Describing characters... necessary?

Detailed descriptions are typically a waste. The reader won't remember them all. It's pretty easy to get away with none, but since people usually fixate on a few physical details I prefer to do that as a way of expressing character and personality. You can get pretty far with stuff like "He was envious of her hair as she absent-mindedly used a lock of it to draw auburn circles on one of her perfect cheekbones."
 
No and were he real, Lecter would probably kill and eat your liver for thinking he would say such a thing.

I hope he likes it marinated in liquor. Anthony acted him well, I prefer Brian's version though. But I tend to die hard and although not a cannibal I do like my Chianti and would not mind roasting such a fellow over a fire.
 
Kinda like to describe at least a little early on. Especially details that will get repeated later on in the story. I feel it kinda takes me out of the story to have no idea what a character was wearing for example, for it to say 10 paragraphs in that she was wearing a mini-skirt the whole time.
 
I would keep the details to a minimum for another reason, one that nobody has brought up.

Picture for me, if you will, Helen of Troy, allegedly the most beautiful woman who ever lived. What does she look like? Size, shape, hair color, hair style, facial features, eye color, blablablah. How much of her can you describe? And how much of it can you count on The Reader agreeing with? "Yes, yes, that is what the face that launched a thousand ships looked like!" Yeah, that's what I thought.

Now, everyone has qualities they like, even if they don't fit their "ideal woman". My Helen has pale skin and dark hair, tied together by deep blue eyes... but my first love was blonde, and of course redheads are hot too and I've always wanted to date one. I like women who are less-endowed, but my most recent lover was a C-cup, decent handfuls, and I know I'll miss them. You can't have it all, not on one woman, and as such people have more than one "ideal" they go for. But I digress.

Because every Reader has qualities they like, you can allow them to fill in the blanks. When I say, "Shaina was heavy-hipped, with a clear roll to her stride, and a curtain of gold hair she liked to toss over her shoulder with a practiced motion," the woman you are seeing in your mind is not the same as the one I am seeing in mine. But the one you're seeing is more attractive to you, just like the one I'm seeing is more attractive to me. I've provided just enough information (if I've done my job right :rolleyes:) to engage the thing that every author wants to: your imagination. And if I succeed, then it--your imagination--will do a much better job of creating an attractive-looking character than I ever could. I mean, of course it is!--why on earth should it be the other way around? :)

So, that is my advice. Don't describe the character very much: create just enough of a coathanger that The Reader can take it and run with it. Let their imagination do the rest. Helen of Troy looks different in every single person's mind. Let her. :)

I think I agree with this most out of these posts - as a reader, describing 'a beautiful woman' throws a different picture to me than it would to someone else. This is probably particularly relevant in erotica; if I'm reading a scene between a couple described as being REALLY REALLY good looking, I'm picturing a surf blonde beauty, curvy and tanned, and a tall, slightly built man, not too hairy etc etc. Its a turn off to me if you describe the guy as being tall, dark and skinny.

Having said that, it is personal preference - I'd prefer it to be left to the imagination a little bit, in any kind of story, but especially in erotica. Definitely don't want to know bra size details or comparing boobs to various fruits (melons are the one I'm really thinking of...) I mean, personally, imagining a pair of melons on a girls chest is quite hilarious.
 
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