Writing Tips and Reviews

Describing Different Characters in Scenes

When you're writing a story with multiple characters, it's a good idea to differentiate them from each other. The most common way is by name, but what if you don't know their name yet? Well, that's actually an easy fix.

Personalities:

Characters have different personalities, their stance and way of talking are hints to what that is and can be used to differentiate them. The "shy one", the "confident one", the "childish one", are just some examples of defining them by a a personality trait until you get to know them.

Physical Traits:

What are they wearing? Does someone have a birthmark or tattoo? Is their hair color different? Do they have an injury or bandage? What age are they? All are good questions and can be used to tell characters apart. Everyone looks different and physical traits are the first thing people notice when meeting someone for the first time.

Companions:

Do they have a dog? A cat? A bird? Or how about their human friends? Maybe they're with children, others their age or older than them. Perhaps they're traveling so have other adventures with them, or maybe they're home and have causal friends. Any of these are good ways to tell people apart, for example, "the girl who had a dog with her," or "the woman holding a child's hand".

What not to do:

Don't use the same word to describe multiple characters and don't use different versions of the same word. While yes, using different words to describe one person is common, the opposite of using the same word to describe multiple people is a horrible idea.

Examples:

"Are you talking about that girl?"

"Ah yes, the young lady."

As you can see, they're talking about the same person using words that mean the same thing. This can happen if someone is using an informal word and the other person is using a formal word. The same goes with "man" and "guy."

"That guy was tough."

"I've never seen a man like him before."

This can also happen with completely different words.

"What a cute dog!"

"The little guy is adorable."

And here's one using two words of the same meaning to describe two different people.

"The guy jumped, smoke surrounded the building and people couldn't see a thing. When she went to see what was going on outside, the man was on the window sill."

Could you ever guess that I was talking about two different people when I say "guy" and "man"? Of course not, you would just think I was using different words for the same person, like in the previous examples. "A different man" would be an easy fix to this problem, because the word "different" states that it's someone else who's there.

The easy fix:

The reader will think it's a new way to describe the person and be confused when the actions are different. Instead, we use something like, "the man tipped his hat," and "the boy greeted them". Or "the man tipped his hat," and "the other man greeted them." This makes it clear that they are two different people.

Conclusion:

This is a point in writing where you have to be specific about which character you're talking about. There isn't a name stated yet so the best we have is a short description of them. Giving them the same word to describe them makes things difficult, even numbers are acceptable if you go down that route. But those are usually for the minor characters, major characters should get more than "kid 1".