Character description
by Dan Krokos on Oct.31, 2009, under Uncategorized
A quick note on this while it’s in my head.
Some authors choose not to describe their main characters. Particularly if it’s a first person story.
Great, good. Don’t care.
What I care about is when the author decides to describe their character forty pages into the story.
Or sixty pages.
Or, gasp, one hundred and twenty pages.
Or, for the love of eff, in the second book of a series when the character wasn’t described at all in book one.
Wait, I say. I’ve already developed a version of this character in my head. He has black hair, not sandy hair. He has a strong jaw? What’s a strong jaw. HE’S SHORT? WTF?
Maybe I’m the only one, but this tears me out of a book.
Either give me a picture early on, or let me make up my own.
November 2nd, 2009 on 2:18 pm
I’m in complete agreement with you on this one. I got halfway through the second book in a series to find out that the protagonist had long blonde hair. Never before had that been mentioned. All along, I was picturing shoulder-length brunette. WTF, indeed.
November 3rd, 2009 on 10:50 am
I’m just suprised it doesn’t get picked up in editing.
November 10th, 2009 on 6:39 pm
So true!!