Thoughts on character descriptions?

A lot of stories start with character descriptions, sometimes down to the exact measurements, so you can know what you're masturbating to. They kind of read like a list of adjectives. Are character descriptions like this actually a good writing strategy? Do you read them? Do you prefer when stories have these descriptions?

I personally never read the character descriptions because I almost never find them sexually interesting. I also don't really think they're fun to write. Buttt, more so than I find character descriptions boring sexually and artistically, I'm interested in writing porn that a variety of different people can find sexually gratifying.

Depends on who is reading it and what their preferences are. If you're writing pure masturbation material, I suppose that works.

awpbmn said:

A lot of stories start with character descriptions, sometimes down to the exact measurements, so you can know what you're masturbating to. They kind of read like a list of adjectives. Are character descriptions like this actually a good writing strategy? Do you read them? Do you prefer when stories have these descriptions?

I personally never read the character descriptions because I almost never find them sexually interesting. I also don't really think they're fun to write. Buttt, more so than I find character descriptions boring sexually and artistically, I'm interested in writing porn that a variety of different people can find sexually gratifying.

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I try to keep my descriptions intentionally vague. I want people to visualize features and bodies that they find appealing and not chain them to a physical characteristics list. I usually don't mention anything beyond hair color and a quick summary of body type (curvy vs slender for women, height for men and women, etc).

"Listy" descriptions right at the beginning of a story are fine I guess, but I almost never read them. When I'm reading a story for carnal pleasure I almost always fill in the characters with myself and real and imaginary people I find attractive.

Megamuffin said:

When I'm reading a story for carnal pleasure I almost always fill in the characters with myself and real and imaginary people I find attractive.

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Same. Although even then, the thing I find most sexually engaging is always the situation the characters are in and how they feel about that situation, and not what they look like exactly.

awpbmn said:

Buttt, more so than I find character descriptions boring sexually and artistically, I'm interested in writing porn that a variety of different people can find sexually gratifying.

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I don't give specs. Sometimes descriptions come out right at the beginning of a story, and sometimes they get filled in as needed. The descriptions are vague unless I have some reason to create a very specific impression.

If your intent is to write outright porn, then you probably need to be as specific in your descriptions as you can be. Something like, "Ten inches of hard, throbbing flesh as big around as a tuna can," might work. Porn readers seem to want that. Romance readers, maybe not so much.

awpbmn said:

Same. Although even then, the thing I find most sexually engaging is always the situation the characters are in and how they feel about that situation, and not what they look like exactly.

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If the visuals were the important thing, we'd just watch porn, right? I agree. I like the situations and the uncoupling from certain limitations of reality.

As with nearly everything that has to do with writing or any creative endeavor, I think the answer is: it depends.

I dislike stories that start this way:

"Let me tell you about my hot wife. She's 5 foot 5 inches, size 2, with 36 inch DD breasts and platinum blond hair and a bubble butt. She wears tiny skirts to show off her shapely legs and noticeable thigh gap."

A lot of stories start with something like this. I think it's a poor way to write.

Generally speaking, I agree with others here who think measurements are unnecessary. There's nothing wrong with wanting to convey that a character's breasts are large, but measurements are unnecessary. Describe them without numbers, giving your readers the opportunity to fill in the blanks and decide for themselves what large breasts are.

That said, in some cases references to measurements may be OK, such as where the characters in the story have fetishistic interests in such things. But in that case, weave the measurements through the story rather than announcing them in the opening paragraph.

I think this rule applies not just to physical characteristics but all characteristics. Show, don't tell, but don't show everything in the opening paragraph.

Despite everything I've said above, there are readers who really want to know exactly what the hot wife's bra size is, and if you don't tell them they will be disappointed. I have received comments to this effect before.

awpbmn said:

A lot of stories start with character descriptions, ...

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I've actually started a story that starts with a literal "reward poster" as filled out by the daughter of a paranoid mother. I never finished it because I just couldn't make the premise work.

Such infodump descriptions are also sometimes known as "Penthouse Letter Style" stories -- which is NOT intended as a compliment.

As an author, I would recommend that you describe your characters in the same way you get to know a person in real life; a little bit at a time. I think most people are like you and skip over the "reward poster" to just get on with the story.

FWIW, a descriptive technique that is even worse in my opinion is describing a character as "He/she looked exactly like (some actor or pop star I've never heard of )"

I look a lot like Jack Hawthorn, except I have red hair, am seven feet three inches tall and weigh forty seven stone...

