Character Descriptions?

[*Lady Lucia*]

Hey, everyone --

I thought I'd start a discussion thread to avoid having my story bumped too many times at the cost of other new posts. And the big question is:

What are your thoughts on character descriptions?

Preferences, opinions, just general thoughts, etc. When reading and/or when writing, as sometimes it feels different from each perspective.

To get the ball rolling, I'll give my answer -- I tend to lean towards that middle ground. To me, a 'petite blonde girl' or a 'scrawny pale guy' more or less gives me a mental blur that my imagination can run with until other details are tossed in as they become relevant. Too much information tends to turn me off from a new story, especially when it's delivered with no finesse. 'Nora was 5'7 with shoulder length brunette hair, slender with a bit of tone, fair skin, blue eyes, 34C, a nice round ass that didn't fit her frame quite as well as her breasts, wearing dark blue jeans, a white tank top, etc. etc. etc.' Maybe a bit exaggerated, but you know what I mean. I'll still read it, of course, as I'm not a total snob, but it's more that it's distracting even if such details might be important. Obviously this forum isn't for novel writing and not everyone wants to circle around details, but my personal favorites are when descriptions are peppered in over the course of the first 1-2 parts instead of a huge info dump in the first sentence.

The other extreme, however, is something I've started playing with recently. There's this great story on Literotica about a younger sister seducing her older sister's boyfriend, and I imagined her as a hot young blonde the whole time. Upon rereading it, I realized the writer hadn't described either sister or the guy at ALL. It's kind of an interesting concept, just letting the reader fill in every blank with their own preferences. For those that haven't noticed it, 'The Disguise' only references size due to its necessity to the story, but nothing else. I took it one step further with 'The Game,' as the MC only has an outfit mentioned as the story progresses. No description at all, and not even a name given so far. Mostly since the style and 1st person narrative allow the reader to put themselves in her shoes if they want. This extreme isn't something I plan on doing exclusively, but just a concept that some people might not have considered writing and/or might not have realized they were reading here and there. Most importantly, it's a fun counter to the over-describing I sometimes see here and other places.

But that's just me! Veteran writers and new writers alike, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this specific element of writing/reading ENF stories.

All the best,
Lady Lucia

[skillbox]

It’s an interesting one. I do agree that unnaturally inserting a description of a character feels forced so I attempt to do it slowly over time. Usually I myself have a picture of what a character looks like while writing and will try and tease out this information. For other non-main characters I will usually be pretty brief and use their physical description as a description of their personality.

Personally in other stories I like it when people describe their characters. It lets me picture the scenario better and while I can use my imagination, I like there being something to help visualise. It also I feel adds to a character by giving them a unique appearance. Personality comes through in description even with small things.

[Executionus]

So this is going to be long because I have strong feelings on this subject lol.

I have always kept all descriptions of appearances for characters (or items/places) intentionally very brief, both in ENF writing and fantasy writing. As LL mentioned above, reading a wall of adjectives is jarring and such a huge break from both pacing and overall feeling. I actually actively hate it as a man with ADHD because retention of so much data at once is impossible. I can't stand Dungeon Masters either who feel the need to spend 5 minutes describing the specific ambience of a room or describing the precise appearance of an amulet down to every miniscule chip and crack.

When I describe characters in ENF stories I usually just stick with their size and hair style and not a whole lot else unless I feel a specific characteristic is important to the character's overall presentation. In addition to keeping the slate blank enough for the specific reader's preferences, it allows the story to move on without a logjam at the start.

Sometimes instead I like to use the style of describing things in terms of other things, usually in a humorous manor. Some examples would be "This dagger looks like the type of thing Satan would use as a letter-opener, and by 'letter' I mean 'screaming virgin'" for an item, or "If this woman's red hair and freckles were any more distinctive, she'd bleed ginger ale" for a person. One of the benefits of that style of description is that it is instantly memorable and easy for the reader to retain, as well as very entertaining in and of itself. I don't use that style of description often enough in my ENF stories, especially my older stories, because I was trying too hard to be tense and sexy as opposed to funny. I made it a goal in 2021 to include much more of my humor in stories in an attempt to liven my characters up many levels and I'm still pushing forward with that.

My hatred of excessive descriptive text actually has an origin story. Long ago in middle school we were forced to read the most garbage, soul-torturing, "this would make the Gitmo prisoners sing like Ariana Grande" book ever written: The Red Pony by John Steinbeck. Don't read this. Just don't do it to yourself. You have so much to live for. The ENTIRE book is nothing but the world's most boring page-long description text over and over again all setting a scene for about 2 minutes of action each chapter. I found myself cursing the grim reaper with every sentence read aloud in class for his refusal to take me away from that classroom forever, but even HE wasn't going to go anywhere near THAT book. I developed an irrational hatred of that book (because I was a middle schooler. Don't judge me) and made it a rule in all of my future works that I would never do that sorta crap. Since I've been writing stories since kindergarten it became part of my signature style from then on and I've never looked back.

