NECROCITY TIMES - Issue #1 - HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

DEADLines - Writing Character Description

Heya, folks! It's the Faceless Screaming Horror From Your Basement! Haha, remember me? ...No? Your brain blocked me out? ...Huh. Sorry about that. Guess I need to work on my bedside manner! Haha. Bedside manner. Get it?

Anyway, I'm here to talk to you guys today about character description. If you're gonna talk about food, do it right! Haha! I learned that in culinary school. Let me just grab my apron real quick, and I'll show you guys the best way to write about people for your novels AND your cookbooks!

Character description, when done well, serves a dual purpose: it teaches the reader not just about the character your narrator encounters, but about the narrator themselves. How much of the character you describe is up to you. Some writers prefer to keep physical descriptions to the bare minimum so that readers can imagine the character however they want. Some writers have a specific image of the character in mind when they put them down on the page, and they want the reader to see that image as clearly as possible. They're both perfectly valid approaches, but when you write paranormal or horror, you may have more leeway to spend extra time on character description because you're writing in a world (or part of a world) that the readers aren't familiar with.

Ultimately, character description is about three things:
1) What your narrator notices
2) In what order they notice these things
3) How the things they notice shape their perception of other characters

That third bullet is the most important.

So, Faceless Screaming Horror From Your Basement, you say. What are the hard rules for describing people? Good question, Meat! The answer is that there are no hard rules, but there ARE plenty of pointers to keep in mind that can help you out.

First, and most important: YOUR NARRATOR DICTATES HOW YOU DESCRIBE OTHER CHARACTERS. You have to know your narrator, folks! This is one of the biggest mistakes I see, and it's an easy one to make. After all, you, the writer, know that the character you're describing is a very wealthy, very old vampire, but your narrator is a waitress working her way through college. You, the writer, know that your vampire is wearing a Versace belt that costs $750, but your college-aged waitress raised by working-class parents probably isn't going to know (or care) who made that belt or how much it costs.

You, the writer, aren't prejudiced against ghouls, but maybe you're writing a narrator who is. They might describe their... "differently living" friends in more unflattering terms.

Your narrator is a werewolf hunter. What will they notice about a potential lycanthrope that civilians won't?

Your narrator isn't omniscient. They should only know what they can see, and what they can see depends entirely upon the sort of person (or... not person!) they are.

Second: less is more. Really! When you're describing a character that your narrator is meeting for the first time, you should ask yourself these questions: what is this character's purpose in this scene? What aspects of this character should I describe that conveys to the reader what that purpose is? In other words, if your paranormal investigator is undercover and watching a suspect who might be a warlock, what might they look for? Does the character smell like suspicious oils and herbs? Is that smell covered up by cologne? Is he wearing a necklace with a weird charm? Is that... blood on his jacket? We don't care about the color of the suspect's hair (unless it indicates that he's a mage up to no good). Describe only what's pertinent to the scene. You can spread the rest out over the remainder of the book, if you need to.

Third: What your character notices first is IMPORTANT. Occasionally, you'll read a scene where the writer talks about a demon slayer by mentioning the color of his eyes, and then how his hair is roguishly tousled, and then the way his jeans fit his muscular legs perfectly... only THEN to tell us that this demon slayer has a gun strapped to his thigh. Your narrator is a demon on the run. He should notice the gun first! This goes back to knowing your narrator. What does your narrator first look for when they meet someone? Is your narrator worried about weapons? Do they first look at clothes to see what faction this shifter is from? Do they search someone's eyes for telltale demonic red?