[Discussion] Character Descriptions: How to Embelish Those Orbs

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Now that I've got your attention, let's talk about the real problem.

Describing things is hard and sometimes it turns out one might try too hard in describing even simple things. We all know it. Look into my eyes... no, look into my orbs, dark like the summer night, judgmental of the writing prowess, glittering in the night, deep like the abyss of knowledge, attentive but treacherous like a cat.

Look into my orbs, recall "edgelord teen writer" tier descriptions, and despair.

Oh, my orbs, you ask? They're chestnut btw. Round, somewhat. And... that's about it, really?

So, what can be done to describe things — in particular, to describe characters, without going too far? What are your experiences when trying to describe your characters, or when trying to mentally realize someone else's description that you are reading? What are your tricks, your do's and don'ts, your pet peeves? And, more interestingly: how do those factors change for you between describing a human character versus a Pokémon character?

Have at it. Be naugh purple but beige in your writings, my fellows.

A good way to handle physical descriptions is to nail down a handful of recognisable characteristics - ethnicity, hair colour and style and the type of clothes they wear, for example. Then, instead of going to extreme detail using overly flowery language for basic appearance, switch to talking more about the way they present themselves. What's their expression like? How do they move? How do they look at you?

I hate info dumps about a character's appearance. I never remember all of that, and it's especially infuriating if the author feels the need to detail the characters' clothes when they have no meaning. Just describe her as wearing pink if she's girly, we don't need to know she's wearing a puffy skirt and a lighter pink shirt with 3/4 sleeves and all those other extraneous bells and whistles. I think it's more important for a reader to get information based on the character's attributes. So if your character is wearing all-black because they're an edgelord, maybe describe it as "clothes as black as their outlook on life" or something of the sort. Gives it more punch, imo.

And I hate hate HATE when, in first person stories in particular, the main character suddenly goes off on a "I have brown eyes and blonde hair and these freckles I don't like and blah blah blah". It takes me out of the first person experience. People don't think that way. While it's trite, at least using a mirror to describe the character, like if they just woke up and are brushing their teeth or something, is more realistic than a sudden dump of info.

I feel like it's a good idea to keep in mind the character who is observing the one being described. Will that character mention her boobs first? Her eyes? Why is he noticing these details about someone? Is he staring deeply into his tired, green eyes? Is she sneering at her low-cut, nipple-bearing top?

I dunno how much my way of describing changes if I do a person vs a pokemon. The same things tend to apply. Why is she noticing that Mightyena is a really dark black? Maybe she noticed because of how much the dirt shows on its rough, scraggly fur. Maybe she noticed that because she is also rough-and-tumble and is proud of the Mightyena for showing such vigor.

I find that descriptions stick better if they matter to the characterization. I'm going to remember a wizened old seadog whose face is brine-whipped, especially if he looks at me and the scar across his eye tells a treacherous story. But I'm not gonna remember that he's wearing black boots, has blonde hair and greying blue eyes one of which has a deep scar, and he wears brown gloves, a frayed blue trench coat which has trailing tails, and equally frayed and blue pants. That's just too much unnecessary information, and I didn't even go as hard as some books and fanfiction I've read. There's wordy, and then there's using every word in the thesaurus.

Yeah with human descriptions like with clothes I rarely mention those unless for a special occassion/moment. If I do describe it would be whatever the point of view character obeserves as mentioned above. For Pokemon descriptions, I admit at first I would describe all the time because I thought, "Oh what if someone doesn't know/remember what a Pikachu looks like?" I realize sometime later it's a bit ridiculous and I would treat describing Pokemon like canon characters.

For humans/humanoid/chimeras, I only mention what clothes they wear once they're introduced unless they're wearing something different the next time the characters meet, it just feels like something I don't have to mention. I also don't mention height unless the character is a lot taller than my main character. I will mention they're tall, but I tend to not to. But, I will always mention hair color and eyes and if they have unique features. Like, whether the character has animal ears, or webbed feet. I also only mention ethnicity/skin color if I have to. If a character has tan skin/dark skin, I try to mention it. In dialogue, I also try to try to use dialogue descriptors of boy language to differentiate who's talking since I don't do descriptionless dialogue.