Using real life person comparitive references to describe character attributes

[Nexte100]

I've used it on occasion to broadly describe a body part or particularly distinctive feature by comparison, but I wouldn't use it for facial comparison or anything specific of a whole person. I'm trying to straddle the line between giving a vivid picture of what I'm describing while attempting to avoid over-constraining the reader with a visualization they might not find attractive or interesting. I realize some readers want to project themselves or other persons of reference into a story, and I want to allow that to happen, but sometimes it helps to give texture to a particular scene or character. Ex. describing a slim male character with muscle definition in t-shirt and jeans, described as "having seen Adam Levine rock the look in several of his music videos."

A picture, even if mental, is worth a thousand words, right?

Any thoughts on this? Mistake, or A-OK?

 

[GinnyPPC]

I've used it on occasion to broadly describe a body part or particularly distinctive feature by comparison, but I wouldn't use it for facial comparison or anything specific of a whole person. I'm trying to straddle the line between giving a vivid picture of what I'm describing while attempting to avoid over-constraining the reader with a visualization they might not find attractive or interesting. I realize some readers want to project themselves or other persons of reference into a story, and I want to allow that to happen, but sometimes it helps to give texture to a particular scene or character. Ex. describing a slim male character with muscle definition in t-shirt and jeans, described as "having seen Adam Levine rock the look in several of his music videos."

A picture, even if mental, is worth a thousand words, right?

Any thoughts on this? Mistake, or A-OK?

You will probably find a wide array of opinions here, but personally I don't like it. Just describe what is important and let me fill in the rest.

 

[Euphony]

You're risk is always bringing along unwanted baggage along with the description.
The comparisons are going to usually be to the positive (unless you are writing elephant man fetish) so if the reader doesn't hold this opinion or worse, holds a negative opinion, you've made more work for yourself (with that reader) making that character likeable.
Unless it's fanfic, I usually don't invite comparisons, instead focusing on how other characters react to this person's attributes while hopefully leaving enough imagination room for anyone remotely interested in that trait in a person to still stay aboard.
If the characters personality is defined by, say, having smallish breasts or unfeminine hips/bottom compared to her peers, then I may lose some breasts and ass men.
If I write her well enough, though, that should be of little consequence to most and a healthy boon to those people who get who she is now because of how others see/saw her.

TL: DR: Quick and easy famous person matching usually costs me more than it saves so I only use it for quick and dirty descriptions of minor characters (as it also reinforces their status by me pigeonholing them as of no interest beyond they kinda look like somebody.)

 

[jaF0]

A picture, even if mental, is worth a thousand words, right?

Not really, no. Tell the story. Don't get hung up on how the characters look. Let the reader use their imagination. You might think this Levin guy (whoever that is), but maybe the reader would be more interested in a John Candy type appearance.

Other than a vague reference to height, build or hair color, I rarely describe characters at all.

 

[NotWise]

Ex. describing a slim male character with muscle definition in t-shirt and jeans, described as "having seen Adam Levine rock the look in several of his music videos."

You've already described him with "slim male characters with muscular definition."

I'd have to Google "Adam Levine" to understand the reference. Don't make me do that because I won't.

 

[TadOverdon]

Like most questions here, the careful answer is "It can work sometimes."

What you're talking about specifically here makes more sense and is most plausible if you're writing first person. The POV sustains asides and idiosyncratic associations more comfortably IMO.

 

[Nexte100]

Other than a vague reference to height, build or hair color, I rarely describe characters at all.

I find this fascinating, because I really dislike when authors do this. I suppose this speaks to why I write the way I do, because I value a very detailed depiction of a scene, whether it includes character, a setting, a scent, or a texture, I like to feel like I'm *in* the story. When I read a story about a short male character that's thin, and another of medium build, and of a female with closely cropped hair, they might as well be Character A, B, and C to me. I just can't get immersed. It'd be like reading about France but having its culture described in terms of the actions of a people at a macro level without describing architecture, food, music, and individuals.

Just my 2c. I appreciate your viewpoint.

