One Potato, Two Potato: The Art of Describing Characters

Two potatoes sat on a counter looking largely the same, but are they? They're both Idaho Reds, and both about the same size, each with small points at one end. But look closer, even without a magnifying glass, and it becomes clear these potatoes are different. As a writer, you'll want to pay attention to detail to take your character descriptions from workmanlike to work of art.

Take our two potatoes—what do you see? One has more eyes and is browner and chubbier. The other is shorter and thinner and has more scars. It also has more pink areas and a bit more stem attached. Is it starting to seem, based on these distinctions, that the potatoes are getting a bit of personality? The same can be true of describing your characters.

The best way to reveal a character's traits is in a scene, where in addition to prose there is dialog, preferably with tension, and characters are revealed organically as they react under pressure. But for those softer moments, when you're describing the character through narrative prose, it's helpful to have done a bit of homework first.

Many writers advocate creating character descriptions before writing the story, and that can work well. But I'm increasingly a fan of the imagery approach, where you close your eyes, imagine the scene, then write it, Consider doing the same with your characters. And when you close your eyes (and silence your internal editor) and see those people you're writing about, don’t be afraid of a little description, especially in the first draft.


Describe those protruding eyes, unsightly scars, chubby bodies, pinched looking noses. Then take the description a step further. Consider the arched posture or the slouch, the feminine curves or lack thereof, not only for what they show about the character, but for what they tell about him or her. What does the slouch or portly shape say about self-confidence? Those traits may not be saying what you think. The slouch could belie a spinal condition, the rotund belly a wealthy lifestyle.

One thing is sure, the detailed—and knowledgeable—description with the right details in the right place will reveal the characters not only to your audience, but also to you so that you can continue developing them throughout the story for that important arc that can raise your characters from couch potatoes to fine dining.

Resources: For more information getting to know your characters, see the Writer's Digest article "9 Questions to Ask Your Main Character," and at Writers Digest University see "Character Description Exercise." 

How Is It Made: Taking Writing Apart

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Remember those cartoons where the guy (it's usually a guy) takes the car engine apart to see out how it works? Well, that approach can work for writing, too. Of course, just like that guy, you may end up with parts you don't need. But unlike that guy, you could end up better off without those parts. The key is to study the author's work and ask probing questions to get at how the writing is made.

Last summer I attended the Solstice Summer Writers Conference at Pine Manor College outside Boston. One of the workshop leaders was A. Manette Ansay, author of Oprah's Book Club selection Vinegar Hill and the recent Good Things I Wish You. One of Ansay's pieces of advice, which should become a tool in every writer's toolkit, is to study the writing of an author you like or one you don't and look at the story as a whole, then a chapter, scene, paragraph and sentence. See what the author does with:

• Dialogue
• Flashback
• Metaphor
• Motif
• Narrative
• Point of view
• Punctuation, including sentence, paragraph and chapter breaks
• Scene
• Simile
• Theme
• Word order
• Wordplay

Tip: Consider why the author made one particular choice instead of another. Do a little research to find an interview with the author explaining his or her decisions on the particular work. It will give you an idea of how to apply the same principles to your work.

Resources: For more on A. Manette Ansay's perspective, see "A. Manette Ansay on Writing."

Invitation to Wonder, Too: A Writer's Journey

Award-winning newspaper columnist and Center for Creative Writing founder Elizabeth Ayres has authored Invitation to Wonder: A Journey through the Seasons. She describes what prompted the book, and the emotional healing writing can bring. The winning comment on her posts will receive an autographed copy of Elizabeth's Invitation to Wonder.

AA: How would you categorize "the journey" noted in the subtitle?

Elizabeth at the Patuxent RiverWriting Retreat-Workshop

EA: My background is poetry. When I moved back to southern Maryland, every wave, every leaf, every bird, everything spoke to me, everything put words in my head, but I wanted to give voice to this experience in such a way that it would be accessible to a general audience, which tends to be intimidated by verse space. I decided to write prose, and I proposed a monthly column of lyric reflections to a regional newspaper.

