chat

8175 readers

534 users here now

Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.

As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.

Thank you and happy chatting!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Why are so many books utterly and totally lacking in physical descriptions of characters? (hexbear.net)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Bonus points if the author first mentions a specific trait, physical build, or whatever else halfway through the novel and totally fucks up my mental image.

I don't expect a biology model description for each character, but write me something brief and evocative of how they should look, you fucking dork author. I don't even know how tall she should be, her hair colour, anything. Why are you like this, author?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Idk, I read a lot and this is never an issue for me. Is it really such a hassle to reconstruct your mental image of something? I'm constantly considering and imagining characters as different builds, dressed differently, sounding differently, depending on how the context of the scene paints them. And by the end of the book I have a pretty firm mental image of what the character is like, born of a thousand iterations which finally and slowly merged into a cohesive whole.

You can just tell me what a character looks like down to the specific material of the buttons on their shirt, but that loses out on a certain amount of speculation and imagination. If a character who has so far had no reason to perform extraordinary physical feats suddenly finds it necessary--and possible--to lift an immense object, for example, my mental image is like "oh wait so he's jacked" which introduces a kind of 'twist' entirely in omission.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

It's not a massive hassle I guess, but I would rather have something firm to construct the mental image in my brain around, I guess. Plus sometimes context of the scene can paint characters in ways that contradict how I read them, subjectivity.

Again I'm not asking for detailed biology class models or tailor's receipts, just more than literally nothing. I like when I can glean details from the narrative like the strength example you give, but lots of novels don't even have that, y'know?