 

[Euphony]

I find this fascinating, because I really dislike when authors do this. I suppose this speaks to why I write the way I do, because I value a very detailed depiction of a scene, whether it includes character, a setting, a scent, or a texture, I like to feel like I'm *in* the story. When I read a story about a short male character that's thin, and another of medium build, and of a female with closely cropped hair, they might as well be Character A, B, and C to me. I just can't get immersed. It'd be like reading about France but having its culture described in terms of the actions of a people at a macro level without describing architecture, food, music, and individuals.

Just my 2c. I appreciate your viewpoint.

As long as you recognize the bet you are placing, it's your call.

If you say a city is "like Toulouse" you need your readers to
a) know what Toulouse is like
b) find all those associates as positives

There is a middle path between substituting a stars name for physical description and building a dossier worthy of the CIA.

Reading has sort of an "implied imagination" baked into the format.
You can certainly swim against that current but just be clear eyed you are doing it.

 

[TadOverdon]

Different writers approach description differently. What do your favorite fiction writers do? I don't mean other writers on the site, but the writers you like most in the world? That, along with you own intuition, will give you the answer you're most likely going to like living with.

 

[Nexte100]

You've already described him with "slim male characters with muscular definition."

I'd have to Google "Adam Levine" to understand the reference. Don't make me do that because I won't.

If it wasn't clear, I was giving an example by explaining for the benefit of this particular discussion what I was trying to describe alongside the reference. The original story obviously did not include the "slim male character with muscle definition" as well as the character reference...

 

[Payne_Hall]

I generally hate using a reference like that. But there has been instances where it’s fit in writing. There’s two moments I can think of where I’ve used it and it seemed to work. One was a first person perspective story where the character was a cinephile.

The other was the perspective of a guy born blind who enjoyed listening to shows and movies, so his best friend was trying to give him an idea of how he looked to other people, since he didn’t know and used the only reference he could think of that might have meaning to blind guy.

From my understanding, the general rule is to use descriptors instead of comparisons. But, arguably, part of the fun of writing is figuring out when to break the rules Stephen King has just straight up switched to a second person perspective in the dead middle of a paragraph before, too, and you’re definitely not supposed to do that.

Edited to say: I might have used it other times. I just don’t remember them offhand

 

[NotWise]

If it wasn't clear, I was giving an example by explaining for the benefit of this particular discussion what I was trying to describe alongside the reference. The original story obviously did not include the "slim male character with muscle definition" as well as the character reference...

Fan Fiction is the only case where it makes sense to use a reference like that. If you aren't writing Adam Levine fan fiction then you should probably stick to the physical. Otherwise that's a weak descriptive crutch.

Being me, I might describe the way he moves.

 

[RetroFan]

I will in stories set in the past to establish the setting back then.

For example, in a recent story I wrote set in 1981 the female narrator says that her hair is styled like British singer Kim Wilde, who was very popular at this time. A story I wrote last year was set mainly at a high school in California in 1960, and I note that the unruly students don't give two teachers a hard time; a young female teacher who looks like Sandra Dee and a young male teacher who looks like Frankie Avalon. Sandra Dee and Frankie Avalon were both popular teen idols in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Sometimes I'll do it for humour, in another story a college guy looking to extract revenge on a fat bully says that the bully 'makes Jabba the Hutt look like Karen Carpenter'.

 

[SamScribble]

From personal experience I’d say that it’s usually a mistake to make characters too specific. You need to create believable characters, but readers tend to want fill in the details themselves. And if you say Adam Levine to me, I have no idea what I’m supposed to think. So I can skip over the reference or I can Google ‘Adam Levine’. Either way, you’ve just tripped me up.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's a really interesting question. Here's what I would do. If you imagine the character as looking like Adam Levine, then go through the mental exercise of thinking through what Adam Levine looks like. Come up with metaphors or adjectives or descriptions of physical characteristics. Then, describe your character in those terms, rather than comparing him to Adam Levine.

If you want to describe a physique, I'd suggest comparing it to a type of athlete rather than to a particular celebrity. Does he have the bulging muscles of a boxer, or the lean hardness of a triathlete? Does his body move with the grace of a dancer? These are more universal comparisons than comparisons to a particular celebrity.

 

[KeithD]

I just wrote a transvestite putting on her Marilyn Monroe wig. I don't think I'll erase that.

 

[NotWise]

I just wrote a transvestite putting on her Marilyn Monroe wig. I don't think I'll erase that.

