions

hello everybody today we're talking about the human body sort of today we're talking about physical descriptions now physical descriptions are probably the only descriptions I really enjoy writing well that in violence I do enjoy describing violence but let's pretend I'm not batshit crazy just for a second all right my favorite part of writing is creating characters and that includes painting a picture of what they look like and over the years I've learned a thing or two about what makes a good character description and what makes a crappy character description I'm here to share the knowledge these are my do's and don'ts for writing physical descriptions all of these do's and don'ts are based off of my own personal preferences as well as feedback I've received from beta readers and other writers so let's get to it shall we do describe your characters this piece of advice is open to debate some writers think that physical descriptions are completely unnecessary they'd rather let the audience create their own image of the character in their mind and to some degree I understand this mentality people tend to envision a character the way they want to envision them they see them in a way that's familiar and comfortable to them but still as a reader I like to be told what the character looks like if I'm reading a book and I don't get a physical description imma be pissed until I get a physical description that character is just an invisible blob in my mind I am waiting for that description and it's really hard to connect with a character that you can't even visualize so while this piece of advice is a judgement call I say do it describe your damn characters I personally like to give my most important characters a very detailed description and then the supporting characters get maybe a couple of sentences I also think it's good to describe the characters as soon as possible for the protagonist the description should be somewhere in the first chapter and for the supporting characters it should be somewhere in their introduction don't overload the reader with metaphors his eyes are as blue as the ocean her lips were red luscious pillows his yellow gaze was as piercing as a tiger seriously look an analogy or a metaphor is fine here and there but keep it under control okay because this can get real cheesy real fast how many times have you heard the phrase as blue is the ocean a lot it's not pretty or romantic it's trite crystal blue eyes red pillowy lips and cursing amber gays work just fine and if you must use an analogy at least try to think of something unique her hair was it's black as the night as a raisin that's all been done before maybe her hair can be as black as ink maybe it can be as black as Genna maresi soul I don't think anyone's used that last one yet so feel free but just try to remember that metaphors and large doses are a recipe for AI roles and facepalm egde do focus on important features most readers are going to forget half the descriptions you lay out for them so make sure you focus on the important stuff things to potentially think about eye color and shape hair color length and texture lips facial structure including jaw chin and cheekbones the shape of their nose the color of their skin then we get below the neck what's their general body type are they tall are they short muscular thin curvy give us the goods you also want to think about physical quirks if the characters have any defining features that separate them from every other Joe Blow in the book mention it I'm talking about scars tattoos a unique hairstyle or facial hair heterochromia freckles I could go on even if someone has a crooked nose or really big boobs that's memorable certainly the boobs are now I'm not saying you need to list all these things in fact you really really shouldn't like really tone it down but these are the things you should be thinking about when you're describing them choose the handful of descriptors that you think are the most important and memorable and go with them don't compare them to a celebrity this is cheating it's cheap and it's cheating she was the spitting image of Angelina Jolie he looked just like hunky Chris Hemsworth you my friend are lazy this doesn't work for a few reasons one you want the character to stand on their own they should feel like a real person not a fake person being played by an actor if you want the character to look like Chris Hemsworth describe Chris Hemsworth maybe the reader will imagine Chris Hemsworth in their mind maybe they won't it really doesn't matter because by the time the book is in their hands it's their fantasy and they get to imagine him however they want to comparing your character to a celebrity immediately dates the book what if someone reads your book 40 years from now and they're like Angie Leyna Jolie but she's a little old lady I mean I find it hard to believe that little old Angelina can participate in all these acrobatic sex scenes but all right if you insist she must be doing a lot of water Fitness after bingo it's okay to base a character's appearance after a celebrity it's okay to imagine the character as that celebrity in your mind or refusing to write the description and just slapping the celebrity into the book is bad form do pay attention to your protagonists relationship with the character in my opinion the depth of the description you give to the character directly depends on their relationship to the protagonist likewise the way the protagonist interacts with the character also determines how they're going to be described for example if you give a super sexualized description to the protagonists mom that's gross unless your book is about banging your mom this is a mistake although a book about banging your mom might be a mistake all on its own but I digress it's okay if you want the reader to know that the protagonist mom is beautiful but keep in mind that the protagonist doesn't find her sexy most people no matter how hot their mom is will never see her as having the perfect figure or amazing breasts you can communicate the hotness without grossing the reader out now paying attention to the protagonists relationship to the character is especially relevant if the character is the love interest if the protagonist meets the love interest is instantly attracted to them then right from the get-go you can give that person a lengthy uber fine description but if your character is just casually meeting the person and thinks nothing of it a brief description will do later on once the feeling arises and the attraction builds then it'll be a lot more relevant to get into the sexy details it would be sort of weird if your protagonist has zero opinion on the guy and yet the author found it necessary to describe just how chiseled his abs are descriptions like this feel out of place because they're not authentic to the moment if the protagonist doesn't care about the dudes abs why are you describing them don't say they're hot it's okay if the protagonist thinks they're hot but you can't just say he had green eyes blonde hair and was drop-dead gorgeous this is a cop-out more importantly it tells your reader that you don't trust your own ability to describe the person correctly you don't think you can make it clear through the description alone that this character is hot so you're just gonna flat out say it me when I say you can do it describe the hotness you see in your mind large green eyes defined jaw broad shoulders full lips sounds hot to me and really what's gonna make them hot to the reader is how they behave the things they say the way they interact with their love interest that's what sells the hotness so while it's perfectly fine to include a line of dialogue where your protagonist says wow that boy is fine or they say oh she is beautiful you don't need to rely on that and you certainly don't need to Nix the description for a blanket hot statement describe what you see in your mind if you think it's hot chances are other people will too so that's it for today get out there and describe the out of your characters make them pretty mega Mowgli I don't care it's your book a quick announcement I just wanted to thank everyone for making the release of my book even the awakening such a huge success it really did not expect it to be as big as it was and the reviews holy they are so good so thank you so much for checking out Eve and for all of your kind words I've been reading all of your messages you guys have been so nice you've been loving the story and you just cannot imagine how much that means to me you guys make my mechanical hearts well on that note don't forget to subscribe to my channel I post new videos on Wednesdays bye Eve the awakening is available on Amazon and ebook and paper-bag right now haha and if you have any questions or if there's something you'd like me to talk about my next video you can leave me a comment or tweet me at generosity bye

Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

Views: 262,466

Rating: 4.9694657 out of 5

Keywords: write, writer, writing, Book, Books, Reading, Screenwriter (Profession), Library, Author, Novel, advice, inspiration, motivation, goodreads, Library (Software Genre), Comic, Audio, Letters, Letter, Fiction, Story, Review, characters, Publishing, Creative

Id: 8FMTjykZ_Tc

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2015