Write Compelling Character Descriptions – With Four Easy Tips

Writing compelling character descriptions can be tough. There’s a lot of pressure on the first description of a character! Here in the real world people often say that you don’t get a second chance at a first impression, and that’s true. However, you do get to keep making new impressions every time you see somebody. Readers only know what you tell them about your character, and you can’t re-describe the way they look, talk and move every time they’re in a scene. Well, I guess you can, but you probably shouldn’t.

So, how do you write a character description that tells your readers exactly what your character looks like? And also their mannerisms? And their posture, preferred style and general attitude? The bad news is: you can’t. There’s only so much information you can put into a character description before readers stop paying attention. Great character description isn’t about conveying the full picture of your character, it’s about picking the most important elements and creating a strong sense of what makes each character unique.

For more about developing characters, check out this post!

With that in mind, here are four of the best tips I’ve seen for writing great, impactful character descriptions:

It’s not just about the physical

The main thing you want to avoid is the tedious list of physical characteristics. “She was tall, with long brown hair, pale skin and green eyes. She had broad shoulders, and she was wearing a deep blue dress.”

Some people reject the need for any kind of physical character description, but I don’t go quite that far. I think it’s nice to have a sense of what characters look like. What I do recommend is choosing the most important physical characteristics, and then applying the next rule…

Get specific, rather than extreme

There can be a tendency to make a character stand out by making their physical characteristics extreme. Obviously for some genres this is a deliberate thing (action heroes, the main characters in some types of romance). But generally speaking, I think it’s more interesting to hone in on specifics.

He could have mid-length hair, or he could have a sweep of carefully styled fringe falling artfully over his eyes. She could have green eyes, or she could have eyes the colour of climbing ivy.

Obviously, you don’t want to go over every physical trait doing this! But if something about your character’s physical appearance is important to describe, this is one way to do it so that it makes an impression on your reader. Plus, you can use it to describe more than just the way the character looks. From the examples I cobbled together there, you know that the first character puts a lot of effort into his look. Or his hair, at least.

Another piece of advice with this one is to try to go for an unusual comparison. Eyes like chocolate, hair like gold and a voice like birdsong might help readers to picture your character, but by virtue of being popular descriptions you’re not going to make as strong an impression with them.

Use the surroundings, and don’t be afraid to get abstract

Of course, you don’t necessarily just want to describe your characters’ appearances! Use the surroundings in which a reader comes across a character for the first time to reveal more about them than just the way they look.

If the space readers first meet them in is one that belongs to them, the way they’ve decorated can say a lot about what they’re like. If they’re out and about, where are they? A bus stop? A restaurant? A hiking trail? And, wherever it is, are they comfortable there? Do they fit in, or are they clearly unfamiliar with the place?

Put the character in action

What a character is doing, and how they’re doing it, can say a lot about them in a short space of time. What are they in the middle of when we meet them?

Remember, when readers first meet a new character they’re looking for clues to form their impressions. If a new character puts down the heavy book they were reading to introduce themselves, that tells your reader something. Or, to go back to our character with the very deliberate hair, if he’s checking himself out in a shop window when we first meet him that adds to a strong sense of what he’s like!

Combine your descriptions with action to make a stronger impression, and reinforce the things you want readers to take away from their first meeting with a new character.

What are your favourite ways to describe characters?

Either when writing or reading, how do you like to have characters described? Do you think physical descriptions are important? Let me know in the comments!