Do's and Do Not's | Four

Writing Therapy

Do's and Do Not's Four | Character Descriptions

Don't add one. At all.

I don't care if you give a bit of background or if it's to help readers. The reason you write the story is so you can describe the character to the reader. I know, there is great appeal in making a gorgeous graphics with all your characters' faces, I've been there. But there is absolutely no need for descriptions. That's what good writing is for. Any background should be revealed in the story, not in the foreword. Take Harry Potter for example, have you seen the tragic background of Harry Potter on that flap on the front book cover? Does it tell you anything about how he has a scar from Voldemort or that his parents were killed by Voldemort? No, it does not so don't do it either.

You don't need to add pictures of what the characters look like, your word description should be good enough. Gods, I mean having a character list or description really spoils eveything. I don't want a blurb or summary or anything. Just let the reader read the story to find out who these characters are.

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SkyeButterfly #1
Found this in my subscriptions 🥺 thank you for all the tips. I’ll have to save these somewhere as they’ve been very helpful.
meowzwrites #2
Chapter 7: Not sure if you’re still on, but I do applyfics, and I describe secondary characters briefly just in case they would like to add said characters in their apps but don’t know what to write. I do agree, however, that everytime else, let the story speak for the character.
Yasha13 #3
thanks for this
Xophias #4
Chapter 13: This is gold! Really I hope to see more of your writing tips in the future! :)
SkyeButterfly #5
Chapter 13: This guide has been so helpful so far! I'm definitely going to go back, pore through my stories, and edit the hell out of them. I hope you can update with more tips when you can.
jeannie_jung20 #6
Chapter 6: Ahahaha! I feel you. I have same thoughts. I've been around AFF for quite sometime and only like a handful fanfics. Some are interesting at first, but as the story progresses, it's the cliche. The only pain here is how to find a good author, in the same fandom. :)
1111086 #7
Nice! I really love this. I'm still learning how to write (since I'm not an English speaker) but I guess learning makes perfect? Thanks for your tips, anyway. It helps (and entertaining :D)!
1111086 #8
Chapter 4: Hahaha I agree with this. Changing POV is not my thing but there are some published novels (mostly teens or young adult) with changing POV too, like Eleanor and Park (or maybe it's an exception since basically it's the Author POV). I have love-hate relationship with Author Note here. I dislike adding A/N even at the end of story but I guess, at least because AFF is writing community, it helps communicating with the readers and sometimes it's fun knowing what Author thinks about their story (although adding in the middle of the story is just annoying as hell LOL).
Darthearts #9
Chapter 4: You sure have a unique, threatening sense of humour haha :) but one thing I disagree with its the perspective thing. I think writers should be allowed to switch perspectives and tell the reader that they're switching povs. Nobody said they can't. And Jodi picoult's books do have various pov changes too. Just my 2 cents :)
treedumpling #10
Chapter 6: This is so positive and lovely. :) i just wanted to tell you that this thread is amazing and you are doing such a wonderful job. <3
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