An ask of help (Writing descriptiveness / characters appearances)

[Mage]

First things first, I'm unsure if this is truly the correct place to post this kind of thing so I apologize in advance if it's not.

Now, to the actual problem and what this humble brazilian requires the guild's aid for: Descriptions. To be more specific, character descriptions.

Ever since I first started roleplaying back in World of Warcraft, describing characters were never something I did actively as most of the apparel was done with the right gear and the character's model itself, I'd only ever describe things that weren't shown in the model such as scars, a tattoo, a rune, or anything else that was... "extraordinary" in a sense. However, that was... a few years ago, and up to this day I still struggle whenever I have to describe a new character. My problem, from what I can tell, is that I repeat too many words and it feels like a boring read, an uninteresting description. Generic, even.

I use pictures to get an idea of my characters - more often than not, they are illustrations that fit within medieval/high fantasy themes. So I go from elves to dwarves, yet stay most frequently on humans.

As I said at the beginning, I'm brazilian - so english is not my first language. This may be a source of my little issue here, but I like to think that I've been dabbling in english for far too long for it to be it all. I think that it's more of a lack of know-how itself, the lack of the skill required to write these things, perhaps I've not done it enough, perhaps I've not seen it done right enough.

I'm willing to accept any sort of help, really. Even a "here, look at how I've done it" would help a lot. I mean, references and examples are certain to help - especially from more skilled writers than me.

Whelp, that'd be all. Once again, sorry if it's the wrong section or if I'm just being an unbearable fool - and thanks for anyone out there that takes their time to read this and help me out. :3

[Carlyle]

Naturally, I prefer to avoid writing appearances overall and use a picture to describe my character(s). Otherwise, I usually opt for noticeable features rather than writing an entire appearance. You can have two brown-haired humans with blue eyes in a RP, but what makes them distinct from each other? Are they lanky, muscular, obese? Is their skin embellished and smooth, or rough and gritty with deep groves? That sort of thing. It may sound like what you were doing before, but in my opinion, the finer details make the character.

[BrokenPromise]

writing is not a visual medium, and trying to paint someone's appearance as clearly as a photograph or illustration is unwise. Do mention anything notable, from hair color, length, scars, eye color, etc. Anything that needs to be kept consistent from post to post. In books, a lot of writers simply give you the character's name and let the reader imagine them however they desire. The only time it really becomes nessisary to know exactly what a part of a character looks like is when it's important to the story. Such events include everything from an individual who's looking for long haired girls, or maybe if your character has long or short sleeves in the event someone tries to grab them.

I find the more interesting aspects of describing something is writing it's history instead of how an item or person looks. Don't describe how the scars on a warior's face look, explain how he got them. As I've said in other topics, quirks in the character's behavior are more interesting than their appearance. Anyone can have a fancy sword or a unique body alteration. But how many characters do you know that smack their cheeks when they wake up in the morning? collect pave stones from the roads they walk on?

[Dervish]

A good way to practice is to get a reference picture and write down what you notice about the person. Are they tall, lanky, how do they style their hair, what colour is it, is their face rounded or gaunt, the shape of their eyes, emotional impressions (e.g. do they have a wary gaze, stern jaw, laugh lines), describe their facial hair, if they have thin or bushy eyebrows, if their nose was broken, any piercings or facial markings, how pronounced their cheeks, jaw, and chin are, and so on.

[Foster]

Another is try and describe something for the first time to a hyper-inquisitive five year old. Employ all five senses and all six thought-processes and how that effects all motives independently.
-Then figure out how to write that as concisely as possible without any loss in detail.

Second and third time around you can trim those details.

When introducing a character, it is often necessary to figure out how that character ended up where they are. Depending on the sort of story, you may feel the need to omit explaining their entire life's story, but generally it's better to have more detail than less. At least until you get a feel for what sort of overly-long lengths of prose are tiresome to your readers. Spoiler-tabs are a nice way to compromise, but are only a crutch for good writing.

Anything "average" should generally be left up to the reader whenever possible. Just keep in mind, "average" is as defined by your partner's ideals and expectations, not yours.

-One case of this nearly breaking-down in an RP was a misunderstanding on the relative sizes of dragons and giants.

-Or mechs and dismounted footsoldiers (infinite Stratos has a wierd scale, and are comparable to Archwings)