Describing a women, what order?

[thepornographer]

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask everyone’s opinion - If you only have one or two sentences, in what order or style is the best way to describe a women's physique, and/or personality – hair, height, age etc... or ethnicity, eyes, breasts...?

 

[DemonOuterverse]

Well, it will depend on the person doing the describing.

I tend to focus on their overally physical build first, then moving to the sensual bits. But if there is one STRIKING feature that jumps out, like cotton-candy pink hair, I am more observant to that first.

 

[Xenolan]

I had to think about this for a moment.

The first thing I usually mention is the hair, because that's visible from any angle and therefore the thing that one will generally see first when encountering a woman (or a man, for that matter). In the same sentence, I will mention ethnicity or skin tone - though if I've just said she's a blonde or a redhead, sometimes I'll leave that unsaid, as one assumes white.

Then eyes, because I'm drawn to eyes. I'll generally descibe them as more than simply "blue" or "brown" - I'll say that they are "a pale ice-blue, wide and clear, innocent in expression and yet piercing with a cold inner fire." Or something like that.

If there's anything distinctive about her face, such as an unusual piercing or black lipstick, I'll go there next.

Then figure - first an overall descriptor (athletic, slim, rotund, voluptuous, model-perfect, waiflike, etc), and then once again calling attention to distinction.

Then what she's wearing.

And of course I'll mix it up a bit. If I'm describing Courtney Cox, to pull a name out of nowhere, I would probably follow the pattern above fairly closely except that I might emphasize how slim she is by moving that up in the order. If I were talking about pornstar Wendy Whoppers, I'd probably start with her 44-HHH breasts.

None of this is conscious, though. I think of a woman and describe her according to what I notice first. That's all there is to it.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask everyone’s opinion - If you only have one or two sentences, in what order or style is the best way to describe a women's physique, and/or personality – hair, height, age etc... or ethnicity, eyes, breasts...?

This doesn't have one answer. Nor will it ever. It depends on the type of story, and which features are most important. It depends on how she's being described, meaning whether she's being described as sexy, whether habits are the concern at the time of description, and who is looking on her, meaning if a male's perspective comes into play, what does it say about him if he notices this first instead of that?

I have a character named Delilah whose main character trait is her weaknesses for substances. This means that, in noting her appearance and characterizing her approproately (from the first person, male viewpoint, at least) the fact that her eyes are pretty or that her breasts are firm is of little consequence. That she's notable skinny, pale, and might have red puffy eyes is essential.

Like I said, this doesn't have one answer. Nor will it ever.

Q_C

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Description isn't formulamatic or shouldn't be. It changes situationally.

It hsould change with how you are introducing a character.

In general practice, a person will notice something striking about someone. That something can be a general feature, like her being exceptionally tall or having very long legs, to specific to the character observing, for example, a breatman is going to notice her tits first, that's where his interest lies.

Description needs to be fluid and thus, it needs to be tailored to the story it appears in.

my 2 cents

 

[English Lady]

Colly is right (Nowt new there) it's not a formula, it's just how it comes to you inthe situation of a story.

I think, generally it's facial features i describe first, but not always. It all depends on the character and the situation you meeting him/her in.

It's one of my favourite parts of writing and reading, introducing characters and bringing them alive

 

[Weird Harold]

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask everyone’s opinion - If you only have one or two sentences, in what order or style is the best way to describe a women's physique, and/or personality – hair, height, age etc... or ethnicity, eyes, breasts...?

The best descriptions of a woman (or any character) tells the reader as much about the charaacter noticing her as it does about the woman being described.

Even in third person omniscient, describe what another character or characters notice abouther according to what attracts them. For example, A convention of shoe-salesmen is going to notice her feet and shoes first.

Personally, I tend to notice posture and carriage first and then the overall proportions and how they fit together. Then I look at the face.

I spent yesterday at the Aviation Nation airshow at Nellis AFB. There were perhaps a dozen women out of the thousands attending that caught my eye for a second closer look. Each one of them caught my eye for a different reason; clothing, hair, face, lighting (one caught my attention because she was in the sunlight between the shadows of two pavilions.) The only thing they had in common is that they stood out from the crowd at the moment I noticed them.