You can use Marilyn Monroe references pretty freely, but I wonder if many people younger than me get anything other than an old, vague cultural reference.

 

[KeithD]

You can use Marilyn Monroe references pretty freely, but I wonder if many people younger than me get anything other than an old, vague cultural reference.

Beats me. I do. They can look it up if they're curious. They might have to look up "platinum" too if you used eight flat words to describe a Marilyn Monroe wig look.

By all means, though, you guys do you.

I think it's a circumstance-specific balancing act, neither all of this nor all of the other.

 

[Rustyoznail]

The only time I've made a reference (so far...) to a real person is when one character is trying to explain to another what a third looked like...

 

[Nexte100]

As long as you recognize the bet you are placing, it's your call.

If you say a city is "like Toulouse" you need your readers to
a) know what Toulouse is like
b) find all those associates as positives

There is a middle path between substituting a stars name for physical description and building a dossier worthy of the CIA.

Reading has sort of an "implied imagination" baked into the format.
You can certainly swim against that current but just be clear eyed you are doing it.

What's to say that we aim for a positive association with a description? It's a description, nothing more, nothing less. The salty waters of the dead sea are...salty and wet; nothing more. If one person views this negatively and another positively, so be it. I see character descriptions much the same way.

Regarding risk taking, I've found that - contrary to what others here have indicated they would do - if I'm invested in a story, and an author gives a description of a place or person or event that I'm not familiar with, I'll absolutely google it. If I haven't hooked a reader enough to compel them to do so, then that's on me. Context is key, of course, and needs to be relied upon to some degree: (ex. "her rounded buttocks were more tantalizing to my eye than Kim Kardashian's voluptuous form") to understand intent. If none at all is given, then yes, this device is useless and frustrating (ex. "their sensor scan of the foreign world revealed a magnetic field as bizarre as that of Taurus B").

As to your comment about implied imagination, I think you misunderstand the degree to which I'm talking about employing this device. If I use it to describe a particular look of a particular character in a particular outfit in a story with well over a dozen characters, many settings, and multiple detailed outfits, does this still mean what you think it means? If I described my MC simply as "Brad Pitt" and his two best friends as "Eric Bana" and "Taylor Swift", then I'd agree 100%, but there's nuance here that isn't being recognized at all.

Edit: another thing not being recognized here regarding positive/negative associations is the fact that certain readers will just dislike certain character types, body attributes, features, settings, etc, and there's nothing you can do about that. Short of leaving all of that out entirely - which I've already said I would never do because I do not believe a story is complete with this level of description - you're never going to please everyone. A male character with tiny hands, whether described through association or by using clever descriptive terms, is still going appear inferior (at least in part) to women who would prefer a male with large hands.

 

[NotWise]

Beats me. I do. They can look it up if they're curious. They might have to look up "platinum" too if you used eight flat words to describe a Marilyn Monroe wig look.

By all means, though, you guys do you.

I think it's a circumstance-specific balancing act, neither all of this nor all of the other.

Framed her sweet red lips in platinum waves.

 

[LAHomedog]

I say it's OK depending upon how you use it and who you refer to.

For me in the right context, "Cute like a young Meg Ryan," would work depending upon the context.

"Cute like Shiri Appleby." I don't know who that is. Doesn't work for me.

(I'll admit I Google actresses in TV shows I don't watch. Long list...)

 

[RetroFan]

On a related note, when you are writing stories do you ever 'see' real actors and actresses playing different characters in your story as you type it, sort of like a movie playing in your mind?

 

[Omenainen]

I'd advise against this. If you want to describe characters to a level of detail, do it, but in more general terms. I don't share a culture with any of you guys (as far as I know), so references to all but the most well known celebrities of any kind are not going to say anything for me. It would alienate me, and if I'd have to leave for Google it's likely I wouldn't come back.

I don't go into much detail because I'm not that visual myself, but I don't mind reading detailed descriptions. Just that if you use references I don't get as a shortcut, that leads me nowhere, and chances are I'll get lost.

 

[Bramblethorn]

We've had similar discussions previously. One recurring theme from those discussions is that most of the RL figures who authors want to use as references are less universally recognisable than those authors might think.

(I thought I knew what Adam Levine looked like, but it turned out I was actually thinking of Andy Samberg from Lonely Island. Thanks a bunch, memory.)