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Chapter 5: Embodying Your Characters
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✓ Ethnicity: Don’t fall into the trap of making all your characters the same
ethnic background – unless this is an essential part of the story for, say, historical
reasons. Everyone is a mixture of different ancestry, and referring to
your character’s family tree can be helpful (see Chapter 3). The character’s
ethnicity informs many of the aspects detailed in the rest of this list.
✓ Shape of the face: Is it round, oval, square, heart shaped? What about
special features: a dimpled chin, a high forehead? Think of bone structure
too, such as high cheekbones or a jutting brow.
✓ Eyes: ‘The windows to the soul’, as the old saying goes. Are they pale or
dark? Be exact about the colour – not just blue or brown, but grey-blue,
ice-blue, chestnut-brown, amber, greeny-hazel.
Eye colour is seldom solid – many eyes have variations of colour in
them. Most green eyes, for example, are a mixture of hazel and blue.
Plus, eye colour is often associated with personality – dark, almost black
eyes can be thought of as passionate or evil, pale blue eyes as cold,
rich brown eyes as warm, and green eyes as fascinating or jealous. But
no scientific basis exists for these ideas, and so don’t fall foul of stereotypes.
Playing against your readers’ expectations can be great!
✓ Eyebrows: Are they arched or flat, or shaggy or plucked? Eyebrows are
extremely important in conveying facial expressions, but in their resting
state they also create an impression: flat eyebrows look nonchalant,
arched ones surprised, and frowning ones displeased!
✓ Hair: As with eyes, be exact about colouring. Don’t just say blond, but
use ash-blond, tawny-blond or strawberry blond. Brown can range from
almost black through chestnut to mouse. So many people dye their hair
in many cultures that you shouldn’t neglect to mention this fact. You can
include streaks of grey to reveal age as well. Think of the texture of the
hair and make it appropriate for the character’s ethnicity.
✓ Nose: Can be small and snub, large and prominent, wide or narrow, and
straight or curved. You can use the fact that, rightly or wrongly, people
tend to associate different noses with different personality types: a small
upturned nose can be seen as youthful or innocent, and a large Roman
nose as powerful.
✓ Mouth: Lips can be full or thin, and the mouth wide or narrow. Does it turn
up in a smile, pucker into a pout or turn down at the corners? The mouth
gives away many expressions, but when at rest it creates a strong impression
of the character’s basic personality. And don’t forget the character’s
teeth: are they small or large, well shaped or crooked; do they have a gap
in the middle; are they gleaming white or yellowed? Deciding on a tiny
detail can spark off a whole set of ideas about a character: for instance,
white or yellow teeth can suggest whether a character is young or old,
poor or wealthy, vain or modest, or has lived a hard or a pampered life.