[Debbifan]

I haven't previously begun writing with the thought of how to approach descriptions at the forefront of my mind. But considering it now, I am an advocate of the less is more approach. Detailing a person's exact height, measurements, bra cup size and so on is not only irrelevant to me but in fact meaningless, since I don't think in those terms when looking at someone. I think a term like 'petite' or 'buxom' or 'tall' or 'short' would suffice. As has been mentioned, other aspects of appearance can gradually appear as, for instance, the character loses clothing of it is felt this enhances the story. No doubt someone could find occasions when I have strayed from this ideal since, as I said, I have not had the issue at the forefront of my mind !

It brings me to a subsidiary question of how visual a writer or reader's imagination is when creating or reading a story. The main protagonist in most of my stories is based on a real life muse and so is always clear in my mind but secondary characters remain kind of fuzzy. When reading, this fuzziness regarding at least the facial features of the characters remains but I find that when both writing and reading, I visualize locations cinematographically.

[Eoworfindir]

When I read a story, you can point me in the general direction but I still want the journey to be mine. I want to use my own imagination to create someone or someone from memory. That's my preference. Does that make sense?

[Girlspns]

My view on descriptions is that if you're not putting effort into your descriptions, you're not doing it right, just rattling off "here's X, they are this tall and this busty" it essentially a speed bump, you're slowing your story down to give the reader a solid mental image of your character, but that slowdown can be a quit moment for your reader because it's not advancing your story.

The solution? Make the description itself fun:

Amy from Strip Game Addicts had a cute butt, something I mentioned because I alluded to how she's always ending up naked and people commented on that, seeing how she's often forced to run around with it exposed.

The sister from Don't Chicken Out were twins, and the very first chapter had one essentially doing a photoshoot, so the description was in the shoot itself, describing how good she looked and what was being photographed.

Emily from Young Dumb and Full of Cum was unique in that I wanted a character that fit the exact story I was writing, someone who's not the sharpest tool in the shed, and so I don't even have to describe her here for you to figure out what she looked like, she was a quintessential "dumb blonde".

And so on and so forth, figure out a unique way to describe your character, or at least tie it to the part of the story where it's relevant, otherwise don't bother, it's just an extra paragraph to get through for your reader to wade through just to get to the good stuff.

This even kinda gets to a pet peeve of mine in some stories, unless what you're writing is essential to the meat of the story, why is it there? And more often than not, it just feels like writers put a long pre-amble in there because it "feels realistic", when in fact it just makes your story less readable.

[AllieNF]

This even kinda gets to a pet peeve of mine in some stories, unless what you're writing is essential to the meat of the story, why is it there? And more often than not, it just feels like writers put a long pre-amble in there because it "feels realistic", when in fact it just makes your story less readable.

Thank you for this. It's something I'm doing and couldn't figure it out. I was sensing a problem, but didn't know what I was feeling with my own writing.

It's something I'm finding out that I do. I went into my first story with a wild premise and felt that making it more realistic would bring it home. I've added a lot of description and reasoning along the way to try to make it seem more vivid and find myself trying to turn some of that into something story relevant later. ...Which has caused me to balloon out a little more...probably a lot more than I intended.

Learning as I go, I will keep up what I've been doing to make it to the end.... And next time, I'll know a little better.

[edithdick]

This is an interesting topic. For me, unless the description has an effect on the story I tend to leave it out. I prefer that the audience has the ability to imagine what the character looks like based on how they are received. Even if it is needed for the story, I only want to give the information that is absolutely necessary. If I say that Janet is Asian, then most people can envision what an Asian woman looks like. A character may be a redhead, or have a specific back tattoo because those elements add to the perception of the character.

On the other hand, I am extremely novice at all of this. I never even took a creative writing class in school and would likely have failed it if I had. I am curious to anyone who may have ready any of my contributions on the ENF board as to whether my lack of descriptions was noticeable. If adding a better visual of who the character is would enhance the reader's journey I would be happy to do so.

[Executionus]

On the other hand, I am extremely novice at all of this. I never even took a creative writing class in school and would likely have failed it if I had.

I doubt too many people here ever took any creative writing classes. Honestly, my English classes were useless, and in hindsight I find myself appalled at how little they taught me of any use towards my writing (but you can bet your ass I can still write a five paragraph report! Man how useful THOSE have been in adult life, am I right?). Honestly, in my early days in this community I struggled from the shift from oral storyteller (my preferred medium) to text, as I felt so limited without the ability to use audio and visual elements and to use my natural acting ability to deliver dialogue. Most of my early works struggle with presentation and formatting to an embarrassing degree. I've also noticed far too many spelling errors, as back then good spell checkers weren't easy to find.

Your writing style is good, and does well to develop characters and motives. I'd say your only real flaw currently is a difficulty maintaining tension, but that shouldn't be too difficult to overcome with practice.

[edithdick]

Your writing style is good, and does well to develop characters and motives. I'd say your only real flaw currently is a difficulty maintaining tension, but that shouldn't be too difficult to overcome with practice.

Thanks for the encouragement, I agree with you that I need to work on adding and keeping tension during certain scenes. I’m taking a hiatus from the Janet story while I work on that skill.

There are some people on this board who do really well at that technique who I will try to learn from as I develop as a writer. I really appreciate everyone for their work and for their feedback.