User blog:QueenOfSwordsandStars/Writing Appearance- On the Page and In Your Content

Hey y'all, it's Liza aka QOS here with one of the posts in my series of blogs, Queen's Writing Help where I try to use my knowledge, experience, and personal perception of writing to help all of y'all keep honing your writing abilities in various subjects.

This blog is going to be all about writing a character's appearance, both on their page and in actual stories. Sometimes I might make another blog about describing the appearance of other things, like buildings, objects etc, but that's only if I get especially bored.

And please, for my sake and yours, stop the -nette!

'''Disclaimer: These are my personal views and tips on writing. You may take them with a grain of salt or as serious as you'd like.'''

On the Page
So, we all know one of the main sections you need to have on a character's page is their appearance section. This is your opportunity to use some of those images you've found online to showcase their physical features, such as a full body image showing their sense of style.

The overall tips I can give for writing appearance sections is to make sure to highlight anything you find important, beyond just their hair and eye color. Are their hands calloused? Do they have a tattoo? Pierced ears? etc. You can incorporate those little details here.

Another thing is while appearance sections are the opportunity to be detailed, there's a different between a detailed appearance section or one with information just there to increase the content on the page. There is also no need to obsessively flaunt the physical beauty of your characters, particularly with women and adding information about their assets. There is a way to describe feminine figure without coming off as sleazy. Please, try to stay away from lascivious porn-star style descriptions of your female characters or you might end up with a foot in your face. There is a way to describe feminine physique without going the route of "bouncing breasts" and "fairly adequate rear". (Also keep this in mind for image choices smh. Realistic boob physics y'all). Most anime characters are purposely designed to be aesthetically pleasing and attractive. You don't need to go into a three paragraph rant about how much of a sex god your character is because of his "rippling washboard abs and rigid physique". Personally, it's a major turn-off for a character's page.

This is my personal take on the appearance section and the steps I go through when writing:

I break things into four paragraphs and generally like to have at least one image in there that shows off the character's clothing. Occasionally when the content is good, I find a second image showing an alternate outfit or their physique. These images should be at 230px or smaller.


 * a brief introduction to their physical appearance, 1-3 sentences, gives off the general vibes and the basics one would see at first glance.
 * Hair and eyes. For eyes, their shape, color, eyelashes, if it's relevant size of pupils. Are the bloodshot? Do they have bags Heterochromia? Blind? etc. For the hair, go into the texture and color as well as how they style it. Do they ever put their hair up? Do they have bangs and a habit of pushing them out of their face? etc.
 * Third paragraph is about the shape of the face, body and physical features. Is their face angled? Prominent cheekbones? Baby cheeks? small nose? large forehead? You decide! Are they tall? Short? Thin? Thick? Skin tone? What's their normal posture like? What's their figure? Are the muscular? if so where? Do they have scars, tattoos, beauty marks or other anomalies?
 * Final paragraph is all about what they wear. What are they most commonly seen wearing? What's their sense of style? Choice of colors? Any common alternate outfits like combat clothes or formal clothes? Do they have any significant items on their persons at all times, magical or sentimental? For items that are included in the equipment section or as a product of one of their magics, remember to only focus on their physical appearance for about a sentence- save the more intricate detail for the item's dedicated place.

Like I said, that's my personal process for writing appearances, there's a number of ways you can do it but overall I'd say that they don't need to be incredibly long tributes to your character's physical appearance. Detailed enough so you can picture them in your mind, but there's no need to spend three paragraphs on body worship.

Example
There are a few differences in describing female and male appearances, so I have provided two of my own example descriptions of different characters straight from their pages, Kevin Oreki and Jazz Adams, complete with images.

The main difference lies in paragraph three on how I have described their body. In Kevin's, it focuses more on his tattoo. While on Jazz's, I included her scar and figure features that are more accented on women.

In Your Content
When describing appearance in story content, there is no need to use as much detail as you would in the appearance section of their page. A simple paragraph is fine when you're introducing them at first, but beyond that, you never need to bring their appearance back to the forefront unless it is something to be noticed, such as an outfit change or a haircut. If you do it otherwise, it gets repetitive and takes away from the general flow of the story.

Another note for involving appearance in content is Cut the epithets. There's no need to refer to your character as "the older man, the tall woman, the loan shark, the red-head" unless it is relevant in the context or you're drawing attention to that point and don't do it often. Honestly, when addressing your characters you should use their name or pronouns over 90% of the time. The only exception to the "epithet rule" is when you're purposly leaving the character unnamed to the reader- and then just pick one epithet, or a nickname another character has given them "piggy, tall guy," etc.

That's all for this time. I'm pretty sure I covered everything glaringly important to say and helped y'all. If you've got any extra questions or would like some more streamlined help on something feel free to ask in the comments, on the talk page or on discord and if I've got the time I'll try to help to the best of my abilities.

Until next time, ~Liza (Queen of Swords and Stars)