How to introduce viewpoint character's physical features.

[David Evil Overlord]

This link to the blog of Analog author Juliette Wade might also be useful:

http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/when-do-we-need-to-know-what-character.html

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Yes. But you know even Sheakespeare in the written plays allows the characters to define themselves, or another character will make a comment:

'Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look, such men are dangerous' -- tells us everything, in just 12 words.

To be fair with Shakespeare his were meant to be watched and played by actors. The audience would be able to see what his characters looked like

My advice is always include what you like to read, personally i prefer to have a basic idea of height, hair colour and an unusual feature. Knowing Jane Eyre was small and plain was enough for example. I'm more likely to enjoy a clumsily done infodump at the beginning than a story with none at all. However the biggest issue is when I have been reading for two chapters and suddenly discover my gothic teen, with a surly mouth actually has auburn hair and wears pretty clothes. If description is important to the story later on, make sure it goes in the first chapter.

Even with the basics a reader will come up with their own vision. The mirror scene depends entirely on character and situation - there maybe a reason for comparison or assessing themselves. I have one vain beggar of a character that gets away with it , but only one.

Personally i try to set up a reason for comparison - like a brother or friend. Even a parent.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I have a WIP with an alien society that has serious caste distinctions in the big city, but is much less rigid out in the boondocks. The MC is a cross-caste halfbreed. Until now, no one cared what she looked like, as long as she pulled her weight for the Greater Good of all. Now she's in the big city, where some people would rather die than accept lifesaving help from the "wrong" caste.
All I have planned so far is for one such prejudiced lord to describe her colouring in unflattering terms.

 

[James Coote]

This will probably sound stupid, but couldn't you just leave out the description and put a picture of the character on the book cover?

 

[alchemist]

You could, but that may not be your decision. It might be the publisher. In any event, you might prefer something else on the cover (spaceship, alien, planet) so it might be best not to rely on the cover.

Also, you're not going to get all your characters on the cover, unless it's the Famous Five

 

[Anne Lyle]

What alchemist said. Even if the publisher wants your protagonist on the cover and you send them a detailed description, they might not get it 100% correct. My book has a really good cover, showing the hero in gorgeous Elizabethan costume and carrying an absolutely perfect swept-hilt rapier as described in the book - but the model chosen for the photo has blue eyes, not brown, and designer stubble rather than a proper beard. These are trivial issues and nothing worth objecting to, but many a cover is far, far less accurate in its representation of characters' appearance.

Unless you're self-publishing and have 100% control, you can't rely on cover art. And anyway, what about users of cheap black'n'white ebook readers? They aren't going to see your gorgeous cover in high-res colour anyway...

 

[Mouse]

Unless you're self-publishing and have 100% control, you can't rely on cover art.

And even then, unless you're doing the cover art yourself...

My main character is a red head on the cover of my first book. She's a brunette in the story and a brunette on the next two covers.

 

[Warren_Paul]

My book has a really good cover, showing the hero in gorgeous Elizabethan costume and carrying an absolutely perfect swept-hilt rapier as described in the book - but the model chosen for the photo has blue eyes, not brown, and designer stubble rather than a proper beard.

My main character is a red head on the cover of my first book. She's a brunette in the story and a brunette on the next two covers.

I know its just been said its a trivial matter but this seems bad to me, makes you wonder if the artist even glanced at the content of the book. I would have thought if they were making a cover for a book they would have at least read part of the book to get an idea for the scene their artwork was based on?

 

[David Evil Overlord]

A friend of mine rejected the first cover for her first novel. It showed the main character wearing a leather mini skirt. She told me you look silly in a leather mini skirt once you're over twenty one.

I told her that, as a male, I would look silly in a leather mini skirt no matter how old I was.

The book was published, and the cover art showed the main character in a tight black jumpsuit.

The contract expired, and my friend negotiated a new contract with a new publisher. The new publisher insisted on using her own daughter as the cover artist. Only trouble was, the daughter was one of those "artists" who draws characters who are supposed to be human so that they look like some sort of almost-human-but-not-human-enough-to-be-a-Star-Trek-TM-alien.

But at least all the versions of this poor main character did have the right hair colour.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

A friend of mine rejected the first cover for her first novel. It showed the main character wearing a leather mini skirt. She told me you look silly in a leather mini skirt once you're over twenty one.

I told her that, as a male, I would look silly in a leather mini skirt no matter how old I was.

Is now pondering the wisdom of having a male character in his 30s who is partial to wearing a leather mini skirt

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I frequently take issue with cover art because the characters just don't look the way they did in my head. Even if you have a detailed description, there are still any number of ways that a person can look and still fit that description. I once met someone whom I only knew from online, and while he did, indeed, look the way he had described himself, it wasn't anything at all like the picture I had in my head.

And even with a detailed description in the book, there is also a good chance that I wasn't paying attention and still have a different picture in my head. I was surprised and a bit upset to find that Draco Malfoy was blond when the movie came out -- and when I went back to check in the book, it turned out that he was described that way, but I had always pictured him with black hair.

 

[Ursa major]

I've seen one or two comments suggesting that the description be given out in little tidbits through the book. Mightn't that cause problems?


For instance:

• If done too slowly - too late in the book - and/or too frequently, it might keep reminding the reader that the picture of the character that they have in their head is wrong.
• A characteristic - long arms, say - might be mentioned only when the length of the arms is useful, which may seem rather too convenient.
• Even if a late-mentioned characteristic isn't used in a "convenient" way, the reader might wonder why the attribute hasn't been mentioned much earlier, and might spend too much effort looking out for a situation during which the attribute can be put to use.

