Adding depth to character through perception

How do you describe the physical appearance of your character? It’s not always easy to describe your characters without resorting to the cliché “He looked in the mirror and saw …”

Also, setting the scene for each part of your story is an important element in building your fictional world. In fact, some authors go out of their way to describe weather patterns, scenery, and passing traffic in detail to give the reader a sense of the world around the characters.

This type of descriptive narrative can sometimes be long and cumbersome. It can also bog down the pace of your story if it’s not done right, especially when all the gurus say Show, don’t count!

Many authors are careful to explain exactly what is happening in their fictional worlds. How people see themselves, how the objects around them look, what the characters think, how the weather behaves, the exact color of an object, what characters they see around them … This means that the author is telling the reader what to see.

Not many authors take the time to write HOW their characters see things happening around them. This is where the author should show the reader what is happening. Your own characters are a perfect tool to use when you need to show events or appearances or even moods.

Let me explain …

Every person on the planet views life through their own personal perceptions. How they choose to interpret those perceptions is highly dependent on that person and can be affected by a multitude of factors.

These different perceptions are what make us unique as human beings. What turns one person on may repel another. What one person sees as attractive, another may find repulsive. What one character yearns for can send another character into panic attacks.

For example: a sunny day can brighten a character’s mood and seriously scare a person with a skin cancer phobia. Thus, the same sunny day would have a completely different effect on this latter character and skew many of his other perceptions as well.

The same goes for personal preferences in relationships. Some people are attracted to curvy women, while others are repulsed by them. Others prefer the exotic features of Asians, while others lean towards the sleek, slender blondes, and still others love the creamy-brown skin tones and dark features of some Mediterraneans.

Because we all have such different tastes and opinions, these perceptions of what we find attractive and unpleasant will color your descriptions of those things.

Remembering to use these differences in character perspective can add depth to your characters by showing your readers a lot about their personalities, all without using narrative to tell your readers what’s going on.

Show, don’t tell

So how does a writer show things that happen, or describe another character, without resorting to large chunks of descriptive narrative AND remember to add the character’s unique perspective at the same time?

The simple answer is: Dialogue.

When your characters speak to each other, you should take the opportunity to express much more than just words. Dialogue can boost your plot, it can highlight the importance of conflict, it can show the perspective of characters, and it can show the reader many other things, all at once.

“I hate this miserable rain. All I can do is sit and depress around the house until it stops“Said Fred.

“If we run we can get to the creek and catch some frogs. The rain always brings out the frogs!Jack called.

In just two sentences within the dialogue tags, I’ve (hopefully) conveyed something about the weather, given you an idea of ​​the character’s mood, described what he’s doing, and given each character a unique perspective of what is happening.

Both characters see rain in a completely different way, and neither of the previous examples required long blocks of narrative to achieve the same effect.

Describing physical features

“Jane tossed her long golden braids over her shoulder to flow down her slender back. Running the tip of her tongue over her wide, full lips, her emerald green eyes sparkled with a hint of promise and she slowly crossed her long, supple legs.“

“John ran a perfectly manicured hand through her jet black hair, his bright blue eyes taking every inch of her …”

Have you ever read a book in which the characters are described in unwieldy snippets as if they were nothing more than cardboard cutouts from a Barbie and Ken promotional poster?

In exaggerated examples like the ones above, it is obvious that the ‘narrator’ has stopped the story and interrupted you, the reader! – to remind you how fabulous the author wants you to think these people look.

The problem with this approach is that the author has forgotten that all readers have different opinions about what is attractive. More importantly, your characters should be the ones expressing your thoughts and preferences.

So is it necessary to include these soft descriptions in your narrative?

I recently read a long book (1,050 pages). The book was very detailed, the scope was wide, and the cast was huge. However, nowhere in the entire book did the author mention what the characters looked like during their narration. He only offered his character’s perceptions of other characters. In fact, I read the book twice to see how the author achieved this effect.

I found this method extremely effective. He showed me each character’s point of view as a distinct and separate perception. Each person saw different qualities in the people they interacted with, so physical traits were modified to fit those perceptions with each description. He did the same with certain furniture, settings, weather patterns, and moods. Every description in the book came from another character commenting on her in some way that was relevant to the story.

Indirect description

Several times throughout the book, the author referenced certain characteristics to identify who people were talking about. For example, the main character had a scar on the left side of his face. The reader only knows this because we saw it through the eyes of another character during the dialogue, and not in a narrative description.

“… I’m telling you, Stan, when Alec looked at me with those dead eyes, I almost fainted with fear. He knew he was angry when the hideous scar began to tremble. When he does that, the entire left side of his face contorts and you know he’s thinking he wants to cut your neck …“

And yet a different character describes Alec this way:

“… Miranda sighed and let her chin rest on the cup of her hand. “He has those deep, dreamy blue eyes. The kind you just want to lose yourself in, I guess. And when he looks at me, his scar pops out, like he’s trying to hold back a smile.“

These two people describe the same character: Alec. One perceives him as harsh and violent. The other sees him as a dreamer.

During the book, a male character tried to tell Alec what a woman was like (she was the target of a murder).

“The lens has the classic prostitute look. Faded blonde, cleavage on display for anyone to see, and legs that go forever under a cheap leather mini. And a face that could break concrete. Hard as nails, she is. “

That was HIS perception of the person, not the actual physical features of the woman in question. Alec found her sweet and attractive, but those were his perceptions of her, so of course they differed.

In none of those descriptions did the author say “5 feet 10 inches, blonde, 98 pounds, blue eyes, full lips.” His descriptions only encompassed what the person he described saw through his own perceptions.

Adding small differences in the way your characters view objects around them will add a sense of realism to your work and add depth to your characters.