The best way to decide how to describe someone in only a few sentences is to go people watching and determine what it is about each person that causes you to notice them.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I went back and looked at my own descriptions. In one story, it's the eyes first of all, and in another it's the hair, and in a third it's the little pouting mouth... and I hardly ever describe the size of anyone's tits I might say they are small and freckled (a lot actually, I hadn't noticed that!) I only mention body parts as they become available, when my characters are undressed.

 

[elsol]

If you're going to go straight hair color...

1. Hair color
2. Eyes
3. what she's wearing
4. Body type

Note... you can hide a 'body type' description by describing what she looks like in those clothes.

'Tight blue blouse struggling mightly to keep her abundant breast under wraps. I was kind of hoping it would fail momentarily.'

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[Guest]

I like to start with her toenails, then the back side of her earlobes, the hairs on the underside of her wrists and then the kicker....

Her nostrils.

Try it that way, you might be surprised.

but I doubt it.

 

[yui]

I like to start with her toenails, then the back side of her earlobes, the hairs on the underside of her wrists and then the kicker....

Her nostrils.

Try it that way, you might be surprised.

but I doubt it.

Um, Dran, I have looked very closely, and I don't have any hair on the undersides of my wrists. I suppose you could describe the "hairless undersides of her wrists ..." as another option.




I shy away from straight up physical descriptions and use things like, "pretty in the way youth" or "his chest felt smooth against mine" or "his dark eyes were almost black; I could see myself in them and only hoped he could see me, too" or "his fingers were long and strong, thin, like a piano players" or "he was tall and my narrow frame fit against him perfectly". Stuff like that.

I personally don't like to read a great deal of waxing poetic about a laundry list of physical description. I'll skip it or back-click; it distracts me and feels, I dunno, like vanity, maybe? But that is just a personal preference. Write what you like to read.

Luck,

Yui

 

[zeb1094]

I usually try and describe them the way I personally observer the female of the species.

If she's facing toward me, the first thing I look at is her eyes, if she's wearing sunglasses then her facial features, then the hair (although hair isn't that important to me it is what has attracted me to some women) then the rest of her. Legs, then the sexy bits between the head and the legs.

If she's facing away or I'm walking up behind her, the hair is the first thing I really notice. If the hair is short and I can see her neck then her neck. Then her legs followed by her ass or back. There are some backs I have simply fallen in love with. Once I pass her or she turns toward me I just have to see her eyes. The eyes are the most fasinating female part for me, I love to look into eyes. Any color, shape, size I love the eyes.

 

[Guest]

Um, Dran, I have looked very closely, and I don't have any hair on the undersides of my wrists. I suppose you could describe the "hairless undersides of her wrists ..." as another option.

...Yui

Hairless wrist undersides?!

OH BABY!!!! Yuo get more sexy by the minute! There's nothing that turns me on more than kissing hairless wrist undersides...

Tell me you dont have your toenails painted....

Are the backs of your earlobes rosey pink?

I'm gonna have wet dreams tonight.

 

[lil_elvis]

Nothing new to add, other than to throw my vote for "depends" (as in it depends on the story, situation, character, etc., not on whether she's wearing them, although if she were, that would be a good place to start).

It could be dark and the first thing you notice is her perfume or her long hair brushing against your arm, or the sound of her voice, the clicking of her stilletto pumps, the crack of the whip in her hand and on and on...

 

[SeaCat]

I describe them as I feel my character doing the description sees them. Unfortunately that is not an answer. It all depends as has been said on the situation inside the story. What I'm working on now, the character is laying beside/leaning over a woman and kissing her starting at the eyelids and working his way down her body. Because of this he is describing her as he comes to signifigant areas. More than that though he is also describing how he feels about this woman and how he views her, both physicaly and psychologicaly as he makes love to her. (His first description of her is how her lips feel against his and how that makes him feel.)

Cat