detail, detail, detail
(adapted in part from Rebecca McClanahan’s article “11 Secrets To Writing an Effective Character Description,” in Writer’s Digest)
Vladimir Nabokov once said, "Worship the divine detail" – and this advice is especially important when you're introducing new characters in your writing.
If a character is important to the story, avoid describing them in general terms like "six feet tall with black hair." You need to make the character more distinctive by identifying specific characteristics – preferably ones that also speak to something crucial in the character's personality.
For example, look at how Jeffrey Eugenides' description of a character in The Marriage Plot tells us not only what she looks like, but also what her personality is like.
“Phyllida’s hair was where her power resided. It was expensively set into a smooth dome, like a band shell for the presentation of that long-running act, her face.”
Here are a few tips that can help you build more vivid, distinct, and meaningful character descriptions in your writing.
Choose to highlight details that create the strongest, most revealing impression.
One great detail can reveal far more about your character than five generic descriptors. As you're describing a character, focus on those characteristics that reveal personality: a loud, obnoxious laugh, perhaps, or arthritic hands with almost see-through skin. Smells are great for characterization too. Think about what the following smells might tell us about the characters associated with them: coconut suntan lotion, cigarette smoke, Old Spice, or cinnamon and flour.
Strengthen physical descriptions by making details more specific.
Instead of saying “blonde hair,” you could say “newly peroxided updo” or “pale wispy hair.” These descriptions not only create vivid images, but also speak to the character's background, age, or personality.
Focus on the character's surroundings and belongings.
At the beginning of the movie The Big Chill, we see the main characters unpacking bags they’ve brought for a weekend trip to a friend’s funeral. One character has packed a bounty of prescription drugs; another has packed a calculator; another, condoms. Just be looking at this objects, we understand something crucial about these characters.
Use indirect characterization.
Writers can have a lot of fun with indirect characterization. For instance, you can show us the character’s credit card bill or reveal the contents of their pockets. One of my favorite moments of indirect characterization happens in the movie Harper, in which Paul Newman's character wakes up and begins making coffee, only to find that his coffee canister is empty. He looks in his trash can at yesterday's coffee filter, which is filled with used grounds. Then we see him debate internally for a minute before he plucks the used filter out of the trash and puts it back in his coffee-maker. Just like that, we know a great deal about this character.
Craft Exercise
Introduce a main character by describing his or her setting and belongings. At the end of your paragraph of description, use just one line of direct characterization (directly describing what the character looks, acts, or sounds like). Make this line count by using a very specific, distinctive detail.