Before you take pen to paper or set your fingers to the keyboard ask yourself:
- Is my character on the police watch list?
- If the average person can’t remember their grocery list, how will they remember the run-on telling of what the _____ looks like?
Think on those questions before you carry on reading. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
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Go ahead, think some more, there’s no rush.
Just like there’s no rush to tell your reader what each and every character looks like. Or whether or not the room is primrose blue or the hills roll and the clouds float.
If you want the character to stand out then allow us to see them – not hear about them. Shaking water from her hair resembling some old sheepdog will paint her long hair in my mind more than telling me it’s long. Plus it tells me it’s wet and possibly raining out…depending on what else there is to be read. What else does that image tell you?
For characters think observation rather than police look out bulletin.
For anything else think everything but what it looks like. Look more to how it creates, blends, adds, feels, and sets the scene.
Paint it, don’t describe it.