So there I was, writing about Nature each month, trying to express the amazing aliveness of the world around me, but also conscious of my readers: What would make the reflection most relevant, most meaningful to them? In "Butterfly Q and A," for instance, I started out writing about honeysuckle — that was what was calling to me at the time. Honeysuckle was in bloom, I was transfixed by the smell — but I also knew the column would appear in July, so I related it to Independence Day, an experience common to all my readers, so a connection between nectar and freedom emerged. Or with "Vigil." I'd been wanting to write about the stars for a while. As Columbus Day approached I thought, well, Columbus would have used the stars to navigate, so that's how I can link the two things together and make the reflection most meaningful to my readers. After four years, I had cycled through the seasons four times, addressing every major and minor event in the American experience: from Martin Luther King Day through Memorial Day and Labor Day, from Easter through Thanksgiving and Christmas, from Groundhog Day through Mother's Day and Halloween.

The seasonal progression became all the more apparent when I decided to record selections from the book as an MP3 audio download. I realized that Invitation to Wonder contained not one but five distinct themes, each of which can be experienced as we travel through the seasons. So this became A Journey through the Seasons, Celebrating the Journey, A Journey into the Cosmos, A Journey into Chesapeake Country and A Journey into Divine Presence. Then, when I decided to create a study guide for each audio; the series just naturally demanded to be called The Companion on the Journey Listening Guides. I give these away free with the audios. I had been resistant to the word "journey" at first — it's so overdone! But it seems to have been an inspired choice after all.

For an autographed copy of Elizabeth's Invitation to Wonder, post the best comment on the writing life.

Elizabeth Ayres is also the creator of Writing the Wave, Know the Way and her Center for Creative Writing is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Visit her at Invitation to Wonder.
 

    

Invitation to Wonder: A Writer's Journey

Invitation to Wonder

You never know who you'll meet through a Google search. I met award-winning newspaper columnist and Center for Creative Writing founder Elizabeth Ayres while researching great resources for writers. Since then, Elizabeth has written Invitation to Wonder: A Journey Through the Seasons. Here, she describes what prompted the book, and the help and emotional healing writing can bring. Read her first post in the series, and submit a comment or post on the positive effects of writing to Word for Words. The winning selection will be published on the blog and receive an autographed copy of Elizabeth's Invitation to Wonder.

AA: What prompted you to write the book?

Center for Creative Writing founder Elizabeth Ayres

EA: I grew up in southern Maryland. Our house stood on a bluff overlooking the Patuxent River just where it enters the Chesapeake Bay. I loved it as a child, but as a teenager I hated it. It was too remote, and there were family tensions I needed to escape, so I left when I was 17 and rarely returned. I lived most of my adult life in New York City, then in northern New Mexico. And all that time, I never really felt connected; I never really felt I had a home. I kept wandering around, lamenting my sad plight, the rootlessness, the alienation so prevalent in American society.

Finally, through a series of rather mysterious events, I moved back to where I'd grown up. The connection to the landscape of my childworld just gushed forth onto the page every time I sat down to write, and the more I wrote, the less estranged I felt, until I came to realize, I belong here in this place, I belong everywhere in the place called Earth. It was a powerful experience of healing for me, personally, and I think it's something we all need to cultivate. Intimacy with Nature's beauty, wisdom and mystery is the antidote to all our ills, really, because the feelings of awe Nature induces make us feel part of something larger. That's why I called the book Invitation to Wonder. I want my readers to step into the place where joy, amazement and insight meet as an ineffable response to the world around us.

To receive an autographed copy of Elizabeth's Invitation to Wonder: A Journey Through the Seasons post the best comment on the writing life.

Elizabeth Ayres is also the creator of Writing the Wave, Know the Way and two Sounds True audio albums, and her Center for Creative Writing is celebrating its 20th anniversary. She lives with two cats, and spends long hours walking shell-strewn Chesapeake Bay beaches, plucking words from the soft salt breeze. Visit her at Invitation to Wonder.