Whether it’s your character or your setting, most readers don’t appreciate being inundated with paragraphs of exhaustive details and descriptions. The purpose of description and its specific details is to immerse readers in your world, allowing them to experience what your protagonist experiences.

The What:

Readers require insight into your characters and their world’s appearance. But how do you describe your characters without either boring your readers with detail overload, poorly describing characters and settings, or slowing the pacing?

One way is to limit your descriptions to a few vivid and important details. For example, instead of saying “he was a tall man about six foot five with brown hair and green eyes with an imposing presence,” you can say, “Devin leaned in, his hand to the wall pinning Jessica in place. She craned her neck to meet his icy green eyes glaring down at her. She was in trouble now.”

Describe a familiar setting by highlighting unique details. For example, “Jessica pushed open the gas station’s door, sagging on its frame, it scraped a permanent arched divot into the yellowed laminate floor. The bell no longer dinged.” Your readers should get the sensation of neglect and disrepair.

Ideally, you want to trigger all the senses when writing your descriptions. Don’t always lean on sight or sound. When walking into the gas station, the smell of lingering cigarette smoke wafts past her or she hears the sizzle of hotdogs. Maybe the door handle itself was black and oily.

Once you’ve used one sense, tie it back to the character’s mental and emotional state in the scene. Use indirect dialogue (thoughts) to express a reaction to the scene, but don’t tell us what they feel. Show how the scene before them makes them feel through what thoughts or memories it triggers. They may relate to the scene goal, plot, or hint at the character’s history. Do they have positive or negative emotions toward what they see?

Character description follows the same principle. Often when we meet people, one or two details stand out. It’s seldom that their hair, skin, or eyes catch attention unless one of those is distinctive in some manner. Often, it’s the way they walk or carry themselves, their clothes, or perfume. Maybe they have a limp or bushy eyebrows that remind the character of a caterpillar. When introducing your characters, make them memorable by choosing unique details. You should be able to describe hearing a voice or seeing someone from afar and identify them by these features without having to name them. If you cannot, then your description is too generic.

Also, keep in mind that your characters will all view their world differently. Jessica and Devin will look at the gas station from their own perspectives. Maybe Devin is a sales manager and notes that the delipidated appearance of the convenience store portion is not likely to draw in customers to buy more than just gas. But Jessica could be a detective and is scanning the aisles for the movement while noting the exits.