# Can you describe his physical appearance?



## jacklevin123 (Sep 27, 2013)




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## sunaynaprasad (Sep 27, 2013)

He looks a little bit like the hulk.


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## bookmasta (Sep 27, 2013)

Broad chin, big frame, muscles rippling just under the skin, takes too many steroids...that's about all I can think of off the top of my head.


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## escorial (Sep 27, 2013)

arnie..before he became ronald


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## TheYellowMustang (Sep 27, 2013)

An angry look to his face, courtesy of his angled brows and sneering lips. Looks like a cartoon villain. 

Why?


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## Morkonan (Sep 28, 2013)

Captain Planet before his morning cup of reconstituted homogenized coffee substitute.


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## OurJud (Sep 28, 2013)

I think you should be more concerned by the fact that you're asking others to do this for you.


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## Terry D (Sep 28, 2013)

A flat, two dimensional representation, in graphite--on notebook paper--of a stylized human male.


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## Jeko (Sep 28, 2013)

_He was dying to be described by the author rather than by a community who have no knowledge of or c__onnection to him apart from a brief sketch of his upper body.

_Seriously, you're a writer. It's your job to do this stuff.


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## The Tourist (Sep 28, 2013)

Looks like too many steroids.  It's more like Joan "Chyna" Lauer.


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## Bilston Blue (Sep 28, 2013)

"...less built than poured, the smooth immovability of an Easter Island statue."

_Every Love Story is a Ghost Story_​, D. T. Max, 2012.


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## The Tourist (Sep 28, 2013)

Bilston Blue said:


> "...less built than poured, the smooth immovability of an Easter Island statue."



Beautiful use of the language, just not applicable to the drawing submitted.

I've been going to the gym daily for almost forty years.  Guys that eat right and balance lifting with an aerobic pursuit look ripped and lean.

Guys that look like the drawing are juicing it.


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## Jeko (Sep 28, 2013)

> Beautiful use of the language, just not applicable to the drawing submitted.



I think Bilston Blue's example is the best so far, especially since it can't be copied.


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## bookmasta (Sep 29, 2013)

Cadence said:


> _He was dying to be described by the author rather than by a community who have no knowledge of or c__onnection to him apart from a brief sketch of his upper body.
> 
> _Seriously, you're a writer. It's your job to do this stuff.


This is so true.


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## Robert_S (Sep 29, 2013)

Looks like Doomguy:


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## David Gordon Burke (Sep 30, 2013)

Here's yet another perspective.  Aside from doing it yourselves (and I have a few times googled "description of X" just to find a few choice words to throw into a description but...) Is it really advisable to give a description, particularly of a character?  I don't bother at all.  I may add in a few details as I go along, usually observations by some other characters but aside than age, which may or may not be revealed in relation to When the back story took place, I don't touch physical description.  It's weak and useless.  

You can give a huge shpleal about a character's physical but your reader is more than likely going to think, "Ah this guy reminds me of that guy in high school"  and they are going to implant that guy's face onto your character and that's the end of it.  

Better to let the reader make up his own mind.  Besides, descriptions are dull, they tend to go on forever, people skip over them trying to get to the juicy bits and unless done extremely well, just kind of sit there, dead on the page.  

David Gordon Burke


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## shadowwalker (Sep 30, 2013)

I agree with you, David. I only put in descriptions when it explains why, for example, one character has an advantage over another in a fight, or how a character can be spotted in a crowd of people. Otherwise, I'm more than happy to let the reader decide (since that's what I do, despite authors' valiant attempts to force their vision on me )


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## Jeko (Sep 30, 2013)

> Here's yet another perspective. Aside from doing it yourselves (and I have a few times googled "description of X" just to find a few choice words to throw into a description but...) Is it really advisable to give a description, particularly of a character? I don't bother at all. I may add in a few details as I go along, usually observations by some other characters but aside than age, which may or may not be revealed in relation to When the back story took place, I don't touch physical description. It's weak and useless.



Agreed, it's never necessary, but I don't feel it is weak or useless writing. It's a decision the author makes, and in the right context it can be the best decision. For example, when the narrator wants to stretch the duration of an instance he can do so by adding physical description. It weighs the prose down, and that is the point.


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