Shortcut to physical description

[LaRascasse]

I've read in several stories how a character is simply described as "he/she looked like <insert celebrity>" as a whole physical description. Leave aside any details of their face, build etc. all I have now is a clone of someone I have to Google.

Have any of you tried it as an alternative to a full description? Even a partial match of the sort... "he had the gnarled face, reminiscent of Marv from Sin City coupled with the athletic build..."

 

[PennLady]

I haven't, much. Partly because the celebrities I like are probably a little older and I'm not sure how many readers would recognize them. I remember using Angela Bassett as a basis/comparison for a character in one story. No one complained, but I did wonder how many people knew what Angela Bassett looked like.

I'd say it's the kind of thing you can't really figure out. Some people will like that kind of description, and some will not. Some will recognize the celebrity, and some will not, but you can't help that. You can only go with it, maybe play the odds, if you will. But there's nothing wrong with using that as a way of describing someone.

My physical descriptions tend to be kind of thin, or brief, anyway. I don't think it's something I'm very good at, nor do I find that a lot of detail helps me envision the character. So I try to give some basic info and let the reader take it from there.

 

[Weird Harold]

Since that kind of lazy description seldom has any meaning to me, I don't inflict it on readers.

 

[LaRascasse]

I'd say it's the kind of thing you can't really figure out. Some people will like that kind of description, and some will not. Some will recognize the celebrity, and some will not, but you can't help that. You can only go with it, maybe play the odds, if you will. But there's nothing wrong with using that as a way of describing someone.

Too many times, I've had to visit Google Images to get "okay.. that's what she's supposed to look like."

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I haven't used that technique and don't believe I will. However, I've written with partners who needed a real person as the character, at least for their physical descriptions. So, we swapped pictures of various famous people until we settled on someone. Did it inform my writing? No, I don't think so.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'm sure many readers of my 'period' pieces are puzzled when I say a guy wears "Goldwater glasses". I'm also sure many readers are puzzled by the ethnic descriptions I use. How many have firm mental images of Ojibway and Zapotec women? I can probably use Levantine or Saxon or Sicilian more effectively.

I dare not try "looks-sounds-acts like <specific modern celeb>" because (as my avatar header indicates) I don't watch TV and am thus culturally deprived re: contemporary faces and voices. So I depend on other shortcuts: sharp features, or an oval face, or whatever. Unless I have a good reason to closely describe someone, I let the readers imagine whatever faces they want within my rough guidelines.

Sometimes I just slowly let the description ooze out, bit by bit, as with Randy in THAT'S MY GIRL. I rather like the trick RA Heinlein used in STARSHIP TROOPERS; we're most of the way through the book before we learn that Johnny is Filipino.

 

[SikFuk]

Once in a while I do that, but I don't rely on it. It's got to sound natural.

"The red dress and lipstick transformed her into Angelina Jolie, which made it even harder for me to get up the nerve to say 'hi'."

In this case it's more than just a physical description, it's a look into the narrator's character.

As someone mentioned in another thread, noting one striking detail can say more about a character's physical presence than an actual physical description. I'd give you an example, but I'm not that good of a writer.

Okay, here's one I got off the interwebs:

She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and had forgotten to say "when".

Or:

Her arched eyebrows told me everything I needed to know about her mood that morning.

Or:

He was rather large for his size.

Or:

He looked as if he'd made one too many trips to the doughnut shop.

Now we know enough about the character to not care exactly what they look like.

 

[sr71plt]

The "Betty Davis Eyes" technique has its uses, yes.

 

[lovecraft68]

Once in a while I do that, but I don't rely on it. It's got to sound natural.

"The red dress and lipstick transformed her into Angelina Jolie, which made it even harder for me to get up the nerve to say 'hi'."

In this case it's more than just a physical description, it's a look into the narrator's character.

As someone mentioned in another thread, noting one striking detail can say more about a character's physical presence than an actual physical description. I'd give you an example, but I'm not that good of a writer.

Okay, here's one I got off the interwebs:

She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and had forgotten to say "when".

Or:

Her arched eyebrows told me everything I needed to know about her mood that morning.

Or:

He was rather large for his size.

Or:

He looked as if he'd made one too many trips to the doughnut shop.

