Physical description of a character can be difficult to convey—too much will slow the pace or feel ‘list-like’, while too little will not allow readers to form a clear mental image. If a reader cannot imagine what your character looks like, they may have trouble connecting with them on a personal level, or caring about their plight.
One way to balance the showing and telling of physical description is to showcase a few details that really help ‘tell the story’ about who your character is and what they’ve been through up to this point. Think about what makes them different and interesting. Can a unique feature, clothing choice or way they carry themselves help to hint at their personality? Also, consider how they move their body. Using movement will naturally show a character’s physical characteristics, keep the pace flowing and help to convey their emotions.
UNDERWEIGHT
Descriptors: skinny, scrawny, bony, malnourished, anorexic, skeletal, gaunt, emaciated
People Likely to Have an Underweight Build: people with eating disorders, malnourished and impoverished people, drug addicts, homeless people, the terminally ill, models and actors
Famous Examples:
- Angelina Jolie
- Kate Moss
- Calista Flockhart
- Keira Knightley
- Nicole Richie
Simile and Metaphor Help:
- I couldn’t tell if he was too tall or too thin or if his head was just too big for his body. When he nodded, he looked a little like a bobble-head doll.
- Mary didn’t quite prance out of the doctor’s office, but there was a definite bounce in her step. The chemo was working! She’d dance if she could, but her spaghetti straw legs wouldn’t cooperate—not yet, anyway. But soon enough. Joy bubbled up and out of her in the form of a huge smile. Soon enough.
Clichés to Avoid: skin-and-bones; a skinny person being compared to a skeleton; legs and arms compared to sticks or twigs; once-healthy people being a shadow of their former selves
HINT: When describing any part of the body, try to use cues that show the reader more than just a physical description. Make your descriptions do double duty. Example: Mindy untucked her legs and stretched them in front of her. Her heart sped up at the thought of even looking at them, but she forced herself. People kept telling her to eat more, to stop obsessing, but they weren’t the ones stuck in this roly poly body. With shaking hands, she encircled one thigh. The fingers almost met, but not quite. Her breath bottled up in her throat, right behind her Adam’s apple. It was disgusting, how fat she was.
14 Comments.
How about people with fast methabolism? Sometimes this types of things are genetic, no matter how much you eat or exercise..
[…] Underweight Build […]
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Thanks, as usual. You always spark my mind.
Slim to skeletal in a few not-so easy years. I’m so glad you’re getting those cliches out there so authors won’t use them. Me included! 🙂
Slim to skeletal in a few not-so easy years. I’m so glad you’re getting those cliches out there so authors won’t use them. Me included! 🙂
I was a skinny kid. Don’t have that problem anymore though. My kids are also bony. It happens. I have two characters in my novel, Mason Davis and the Rise of the Storm Makers, who are also stick thin. I like your post on physical attributes. They are very helpful – I’ll have to keep this one in mind as I write the sequels to my novel.
I always feel emotionally disturbed when I see really skinny – like, TOO skinny – people, particularly those who are obviously anorexic. And just this morning I saw people I assume were drug addicts, and the guy couldn’t even talk properly. They got off the bus and went into a public toilet together and I felt depressed at what they might be getting up to in there.
I knew that was a picture of the Carpenters. Great post.
What great examples!
I remember the Carpenters. Karen certainly was the poster child for eating disorders for a long time. Thanks for another useful post.
I recognized them. Not because I listened to their music. I just remember reference being made to her body weight.
Great post as always, Becca and Angela!
Yes, it’s the Carpenters. Half of our followers probably won’t recognize them, but when I think of unhealthily underweight people, she always comes to mind.
Oh, my gosh, are those the Carpenters? It’s been a long time….