Lesson #9: How to Paint a Character Portrait 

When describing physical character traits to a reader, take care not to do so unrealistically or in boring, fact-like chunks. Let’s break that down and discuss what I mean by that.​

Eye color rarely matters

Something I see beginner writers do often is immediately focus on hair and eye color. Often they have the protagonist make observations about another character’s appearance. If they already know each other, it isn’t very realistic for one of them to pause and take in the other’s features. Another unrealistic method (that I regularly committed as a beginner) is having the protagonist observe a love interest’s eye color from across the room. I don’t know about you, but someone has to be pretty close for me to take note of their irises.

Don’t stop to describe your character

If you’re using a third person omniscient narrator, inserting physical features when a character is first introduced is more natural. However, you don’t want to just rattle off features like a bullet point list. One of my favorite ways to insert physical traits is by interspersing them within action sequences and by comparing one character to another. For instance, if you wanted to introduce two brothers, you might write something like this:

Caleb shoved Gregory playfully in his scrawny shoulder, nearly knocking the younger boy off balance. “Nice shot, bro! Didn’t think you had it in you.” 

Gregory smiled halfheartedly and rubbed a shaking hand back and forth through his bushy red hair. “Th-thanks.”

“Come on, let’s go see the damage,” said Caleb, blonde hair bouncing on his forehead as he took off toward the tree line. His lean, strong legs were much longer than Gregory’s, and he reached the spot first.

The two boys bent over the dead squirrel. Gregory’s already pale face whitened, and his blue eyes turned glossy with tears as he looked at what his pellet gun had done. “I killed him…” he said. 

You now know a good deal about what both boys look like. You may not know everything right now, but as the story progresses, I could insert more details. You also know something about Gregory’s personality through his gestures. You know he feels guilty about killing the squirrel — not because the narrator told you, but because of the nervous rubbing at his hair and then the tears in his eyes when he looks at the squirrel. That is posturing.

Remember all those gestures you wrote down when outlining your character’s appearance? Bring them out and keep them consistent. Gregory can reach for his hair each time he’s upset or nervous. 

Small reminders help

Another good rule of thumb is to insert little reminders about a character’s appearance throughout the story. Do it frequently in the beginning (once a chapter) to establish that picture, and then you can taper off the reminders as you go. Making sure that your readers can remember what each character looks like helps them lose themselves in the story even further. 

Tomorrow is our final lesson, where we’ll tackle one of the hardest things to do: making your readers fall in love with your characters.

Hannah

Recommended Resources

• Character Descriptions: How to Write Them (blog post)

Brought to you by Hannah Sandoval

Hannah Sandoval is a freelance ghostwriter and copy editor who has worked on over two dozen manuscripts, and a published author herself. Her guilty pleasures are Rocky Road ice cream and crime TV shows. If you would like to connect with her to discuss assistance with your manuscript or character outlines, check out her Reedsy profile.​

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