Now we know enough about the character to not care exactly what they look like.

I don't get the one about "large for his size"

Anyway I never use a celeb description because the banality of TMZ and societies obsession with celebs annoys me so I make my characters look like .....them.

I recall one I used to describe a rather disgusting individual

"He smiled, revealing a set of teeth that would drive a dentist to drink"

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I've read in several stories how a character is simply described as "he/she looked like <insert celebrity>" as a whole physical description. Leave aside any details of their face, build etc. all I have now is a clone of someone I have to Google.

Have any of you tried it as an alternative to a full description? Even a partial match of the sort... "he had the gnarled face, reminiscent of Marv from Sin City coupled with the athletic build..."

I can say with complete confidence that I would never describe a character that way, and if we're to read that type of lazy description in a story I would most likely click out of it.

That does not necessarily mean I would never have one character describe someone that way, but it would have to someone who is universally known. For example:

"Was Larry at the reunion?"

"Unfortunately, yes. He was handsome in high school, but thirty years later his features are so bloated he resembles Marlon Brandon in 'Apocalypse Now.' I don't know how he could let himself go like that."

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I can say with complete confidence that I would never describe a character that way, and if we're to read that type of lazy description in a story I would most likely click out of it.

That does not necessarily mean I would never have one character describe someone that way, but it would have to someone who is universally known. For example:

"Was Larry at the reunion?"

"Unfortunately, yes. He was handsome in high school, but thirty years later his features are so bloated he resembles Marlon Brandon in 'Apocalypse Now.' I don't know how he could let himself go like that."

Even the Marlon Brando reference can get lost on lots of people. I'm impressed with good uses of references. It does beg the question, though, is the reader required to see a character the same as I? I mean, setting aside crazy things like - say, I'm writing about a little person and I omit mentioning that to the reader.

Otherwise, I'm pretty content to let the reader pick a description from their mind. Maybe that's something I should work on.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'll sometimes write with a RL person in mind as a visual reference, and I've been known to use them as a starting point for personality too when dealing with minor characters. In "Stringed Instrument" I needed Yvonne to have a housemate, I didn't want to spend hours nutting out the personality and backstory for somebody who wasn't going to play a big role in the story, so I just made him Eugene Hütz (or rather, my unresearched idea of what Eugene might be like as a housemate) with a few changes and didn't tell anybody.

But I wouldn't use celebrity resemblance as a shortcut to description:

#1 - I don't focus much on physical description anyway
#2 - My readers won't necessarily recognise the same people I do, and if they do they may not focus on the same traits
#3 - RL celebrities can bring baggage that you don't want.

I've seen several stories that described the woman as looking like Anna Nicole Smith. When I first encountered them it just felt like bad writing - people who wanted to write a fantasy about ANS but were afraid of getting sued if they went beyond "looks like", maybe? But now it's creepy in a way those authors wouldn't have intended, because ANS is dead.

And god help you if you described the loveable wacky uncle as a Jimmy Saville/Rolf Harris type...

 

[Bramblethorn]

"Unfortunately, yes. He was handsome in high school, but thirty years later his features are so bloated he resembles Marlon Brandon in 'Apocalypse Now.' I don't know how he could let himself go like that."

Even the Marlon Brando reference can get lost on lots of people.

Yeah, universal cultural references aren't as universal as they seem. About two-thirds of people in the world today weren't even born when "Apocalypse Now" was released, let alone old enough to watch it.

I think this particular example works, though. It's dialogue between two people who presumably would recognise the reference, and there's enough info included for those who haven't seen AN to get the gist of it.

 

[glynndah]

The "Betty Davis Eyes" technique has its uses, yes.

Bette.

 

[sr71plt]

Bette.

Right you are.

 

[lovecraft68]

The "Betty Davis Eyes" technique has its uses, yes.

For a certain Generation, not to many young people know her and if they do its from that Kim Carnes song.

 

[sr71plt]

For a certain Generation, not to many young people know her and if they do its from that Kim Carnes song.

It's the term for this writing technique in literary devices, which is why I put it in quotes (although I misspelled Bette). It's what they refer to in modern literature when those identifications are used. And the phrase pops up in more than that song--you'll find it dropped in moves and TV scripts from time to time. You'd probably have to take a course in literature to encounter it as a term.