Not every person deals with the same measuring systems. I have no idea about pounds for weight or currency except that 14 pounds equal one stone and two point two pounds equal a kilogram and four farthings equal one penny, twelve pennies equal one shilling and twenty shillings equal one pound or two dollars equal one pound- but not in the U.K. where one pound equals one new pound...

I have always been aware that how a person looks isn't a great guide to their charactor. Generalisations can be useful, like that tall people are often ponderous and slow without a lot of endurance. However, some of the best footballers are tall. ( Usually they aren't expected to do a lot of the work that requires agility though.) Exceptions, exceptions, they mess up the rules.

I think charactor is related to what one does and simply by telling a story the necessary charactor is sufficiently revealed. One can throw in a few more adjectives to support the story but it can destroy the immediacy of the story and frequently what the author thinks is a supportive adjective doesn't work at all. Like every parent an author doesn't see their baby as others do.

What I really do dislike is when the author stops the story, delivers a lecture ( Dear reader, .....) and then starts the story again. This often happens when the weights and measures are delivered, without the embellishment of Dear reader, mercifully.

Weird Harold said:

FWIW, a descriptive technique that is even worse in my opinion is describing a character as "He/she looked exactly like (some actor or pop star I've never heard of )"

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Agreed. I never leave low ratings, but in that case I'd be tempted.

There’s a tradition of writing erotica this way, I suppose it’s a bit “Dear Penthouse Forum...”

Personally I hate it, but it’s certainly not off-putting to all readers.

I'm not above describing characters early on in a story, but I try to not be so factual about it when I do. If someone attracted to the character is describing them, they will often use somewhat romanticized terms- 'Her body was an erotic fantasy for me, tall and statuesque, with a glorious bust and long, golden locks. Her dancing sapphire eyes and radiant smile lit up a room when she entered it.'

The 'Dear Penthouse' approach strikes me as a little unimaginative. If you're going to use it, be inventive with it.

If you want to describe a person in detail, once again, be inventive- ask the girl how tall she is, how large her bust is, etc.

Otherwise, take some time and spread it out over a while in the story. I find it more interesting that way.

Buuuuut, as has already been articulated, for quick fap stories, to the point is probably what the reader wants, right? Different strokes, so to speak...

This subject arose a year or two ago. said that I reckoned to give too much information (his dick was 8 inches or her rack was a 38GG was pointless and so on.
A reply to my comment indicated that there ARE readers who like (need?) this information.

And as for the size of her tits, my ol' Grandad got it right : "A handful if enough".

I've gotten a lot of comment which said that they've appreciated that I didn't go into much details about character looks, because it allowed them (readers) to imagine it themselves.

I try to describe everything else; personality, background, thoughts, etc... but i keep hair color and all that to a minimum usually.

But I do think it's important to describe sexual parts, ie nipple and labia color, because those are things people want to read about.

SimonDoom said:

I dislike stories that start this way:

"Let me tell you about my hot wife. She's 5 foot 5 inches, size 2, with 36 inch DD breasts and platinum blond hair and a bubble butt. She wears tiny skirts to show off her shapely legs and noticeable thigh gap."

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Agreed. I try to start my stories with a scene and a data dump like the above kills any narrative.

I generally describe the FMC at the first opportunity where it makes sense. The big thing to me is to make it just a sketch, a quick outline that the reader fills in with their own imagination. To me, the face is much more important than the body. A lot of times, I break up the description; starting with the face and then working downwards.

I'm trying to describe a character, not a body. Clothes are important if they advance the character description. In "My Lingerie-Loving Sister Moves In", the sister is a lawyer on the rise and she's dressed like it when I first describe her (which is eight paragraphs in).

SimonDoom said:

Generally speaking, I agree with others here who think measurements are unnecessary. There's nothing wrong with wanting to convey that a character's breasts are large, but measurements are unnecessary. Describe them without numbers, giving your readers the opportunity to fill in the blanks and decide for themselves what large breasts are.

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Agree. Mentioning bra size is problematic because (1) bra sizes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and (2) judging bra size is so hard that women frequently wear the wrong bra size.

SimonDoom said:

Despite everything I've said above, there are readers who really want to know exactly what the hot wife's bra size is, and if you don't tell them they will be disappointed. I have received comments to this effect before.

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I don't think I've ever gotten a comment requesting bra size.

awpbmn said:

A lot of stories start with character descriptions, sometimes down to the exact measurements, so you can know what you're masturbating to. They kind of read like a list of adjectives. Are character descriptions like this actually a good writing strategy? Do you read them? Do you prefer when stories have these descriptions?

