The eyes have it…or maybe it’s the hair?

Here’s a question that’s been plaguing me for a while and I should probably take it up with the gang at Romance Divas to get some input.

How important is a detailed physical description of a character? As with all writing rules, I’ve read the gamut of suggestions. Most authors like to include the basics: hair color, eye color and maybe a brief detail about a character’s appearance such as a hero’s impressive height or bodybuilding physique or the heroine’s brilliant smile or perky turned up nose. [Impressive and perky can also describe other attributes if you’re, let’s say, an erotica writer, but let’s not go there right now. LOL.]

I question how important these details are. Not that I would consider writing a story where I offered no physical description of the characters, BUT I will say that as a reader I very rarely, if ever, take into account what an author tells me a character looks like. If the characters appear on the cover, I’m sure I’m influenced by the artist’s rendition of them, which is supposed to be based on suggestions made by the author, [but not always]. I’d have to confess that 99% of the time, my mental image of a character is shaped by their NAME rather than any detailed accounting of their height, weight, eye or hair color, mode of dress, etc.

This goes back to my post on names and why I would not name a hero Eugene for instance. [Although, the only Eugene I ever met was a rather attractive geology major I went to college with…but let’s not go there either.] Not only the character’s name, but his or her voice, occupation, situation etc, also shape their appearance in my mind. I have no doubt that if an author wrote a book that contained absolutely no character description, I would not be seeing faceless mannequins in my mind as a read. I would assign those characters faces and voices no matter how little the author gave me to go on.

So, in a nutshell, how important is physical description? Have you ever read a character description and then gone on to read the book with a totally different picture in your head? I have. And I will continue to do so. But alas, I won’t stop describing my characters in my own stories, or fretting over exactly what they look like. Yet.