There’s a fine line between “not enough” and “too much” that writers must tread in their fiction. Too many characters or too few? Too much detail or not enough? This consideration becomes incredibly important when we start to describe our characters.
In a post on Writers Helping Writers, Lucy Hay offers advice on describing your characters and discusses how much is too much.
First, Hay advises against introducing your character via the laundry list technique: describing their clothing, hair, or various body parts. You don’t have to avoid these details, but there’s much more to your characters than outward appearance.
She also cautions against using cliched body movements to suggest emotion. Fiction is full of raised eyebrows, pursed lips, crossed arms, and tapping feet. While movement can indicate what a character is thinking, it also turns the reader into a voyeur. Use this carefully.
