*Lady Lucia* wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:34 pm
Hey, everyone --
I thought I'd start a discussion thread to avoid having my story bumped too many times at the cost of other new posts. And the big question is:
What are your thoughts on character descriptions?
Preferences, opinions, just general thoughts, etc. When reading and/or when writing, as sometimes it feels different from each perspective.
To get the ball rolling, I'll give my answer -- I tend to lean towards that middle ground. To me, a 'petite blonde girl' or a 'scrawny pale guy' more or less gives me a mental blur that my imagination can run with until other details are tossed in as they become relevant. Too much information tends to turn me off from a new story, especially when it's delivered with no finesse. 'Nora was 5'7 with shoulder length brunette hair, slender with a bit of tone, fair skin, blue eyes, 34C, a nice round ass that didn't fit her frame quite as well as her breasts, wearing dark blue jeans, a white tank top, etc. etc. etc.' Maybe a bit exaggerated, but you know what I mean. I'll still read it, of course, as I'm not a
total snob, but it's more that it's distracting even if such details might be important. Obviously this forum isn't for novel writing and not everyone wants to circle around details, but my personal favorites are when descriptions are peppered in over the course of the first 1-2 parts instead of a huge info dump in the first sentence.
The other extreme, however, is something I've started playing with recently. There's this great story on Literotica about a younger sister seducing her older sister's boyfriend, and I imagined her as a hot young blonde the whole time. Upon rereading it, I realized the writer hadn't described either sister or the guy at ALL. It's kind of an interesting concept, just letting the reader fill in every blank with their own preferences. For those that haven't noticed it, 'The Disguise' only references size due to its necessity to the story, but nothing else. I took it one step further with 'The Game,' as the MC only has an outfit mentioned as the story progresses. No description at all, and not even a name given so far. Mostly since the style and 1st person narrative allow the reader to put themselves in her shoes if they want. This extreme isn't something I plan on doing exclusively, but just a concept that some people might not have considered writing and/or might not have realized they were reading here and there. Most importantly, it's a fun counter to the over-describing I sometimes see here and other places.
But that's just me! Veteran writers and new writers alike, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this specific element of writing/reading ENF stories.
All the best,
Lady Lucia