Characters: Stories and Descriptions

You do such a wonderful job describing people so that we can almost visually see them, the little details that just make a person come alive in our imaginations.  How do you keep from everyone blending together?  Do you search for images? Do you just imagine that person?  Do you people watch and think, that person looks like a __?  You are more subtle than white hat good guy, black hat bad guy, but you are still able to get that across or not as the case may be, when it’s a character we go back and forth on, is he/she a good guy, a bad guy, a neutral guy etc.

The problem with describing people is that if you just stick to the physical descriptions, many of them will sound the same. There are only so many hair and eye colors and skin tones to go around. Augustine and Declan Camarine both are tall, blond, and green/blue eyed. So is Arland. To make the characters distinct, we have to reach past the physical descriptions.

Augustine:

Augustine nodded, his stunning face a picture of businesslike politeness. He was inhumanly beautiful. A prince, with his blond hair perfectly styled to complement his flawless features, elegant, confident, just a hair away from absolute perfection. She saw it for exactly what it was – armor.

Declan:

She stopped just before the ring of wards and looked at his face. Her heart skipped a beat. His features were carved with breathtaking precision, combining into an overwhelmingly masculine yet refined face. He had a tall forehead and a long straight nose. His mouth was wide, with hard narrow lips, his jaw square and bulky, yet crisply cut. It wasn’t a face whose owner smiled often. His eyes under thick golden eyebrows froze the air in her lungs. Dark grass green, they smoldered with raw power. She suspected that if she stepped over the stones and touched his face, he’d spark.

(Declan is from ON THE EDGE.)

Most of us have a protective figure in our lives. Maybe it’s a parent, or a spouse, or a sibling. Someone who loves us and protects us. Think about that person. Chances are, what you are remembering isn’t just a set of features but a feeling that person creates.

Writing characters is kind of like that. You are trying to evoke a feeling in the reader, and if you are successful, they will fill in the blanks.

Imagine a medieval setting, a city drenched with rain, and a long bridge.

Today after four pm a man called Lecke would cross the Estret Bridge. He was a scummy, sniveling prick, the kind of character that makes you wait an entire book for a rock to fall on his head and crush his skull.

You’ve pictured something. Zero physical description, but most likely there is something happening.

He was a slight man, with reddish hair and sharp features, and something about the unsure way he held himself reminded me of a possum. I had a feeling that if someone set off a firecracker next to us, he’d fall on the ground and pretend to be dead to avoid the danger.

If you tag the way the character makes the protagonist feel, it will go a long way toward keeping the characters distinct.

He was a slight man, with reddish hair and sharp features, and something about the sure way he held himself reminded me of a mongoose. I had a feeling that if a line-backer-sized attacker lunged at us with a knife, he would take them down with a single kick, take the knife away, and end up on top of them, pressing the blade to their throat.

Same description, different people.

They reached his office, where Lina sat at a pristine desk, presenting the last line of defense to the visitors. The desk was crafted from polished metal with a single white orchid growing from a simple pot. His secretary chose to match the orchid today. A white dress hugged her body, perfectly tailored and form-fitting, yet elegant. Her deep emerald hair, wrapped in a trendy twist, shimmered with peridot highlights. Her eyebrows were black and shaped with laser precision, and she had selected green and black to accent her eyes and mauve to tint her lips. As always, the effect was stunning.

Lina looks like a white orchid. We associate white orchids with elegant settings and often professional environment.

As far as the actual physical description, yes, image searches are your friend. Find an actor or a stock image of a person you would like to portray and write down the vibes. Less is often more. Most of the time authors tag age, hair color, skin tone, possibly build. But not always. There is a reason why Tall, Dark, and Handsome exists. Most people will picture someone when given that description.

Without an emotional connection, Bear is just a German Shepherd. With it, she is the Best Girl Ever.

What if I cannot picture images in my head?

You might have aphantasia. That’s what the image search is for. I probably don’t have it, since I have no problem recalling images of people I’ve seen or picturing random objects with life-like clarity. Nor do I have problems recognizing people and I’m often able to correctly identify two similar looking actors. But if you ask me to imagine a character from scratch, I will end up with a smudge instead of a face. It’s just not something that I can do without reference. It hasn’t hampered me any.

Your supporting/side characters are always awesome and have raised my expectations of how clear and unique the side characters can be. I read another book recently where the main characters were distinct and well-developed but I kept getting the side characters mixed up because they were all alike and vague. For HA, what goes into developing side characters alongside (or compared to) your main characters?

We are all the main characters of our own story. Let’s take Barabas. In his own story, Kate is a side character. She is a friend and an ally, but his goals might conflict with hers. He has his own storyline.

This is a double-edges sword sometimes. The main character is our compass. We perceive their world through their eyes, and when our perspective changes, we are often overly protective of the view point character.

One of the interesting examples of this is Nick Feldman. Imagine the story from his point of view. You idolize your father and turn yourself inside out trying to get Greg to notice you, but no matter how hard you try, your father remains distant. And then your father shatters the family so he can go and take care of the daughter of some woman he apparently has been in love with for a decade and everything you know is a lie.

But you keep going. You follow in your father’s footsteps, despite his disinterest and abandonment. You join the Order, just like he did, and you excel. And then you find out that the woman he chose to guard is a monster with enough power to enslave an entire city. And her father is a bigger monster.

You confront Greg and ask him why, and he tells you that it is his duty. And then he dies, the bastard, leaving this mess unfinished and you holding the severed ends of your pitiful little feelings. Only later you understand that he was trying to influence this woman to keep her from becoming a living Armageddon that would cost thousands of lives. And you wonder, wouldn’t it have been easier and safer to just slit her throat and take out her and her father in the same blow? Why, it would be public service. If she gets a wild hair up her butt, she might enslave the entire country and there won’t be much anyone can do about it. Except that you are a knight and you have principles, but you do wonder.

Now she has a son. She wants to be friends. She says you are her brother and her kid calls you Uncle. Fuck this shit.

That is a completely different plot line. And you have to feel for Nick, who at one point was a little boy desperately wanting his father’s approval, but right now some of you are wanting to explain how none of this is Kate’s fault and Nick just doesn’t understand.

Hehe. My evil work is done here for the day.