I want to do a poll to see if what I observed in a writing class holds true with a bigger group of people. I want this to be clear cut- so only two possible answers(please no “it depends” answers, just pick one of the two)- and no one needs to explain their opinion, ok?
Please: 1. state your gender 2. Answer yes or no to this question " Is the physical description of the main character something you feel is a needed component of a short story?"
(My assumptions for the answers are: answering no means you would not feel there was a key element missing if one wasn’t included, and yes means you’d feel there was a key element missing.)
I think it’s important for every story unless there is some reason for it not to be important(ie The Stranger of Camus) like it’s supposed to me a vague everyman.
If the character isn’t described, I usually default to a mental picture of a boring, average white guy or chick with brown hair, just since that is the average(median?) of people I know. And there is a good chance that isn’t what the writer had in mind, so I waste time wondering.
Female. Yes. I want some description, it doesn’t have to be painfully detailed, but throwing in little things throughout the story (She tapped the stem of her wineglass with a perfectly manicured rose tinted nail. She tossed her flaming red hair over her shoulder in a defiant gesture.) makes the character more real to me.
with more detail: It’s not a needed component, but a complete lack of physical characteristics would be weird. “He ducked his head as he entered the car, and squeezed himself into the seat, which left his knees uncomfortably bent” tells me he’s tall or long legged. If you left out the physical description you’d only be left with “He got into the car”. A complete lack of stuff like this would sound strange.
Only if its vital to the story. SK (Stephen King) once said that you shouldn’t go over the top with it, like a brown haired, tall male is enough, let the reader imagine the rest. So I say a quick sketch is enough, unless you really need a picture of the person. But for the most part, I don’t think I can remember physically what most of the characters in a lot of my fave books looked like. Generally, no.
I like using my imagination to make the character look like I would want him/her to. Also, I generally get bored with character descriptions and I try to skim through until the plot really takes off.
For me it’s a matter of comparing my reaction to those of the other characters in the book. Depending on what s/he looks like what do any new characters intruduced to the story feel and think when they first see him/her. It also adds another detail that adds to the immersion factor. No matter how complex the character is, and how well you’ve shown his/her personality, the preferences for food and such, it’s just more real to be able to have a vivid image of the character in your head.
It’s not so much that there would be a lack of a key element, it’s just that I wouldn’t truly feel part of the characters world, which would make my reading experience less.
A character should be defined by what they do, not what they look like. (Unless, of course, how they look is vitally important to the story.)
Take Sam Spade. Since the Huston version of THE MALTESE FALCON, everyone thinks of him as looking like Bogart. But in fact Hammett described Spade as looking “pleasantly like a blonde Satan.”
Does it matter? No. Sam Spade is his actions and dialogue, not his physical description.
In a short story, a physical description of the characters should be actively avoided, IMHO, unless it is somehow material to the story. It usually detracts from the story, as far as I’m concerned. If I want to really know a character, it is much more important to know what he does and what he says that to know what he looks like.
Even in a novel, it is not always necessary, but is often helpful. In my second novel, I gave virtually no physical description of the male lead except to say that he was tall. I included that detail only because it was one of the main reasons the two female leads were initially attracted to him. I did go into greater detail describing the physical attributes of the female leads, but only inasmuch as their appearance mattered to him.
Female
Yes (with a “but”…)
All the short stories I write, the physical descrition is important because I want to be an insight to the character’s uh…character. If I have a truly sinister man in my story, I want the reader to be able to see clues of that. (“The man walked with a terrible limp, leaning far to his left side.”)
If there’s something about the character that needs to be described, then yes. If not, don’t slow down the story by putting in a lot of description. I’ve written some very successful stories where I never did anything to describe the characters; it just wasn’t necessary.
In fact, in my novel, I never described my main character until after the book was purchased and the editor asked for a description to give the cover artist (who didn’t follow the description all that well).
I’ve seen far too many stories which waste huge chunks of words on something that a police sketch artist could make good use of. If it’s truly important, sure. My general rule for writing is that it should sound natural when read aloud. A paragraph of pure description rarely sounds that way.
Details of someone can be worked much more smoothly into actions, how they interact with the world. The process of any tall person trying to fold themselves into and out of a compact car. Short ones standing up on tiptoe to get to the top shelf in cupboards. If it’s not critical to the story that John Q. Character has green eyes, I don’t have a need to see it.
Heh. This reminded me of something I haven’t thought of in years. When I was 12 or so, there was a British comedy show by the name of “Allo Allo!”, about occupied France in WWII, rife with generally juvenile humor. It was a running gag on the show that every Gestapo character had the exact same limp. They’d limp in unison into a scene, then limp in unison out of it.
Actions, actions. A limp doesn’t tell me anything; how he reacts to suffering around him, how he treats people, how he treats his pets, these all tell me more about how sinister a person is than a limp ever could.
Oh, and I don’t mean a paragraph devoted to how they look, but just the little things that you generally only notice when you see someone/something in real life. The slight curl to the hair at the front of the head. The quirk to the lips. The way they walk, how they step through doorways. All the things that can make it seem that more real and vivid in your mind. Even the way the nostrils flare when the character is angry, or even just how they stand or sit.
Yes. I’m a visual person, and I like to get involved with the story as though I were watching it from close by. I also like to “cast” the movie version of the story, even if I’d never make a movie out of the thing.
I also like to be able to envision my own characters, and though maybe some is fine, I generally decide how they look after I read into the story some.
I’ve only done descriptions of characters when it was something the characters in the story discussed, if the story is told in a first-person perspective and the narrator feels like mentioning it for whatever reason (I did this in one story where the narrator claims to have no attraction for a female character but it’s fairly obvious he does by his references to her appearance), or if it’s necessary for the story, i.e. if you mention that a character was snubbed because of their appearance, it can be helpful to explain why, otherwise the reader might get the wrong impression (i.e. that the character was ugly when in fact they just dressed tackily, etc.).
If physical descriptions are provided, it must be early on so that my mental image is not suddenly contradicted. I remember reading a story in which the character’s beard was suddenly mentioned 3/4 of the way through the story. Gave me the shits big time.