Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
Do you want detailed descriptions of a novel’s main characters?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
Short answer is no. I like basic info but I like to be able to picture in my own mind what they look like. I still remember a book where the heroine had Cerulean blue eyes almost every time we saw her. It is the only thing I remember about the book. Most books at the end I can’t tell you these details and I am ok with that as I have my own images.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group.
Not really. Just some basic ones.
But if you are going to mention a physical feature, do it very close to when you introduce me to that character so I can adjust my mental picture without too much jarring.
I had an author not mention the hero was black until chapter 4 or 5. As the cover had a white guy on it (it was a 2 for 1 book deal, and the first book was a white guy), that was rather jarring to my mental picture.
She had said the hero was bronze, but tanned cowboys (it was a Western) have been referred to as bronze. And then, when I realized it wasn’t a tan, I was still left wondering what sort of bronze we were talking about: Native American, Mexican, African American… What’s my mental picture here!
Once I got him sorted out, I was still wondering about the family because I knew he was adopted. I did not enjoy the long wait of trying to figure out what everybody looked like. And I think the heroine ended up being white, but to be honest by the time the author mentioned this stuff I’d already had so many mental images being shuffled around, it was hard to cope.
I can understand that being jarring.
Ironically I read a book and it mentioned the heroine had blonde hair and blue eyes but because of the book, the setting and things happening I had in my mind she was black. it was set in the 50’s and they had to move due to fathers work and they were in an area where they were different. I had in my mind they moved from the deep south to Washington area. (they were deep south but moved west and we worked out ended up in Idaho, Colorado, or one of these places) So they would have been a fish out of water. even reading the blue eyes my find had them as African American. I did love the book. But it was a good example that I could have my own image because the author didn’t over describe things.
The books I struggle with at times are books that are too descriptive.
Hi Jenny, Great question! Physical appearance is less important to me. I have a favourite author who introduces most of her side characters with a short physical description. I skim those details because I don’t need to know this information. What I’m interested in knowing is who the character is, what makes them tick and why they’re important to the story. 🙂