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I don't go heavily into physical description unless it's somehow relevant to the story. Where I do describe, I tend to emphasise the aspects that tell us about personality, which usually means things that they chose rather than things they were born with. Measurements are a turn-off for me; mild physical description tends to slip by me unnoticed.

Weird Harold said:

I've actually started a story that starts with a literal "reward poster" as filled out by the daughter of a paranoid mother. I never finished it because I just couldn't make the premise work.

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I did that once:

REWARD OF $1000 OFFERED — to any person providing information leading to the location of Josephine Hart, late of Massachusetts, daughter of Mr and Mrs Joseph Hart. Miss Hart is aged twenty-three, five feet eight inches tall, with brown hair and green eyes. Small round scar on back of left hand, beauty mark above left eye. Last seen in Paris, July 19th.

That's probably the most physical description I've ever given one of my characters.

As I'm reader, I'm mostly okay with authors leaving unimportant details blank and letting the reader fill them in.

However, I think it's important that whatever details you do include, you include early on, as otherwise it's somewhat jarring to get halfway through the story, and then suddenly have a character start to be described as having huge/tiny breasts, being black, having flaming red hair or whatever, when you've been picturing them radically differently all along.

Also, the more characters you have, the more incumbent I think it is on the author to keep them distinct. If, for example, you're doing one of those "guy rescues five college students who he will inevitably have sex with" kind of stories, then you probably need to spend time at the beginning giving at least a capsule description (hair color/body type/some evident personality trait) of everyone to help the reader keep them straight.

I have had a few people email me to say they jerked off to my stories and I have yet to put exact measurements to any of my characters. I’d rather the readers insert their own measurements into those aspects. That way of thinking/writing has proven successful with my writing style and I doubt I will change itKant

That's neither "funny" nor strange. There are thousands of thousands of thousands separate readers using this Web site, all with individual likes and dislikes and perceptions of what they want to read and/or that turns them on. There is nothing funny or strange that the eternal answer to this frequently posed issue is "different strokes for different folks."

It would be interesting to find out if readers' visualisation of my characters is similar to my own. I rarely write explicit description (and most of my women are small-breasted and usually don't wear bras, let alone tell me what size), but do weave visual elements in as I go along, and I always have a very clear image in my mind as to what my characters look like. But I have no idea if my readers get an image that's close to mine - I suspect possibly not.

I tend not to put a lot of description unless the character is a real oddball or in some way has distinguishing characteristics.

electricblue66 said:

It would be interesting to find out if readers' visualisation of my characters is similar to my own.

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One of my stories provides this description of the female main character:

Her bearing was erect but her movements were still fluid. Her skin was pale but her eyes, like her hair, were dark. She seemed a little taller than most women, and she was thin but the muscles in her legs defined long, clear lines. She wore a sweatshirt and shorts—odd attire for early October.

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She was a ballet dancer.

One of the early comments on the story was that the reader enjoyed envisioning her as Darcy Bussell. I replied to the comment, because the lovely Ms. Bussell was one of several dancers I had in mind when I wrote the description. Another reader hunted up pictures of a young Darcy Bussell, and commented that she was exactly how they envisioned the character.

Spare descriptions can work, and making them work is one of the skills that's needed in writing short stories.

On the other hand, if you're writing porn, that description would do nothing for your reader. The OP was writing porn. My story was in Romance.

NotWise said:

...because the lovely Ms. Bussell was one of several dancers I had in mind when I wrote the description. Another reader hunted up pictures of a young Darcy Bussell, and commented that she was exactly how they envisioned the character.

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She's a "wow" - younger and older!

From Chapter Thirteen of My Fall and Rise :

I sat up and fumbled for my glasses on the coffee table.

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I realized as soon as I wrote the line that it was the first time I mentioned wearing glasses. In Chapter Thirteen.

That shows you how much emphasis I put on physical descriptions of characters.

Valint said:

<snip>However, I think it's important that whatever details you do include, you include early on, as otherwise it's somewhat jarring to get halfway through the story, and then suddenly have a character start to be described as having huge/tiny breasts, being black, having flaming red hair or whatever, when you've been picturing them radically differently all along.

Also, the more characters you have, the more incumbent I think it is on the author to keep them distinct. <snip>

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This reader has it right - if there's something unique about a character's appearance, reveal or hint at it early, before the reader conjures up their mental image of the character.

I'll leave most descriptions vague unless a certain trait is important to the storyline or if I'm going to use the trait as a descriptor later in the store.

Saying something like:
That informs the reader whose pussy he's eating without repeating a name. Can be very helpful for crowded group scenes.