I think the crowd here is being a bit too dismissive of the use of such shortcuts. If you write to the lowest common denominator in everything, you are producing pabulum.

There's no reason you couldn't have a character refer to another character as Lady MacBeth. It wouldn't hurt the reader to do a little bit of independent research that takes them beyond their narrow constructs. (And, guess what, you encounter this in writing all the time. It's called educating yourself.)

 

[MSTarot]

I have done this a few times.

Thing is we do this a lot in normal day to day conversations. The "You know who he kind of reminds me of?" conversation.

I've used it more in very short stories, it make for a quicker intro, with fewer words used.

My suggestion though is not to just use it once, refer back to it. Not too often as that becomes pester-some.

MST

 

[LaRascasse]

And god help you if you described the loveable wacky uncle as a Jimmy Saville/Rolf Harris type...

A bit too loveable, eh? ;-)

 

[SikFuk]

I don't get the one about "large for his size"...

It's satirical. I used it in a song I wrote about an old dog. In that context, you can almost see an overweight dog exerting an enormous amount of effort trying to climb up onto the couch. (dog smilie)

 

[Sammael Bard]

I don't like authors getting away with a "he/she looked like ______". That comes off as lazy, and as other posters above me pointed it out, most readers might not get the cultural reference at all.

As a reader, I like to make my own mental image of the character. What the author finds stunning might be 'blah' in my opinion and vice versa.

In the end, it all depends on how the author pulls it off. I've read a story where the author gives a brief description of the lady and cements that into your brain over the course of the story. I really loved it. The downside was that, he made a comparison with an actress that I hadn't heard of before.

I was quite dissapointed when I saw her pic, because the woman conjured by my mental eyes was far more beautiful than the actual person. Needless to say, I lost my initial excitement regarding the story and was mildly dissapointed.

 

[Hypoxia]

Wait, I just remembered -- I once *did* describe a mother and daughter as looking like different-age versions of Audrey Hepburn. I am so ashamed...

 

[PennLady]

I don't like authors getting away with a "he/she looked like ______". That comes off as lazy, and as other posters above me pointed it out, most readers might not get the cultural reference at all.

As a reader, I like to make my own mental image of the character. What the author finds stunning might be 'blah' in my opinion and vice versa.

Well I don't think there's anything wrong with it per se. It's the author's choice on how to describe, or not, a character. Sometimes that can give a reader a take on a character: She had eyes like so-and-so, he had a voice like X, she resembled a young Y, that sort of thing.

It's not my favorite method of reading or writing about character descriptions, but it can be a tool like any other.

 

[Sammael Bard]

Well I don't think there's anything wrong with it per se. It's the author's choice on how to describe, or not, a character. Sometimes that can give a reader a take on a character: She had eyes like so-and-so, he had a voice like X, she resembled a young Y, that sort of thing.

It's not my favorite method of reading or writing about character descriptions, but it can be a tool like any other.

I have no problem whatsoever. It all lies in the way the author pulls it off.

I may have been one sided with my view. I've read stories where I didn't mind a bit of comparison with movie stars at all.

My judgement scale may be a bit against such comparisons, but it really is a small part in a story. Anything may work fine as long as you plant the image into the reader's mind successfuly.

 

[jehoram]

I've read in several stories how a character is simply described as "he/she looked like <insert celebrity>" as a whole physical description. Leave aside any details of their face, build etc. all I have now is a clone of someone I have to Google.

Have any of you tried it as an alternative to a full description? Even a partial match of the sort... "he had the gnarled face, reminiscent of Marv from Sin City coupled with the athletic build..."

I've used that device a few times. I think it's natural for a character in my stores to see a superficial resemblance to a celebrity, and then note the differences. I think we all do that. Yeah, it's a form of shorthand, and could be seen as lazy writing, but for me the point is to get to the meat of the story as quickly as possible by giving the reader a quick reference.

And it's possible to go overboard. "She had Bette Davis eyes, Betty Grable legs, and Betty Rubble's infectious giggle." That turns the character into a sort of Mrs. Potato Head, with lots of features stuck onto a single frame. It becomes a distraction, derailing the story instead of propelling it.