All of these seem, to me, to be providing opportunities for the reader to fall out of the story.

If an attribute is going to be relevant to the plot, why not mention it early on, well away from its use and close enough to the character's introduction for it not to call attention to itself? If it isn't relevant to the plot - or the relationships between the characters - why mention it at all?

 

[Warren_Paul]

I usually mention the vitals, like hair colour, and length, eye colour, height, build etc. early on as part of the character's first scene (not necessarily all in one go) But after that I only mention a feature again if relevant to the scene.

 

[Hex]

I struggle with this, partly because I'm the opposite of Anya: I detest character-appearance infodumps at the start of books -- they're one of the things most likely to make me put a book down.

I like books where I'm given one or two bits of information about a character and left to make up the rest on my own. I love Patricia McKillip's way of doing this -- the moon-pale hair and long hands type thing. I'm happy if someone starts by saying 'he was so handsome' and then expands on that a bit later (in my memory that's what happens in The Good Soldier but I'm not sure I'm right).

Even if someone is described early on, like TDZ says that doesn't mean they'll appear that way in my imagination. The sexiest of sexy assassins, Valek, in Poison Study turned out to have long blond hair and it really annoyed me. I choose to imagine him with short dark hair and I'll ignore any efforts by the author to change my mind.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Well, it's to each their own, and a lot of readers do like to have their own thoughts about how certain characters should look.


But a character's physical features can also give an insight into their personality and style. For instance, one of my own main characters, Katana, age 15, had a very specific look:


She was very short-described by others and herself to be no more than five feet tall. (And the "average" basing was off modern-day Caucasian females in the West here-around 5'5"-5'6") She was also very thin, and this was in conjuncture with the fact that she had an eating disorder. (She never ate more than two bites of food at a time, and if anyone tried to get her to eat more she would immediately vomit it back up. Disgusting image, but it says something about her character.) Not to mention that both these factors, in that she had a very low weight, allowed her to be fairly fast. (Don't ask me how she managed to sidestep malnutrition-I never could get that one figured out and is one of my shameful flaws.)


Finally, she had cropped hair. One reason for that was so that helmets would be more comfortable for her and to keep her head from sweating too much.



So there can definitely be some reasons for an author to have a fairly specific image of a character of theirs in mind.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

...and I'll ignore any efforts by the author to change my mind.

That's the kind of dedication you just don't see from readers today.

 

[Warren_Paul]

that she had a very low weight, allowed her to be fairly fast. (Don't ask me how she managed to sidestep malnutrition-I never could get that one figured out and is one of my shameful flaws.)

Maybe she used to be morbidly obese and got gastric bypass surgery

I know someone like that, she was addicted to food and it was causing serious health issues. She got the surgury done and now only eats a few mouthfuls. If she tries to eat more she will vomit it back up. Skinny as a rake now. Just an idea.



I just fit my descriptions in with the actions. Drip feed them until I've explained the way the character looks, but as I said earlier. within the first scene.



"Emylynn smiled at her sister's round, freckled face"


"Alyce’s green eyes grew dark"



In one paragraph I got out that Alyce had both freckles and green eyes. Putting those two together the reader is likely to assume her hair is red, which it is, so mentioning hair colour was not really needed in that scene. so I left it out. Two lines pictured: Red haired, chubby, green eyed girl with freckles.

EDIT: Just had a thought. I don't mention anything about what Emylynn looks like, with exception of weight because they are having an argument about who gets to wear their mother's dress to a dance, and also because she is the PoV character.

So getting back to the original question of the thread. Because we know Emylynn is Alyce's full sister the reader might assume they share the same characteristics, which would be true. So in a way the PoV character was described to the reader at the same time. A bit of a stretch, but just a thought.

 

[Mouse]

I struggle with this, partly because I'm the opposite of Anya: I detest character-appearance infodumps at the start of books -- they're one of the things most likely to make me put a book down.

Interesting... You didn't mention anything about the start of my C&CD. Guess I got away with it!

 

[Hex]

Interesting... You didn't mention anything about the start of my C&CD. Guess I got away with it!

What you did at the start of C&CD was a very clever play on the expectation of 'Johnathan looked in the mirror at his raven black hair, glossy with pomade; his piercing blue eyes and high cheek bones. It was like looking at a stranger, he reflected, as he rubbed his large-knuckled hand over the dark stubble on his noble chin...' (and so on)

THere are things people reflect on when they look in mirrors ('ugh I should have gone to bed in time last night'), and things they do not ('oooh who are you, handsome stranger? Let me describe you in tremendous detail')

I make a point of giving one character per story 'piercing eyes' so I can delete it in the edit.

 

[Anne Lyle]

I know its just been said its a trivial matter but this seems bad to me, makes you wonder if the artist even glanced at the content of the book. I would have thought if they were making a cover for a book they would have at least read part of the book to get an idea for the scene their artwork was based on?

I used to think that too, but it's not how things work. The cover artist probably never reads the book - they go by the description the editor or marketing bod sends them. After all, the artist's job is to create images to commission, not read books. Would you expect someone who draws the artwork for a box of tea to sample the product? Same with book covers.

The point of cover art, like with all product packaging, is to attract the potential buyer's attention, not to illustrate the actual contents. If it does both, that's a bonus, but it's not essential.