Insanely helpful. Thank you for putting in the time to do this

Good quick summary. No doubt that your pieces help a lot of people on here in developing their writing style.

Thank you for putting this out, I've been looking these up lately to help me a little.

A pretty useful tidbit of information! Thank you for writing this. People tend to take "show don't tell" a little to literally and end up minimizing there use of descriptive words, but words are *how* you show!
Oh... well this is posted in 2010, don't know if it's still gathering attention 8 years later, but thank you nonetheless!

Thank you for posting this, I am sure that I am not the only one who learned from this.

Hello!
I absolutely loved this post! You jump right into the issues with character descriptions and how to improve them. As a writer who struggles with describing my characters to readers, I feel like this post has really helped me. I also like the fact that you use examples from published, and popular, works. I could definabley see your point about the Twilight example. Meyer's descriptions are both brief and completely subjective. "Beautiful figure" can be interpreted as thin and tall, petite, 5'6 and curvy, etc. People have their own ideas of beautiful and their ideas may not match what Meyer is trying to describe.
I also liked your association between description and character personality! I never really thought about that (which, as a writer, is kind of embarrassing). That insight is definitely helpful to writers. I think a lot of people don't realize that description alludes to personality and activities, but rather appearance. Good observation!
Hope to see more posts in the future!

Thanks so much for this! Been working on my characters in Asylum, Metamorphosis, and Brittle Petals :-)

Hi, I'm new to the site, and I know this sounds completely dumb, but I was wondering how do I even submit a story on here?

long black hair

long black hair in curly locks

Thank you so much for this. It's extremeellyyy helpful. If you would do more of these, that would be just great. And no sarcasm there, I swear. :D

Very helpful and useful, thank you for this. I always struggle with my character descriptions...how much do I throw at the reader? When does it become monotonous and just a reciting of the physical attributes of a person that the reader will just glaze over as unimportant? I've started trying to find ways to weave the character descriptions into the narrative as the story goes along and as the detail becomes important to the story..and just limit the initial description to whatever makes the character stand out in the reader's mind.

I really like this, so thanks for sharing. But. Some writers don't like detailed character description, because the *readers* don't like it. They don't need to know that the character puts a lot of effort into her hair. What would be the purpose? Unless, highlighting her vain nature is the goal, wouldn't it be easier to simply have 'blonde hair'? The majority of readers don't take the time to decipher what the author is trying to 'tell' them through character description unless outright stated. Wouldn't it be better to 'show' them through actions?
"This segment reveals to us not only the facts that Cimorene has black hair, but that she wears it in braids, which is seen as unprincesslike, and that she is tall, which her parents see as detrimental towards her marriage prospects. This segment tells us more about Cimorene than the previous one told us about Rosalie, and therefore is more effective." While being 'unprincesslike' might show off her 'rebellious' nature, or that she has no care for looks ( a moot point, since what's the point of putting effort into a braid if she doesn't care for looks?) we know that she is 'unprincesslike, and that her parents see her height as detrimental towards marriage prospects. But, what does that tell us about her *as a person*? I haven't read this story, but I feel that should put my argument in higher regard.
"Despite the fact that the author has just given us a mini-paragraph extolling her character's beauty, we still know very little about Rosalie from this piece. Other than the facts that she is extremely beautiful and has golden hair, we don't know anything about Rosalie as a person. This description is ineffective." I feel like you're putting too much bias into your analyses. While I haven't read Dealing with Dragons, I have the unfortunate honour of reading the Twilight Series (I was young). But, anyways, did you forget that her description is told in First Person P.O.V? Bella is a shallow teenager dealing with hormones and jealousy, she would notice the unimportant details, the superficial ones. She wouldn't be looking for Rosalie's *personality*, or her as a person. She would notice 'oh my gawd she's hot, I feel like crap right now', wouldn't she? Also, if an unbiased person read that description (who hasn't read Twilight) would guess Rosalie put a lot more effort into her appearance, keeping her stomach flat, taming her hair so it would fall into gentle waves down her back or something. We can assume that Rosalie is vain, and realises her beauty, and doesn't hide it.
Anyways, thanks for sharing! I found half of this work helpful.

Very helpful indeed! :) Adding this to my favorites. :)

arigatou ( thank you ) i seriously needed this guide XD

Thank you so much you are going to help in improving my characters so much but one question, how would you introduce all of these glorious things? Would you just vomit it on the reader or would you put in small little quirks here and there. Once again, thank you for such great information. I love it so much!