As a Author and Reader, do you like describing Looks and reading Looks?

[Five_Inch_Heels]

From a future submission:

"Well, he wasn’t wrong there. Taller than most women, trim, slim but not thin, I did turn heads quite a bit. From some time in Track at school and the amount of walking I did for exercise, my legs had been described as exceptional by quite a few people."


Also, referring to another character:


" “Hi, I’m Lexi and I’ll be helping coach you.”

WOW. I was shocked. Lexi was the most classically perfect California Blonde I’d ever seen in person. Stunning in every way. Sandy blonde hair to the middle of her back, she was wearing a very short coat dress and heels and it was pretty apparent there wasn’t much else.

I almost had to slap my brother to get his tongue off the floor."

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

From 'Mom and Me and ?' ....

"Mom was late which wasn’t unusual. What she was wearing was though. I’d never seen her like this. Wild hair, dramatic makeup and rings on every finger. Her sparkling silver dress was far too short and tight her mid 40s age, but the combined effect made her look like she wasn’t a day over 25. She commanded the attention of the room and the ire of many. You could hear the wows of admiration of some and gasps of disapproval of others. Mom took it all in stride though and blended in as best she could. After a few drinks she made her way out onto the dance floor and this is where things began to get interesting.

In her earlier years, she was a semi professional dancer and had won several local and regional competitions. The trophy room at home told her story with shelves and walls overloaded with her awards, ribbons, plaques and pictures."

Not a word about height, weight or bra size. Just painting a picture for others to fill in.

 

[GrantBricksly]

What about the character that the main character is fucking?

Same thing. All characters are left reasonably vague enough that you the reader can imagine yourself (or someone else) as any of the characters you wish. Want to be the main character, go for it. Want to be the character the main character is going to town on, that's OK too!

Again, it all comes down to how important it is for the plot. if the plot requires the character to be described a certain way...then I will do so. And sometimes it just does. Sometimes I need a tall, red headed woman with freckles and a broken arm. And maybe that makes it harder for you, the reader to imagine that character as you (or your dream crush) but, I needed that to drive the story forward...because that broken arm is going to cause her to do things in a way that forces certain situations that wouldn't otherwise happen. Those freckles are going to make her feel vulnerable in an awkward situation. And that red hair is going to make her stand out in the crown when she is walking through the crown at the convention later...

It's all about plot...

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Same thing. All characters are left reasonably vague enough that you the reader can imagine yourself (or someone else) as any of the characters you wish. Want to be the main character, go for it. Want to be the character the main character is going to town on, that's OK too!

Why stop there? Why not let the reader pick the setting and the plot too, the backstory, hell the sex positions? Is this choose-your-own-adventure? Who's writing this, you or the reader?

 

[GrantBricksly]

No, I'm the one writing it...I'm just writing it in such a way that the reader's imagination can be fully engaged.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

No, I'm the one writing it...I'm just writing it in such a way that the reader's imagination can be fully engaged.

Not really. Making the reader's imagination do all the work is not engaging the reader. To engage the reader you must meet him somewhere in the middle. Preferably, as the writer, you take your ideas over closer to his side of things, as it is your imagination that you are sharing with him. When you leave huge amounts to the reader's imagination, you are making him jump through the hoops. When a reader really wants to read, he wants a story, not a blank sheet of paper. Don't force him to come to you. That's a chore. What is the reader, the janitor? We don't want to give the reader a chore, we want to give him an amusement ride. It might be Sidewinder Roller Coaster or it might be the House of Horrors or it might be the Tunnel of Love, but we want to give a ride nonetheless.

To engage the reader's imagination and brain, it's better to give him puzzle pieces to fit together rather than give him a fill-in-the-blank. Fill-in-the-blank for the most part is just lazy writing.

Certainly, the type of story will dictate the amount of physical descriptions necessary. What are we writing here? Erotica. Oh gee, physical bodies matter in this genre more than any other! The amount of stories on lit where physical descriptions of sexual characters are not necessary is incredibly small.

 

[OddLove]

No, I'm the one writing it...I'm just writing it in such a way that the reader's imagination can be fully engaged.

As a reader, that's definitely the way I prefer it to be. As a writer, I find it difficult to do. But over time I've realized a story with a well fleshed out character (like life style, personality, motives, etc.) is much more satisfying for me as a reader. It's obviously different for some people, but I just can't get attached to a character or care about a character based off their looks. The only thing that's going to pull me into the story is if the characters feel real and make sense on a deeper level.

I can still enjoy a story if it describes looks though, as long is it doesn't feel forced/overdone and it's accomplished in a subtle way, which we've seen many examples just in this thread. So something like explaining the character is short while explaining something that actually drives the story forward works for me, example. "He was only doing track and field for the scholarship. His real passion was basketball, but when he stopped growing in his freshmen year of high school, he knew it wasn't his true calling."

It's just strong descriptions of characters don't get me immersed into a story, only the story, and interesting characters can do that for me. If I was more of a visual person, I could imagine needing strong descriptions of a characters looks in order to get immersed though. So I can only say what I like as a reader, thus try an do as a writer.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Which version?


Lexi was the most classically perfect California Blonde I’d ever seen in person.


Lexi was the most stereotypically perfect example of a statuesque California Blonde I’d ever seen in person.


Another version?

 

[GrantBricksly]

Not really. Making the reader's imagination do all the work is not engaging the reader. To engage the reader you must meet him somewhere in the middle. Preferably, as the writer, you take your ideas over closer to his side of things, as it is your imagination that you are sharing with him. When you leave huge amounts to the reader's imagination, you are making him jump through the hoops. When a reader really wants to read, he wants a story, not a blank sheet of paper. Don't force him to come to you. That's a chore. What is the reader, the janitor? We don't want to give the reader a chore, we want to give him an amusement ride. It might be Sidewinder Roller Coaster or it might be the House of Horrors or it might be the Tunnel of Love, but we want to give a ride nonetheless.

To engage the reader's imagination and brain, it's better to give him puzzle pieces to fit together rather than give him a fill-in-the-blank. Fill-in-the-blank for the most part is just lazy writing.

Certainly, the type of story will dictate the amount of physical descriptions necessary. What are we writing here? Erotica. Oh gee, physical bodies matter in this genre more than any other! The amount of stories on lit where physical descriptions of sexual characters are not necessary is incredibly small.

I have to respectfully disagree.

I can describe my characters a such:

Grant stepped through the door with an ease that belied the weight slung across his back. He carried himself like someone accustomed to shouldering more than just physical burdens—steady, unhurried, and always in control. The bag, worn but well-maintained, thudded lightly against his spine as he moved, a quiet testament to the kind of life that required both strength and preparedness.

Jacky looked up from the couch, her gaze sharp and observant even in its warmth. There was a stillness to her that wasn't laziness but composure, like she knew how to bide her time and make every movement count. Her smile came slowly, deliberately, as if weighing whether this was a moment worth softening for—and deciding it was.

"Hey babe, need any help?"

"No, I got it," Grant said, his voice low and even as he unshouldered the bag with practiced precision and set it down gently, as though it contained something fragile—or important.

Jacky rose in one fluid motion, unfolding herself from the cushions with the grace of someone who'd mastered her space. She crossed the room to meet him, her presence more commanding than her silence, and placed a kiss on his cheek—neither rushed nor casual, but full of intent.

You get a very good sense of who those characters are, and I can continue to flesh them out from there...but I haven't actually told you what they look like. Is Grant six feet tall? Does he have black hair? Is Jacky fat? You don't know...but I bet when you read that you had a picture start to form in your head none-the-less...