Here are 6 things that annoy me about character descriptions!

1. Like this but not like that

When the character is described as “like this, but not like that”. You’ll usually find this description in the form of a list. It will be something like this:

He was confident, but not cocky. He was handsome, but not overly groomed. He was smart too, but not a know-it-all.

I often find this one when the author is trying to make their protagonist overly perfect. They are amazing, but not too amazing! they are juuuust right.

This style of character description gives me the impression that the writing quality is going to be fairly simple, and it might not be a good book for me.

I prefer well-written books, but I’m not a book snob! 😉

2. She’s the most beautiful girl and she doesn’t even know it

When the most handsome, popular vampire creature asks her on a date, she says ‘Oh! Me? But I’m so plain! I had no idea how beautiful I am! How naive and modest of me!’

Someone might enjoy this as a kind of wish fulfilment. I personally just find it a bit… tacky and cliched. 

3. Describing their own reflection in the mirror

I am always unpleasantly surprised when I find authors who still do this. I know it’s really petty, but just something about this screams mediocre writing to me. It’s like something you would do in a high school english class and then feel really clever.

4. Introducing descriptions too early

I don’t like feeling that the flow of the story is being interrupted. And now there’s this character and they look like this, and then this character came in and they look like this! I just find it so intense to get bombarded with character descriptions. It’s ok for me to meet a character without knowing what they look like immediately.

5. Over describing

I absolutely hate character descriptions that sound like a police report, just listing off the height, eye colour, hair colour, age. And also descriptions that want to paint a beautiful portrait of every single hair and mole on their head. I don’t care that much.

6. Describing female characters by their breasts first

I mean, why even bother including the rest of the character. A pair of floating breasts is going to have just as much development as the female caricature you were planning to write anyway.

Final thoughts:

Ok, that’s it! Let me know if there’s any you agree with, disagree with, or something you think I’ve left out.

If you’re a writer and you’ve used some of these, that’s ok, these are just my personal preferences and someone else might really enjoy it.

Thanks for watching, see you soon!

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