Thank you for writing this. I think It will be a big help for me. I will try to keep it in mind when writing future stories.

Thank you very much for guide. It's quite helpful.

This was great. i hope i will be better at describing characters from now on, because this really helps!

Awesome! Thanks for this!

this is just what I thought when I clicked on the link to understand how to create a character. thanks pal

Thank you so much for writing this useful note! I like it!

Hope I can write better than before..

thanks for that! i've always been a little unsure about character descriptions. this was short, but helpful!

This...wow, helped me a lot. I don't want to requst anything for fear that you have already done it, but could you do a guide to making 3-D characters?

Thank you for this! I learned some useful things!

This was very helpful. Thank you.

I find it interesting when writers spend TOO much time describing hair and eye color. there's so much more to a person... even their stance and posture can be very telling. I liked your example of the worn sneakers, that was a good one!

Wow, this essay was brilliant, just like all your others! Do you think that next time you could do one about creating believable aliens? Just a suggestion :)

Though this was an improvement on the trash you've been writing until now, you need to pick better examples. You learn just as much from the twilight extract as the other one. You only learn about looks in both, but you learn their hair colour, how they wear it, Rosalie's figure and Cimorene's height, and how people react to their looks. Try thinking things through, and reading your examples properly.

Yes! This was great to come back to.

Can I steal the blonde girls fedora? Please?

Anyway, I have a suggestion for the next Sane Writers Guide. Dialouge. Alot of people have trouble with it I know.

Hello.

"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."

-Presumably, as the author in question has 'extolled her character's beauty', we can assume that the author wishes us to know that the character is beautiful. Unless the reader is incapable of very basic comprehension, the author's objective has been effectively accomplished. I would guess that if Meyer wanted us to know more from that passage, she would have told us more.

"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."

-To say that it is 'ineffective' is to suppose that you have any idea what Meyer intended with that description beyond the 'face value' reading of the text itself.

Regarding the excerpt from 'Dealing With Dragons':

"This segment tells us more about Cimorene than the previous one told us about Rosalie, and therefore is more effective."

-I am inclined to disagree. If anything, it tells us less about Cimorene, though it does tell us more about the socio/familial context in which the Cimorene character exists.

"What do we know about this character? Effectively, all the reader knows is that the character is a blond female. This detail tells us next to nothing and is therefore useless."

-Describing the colour of a character's hair is not inherently more or less useless than any other piece of description; regardless of the subject. What is significant is why the author is describing it; and the end to which that description is put will determine its utility far better than any blanket dismissal or approval that you or anyone else might make.

""She had carefully-styled long blond hair with an intricate braid falling down her back."

This sentence is much better."

-And yet what little it tells us could be better imparted through something more engaging than simple exposition. This manner of description is difficult to write in an interesting way - in some cases I feel that it is better to keep it minimal.

"Why not try adding a detail?"

-Adding detail is not always necessary or even desirable.

"the reader can infer that this character is an athlete, most likely a jogger or track runner."

-The reader can also infer that this character is an equatorial dry-stone wall expert with little money. Where does that leave us?

"Although some writers condemn character description as time-wasting and unimportant, it can be good if it is used for a concrete purpose."

-Absolutely. This is crucial. Though I wouldn't say it even has to be for a 'concrete' purpose.

It may come across as though I disagree with most of what you wrote, and that's because I do. But I'd largely put that down to me not being a fan of 'writer's guide' type things in general. I did quite enjoy reading your essay, though.

I'm sure there are many people who can benefit from your advice, even if it isn't quite suited to my particular tastes.

I may check out some of your other essays at some point.