How to write a story that doesn't suck

Written Character Sketches

What's a written character sketch? It's when you go into EXTREME DETAIL when describing your character. You describe everything so vividly that it might as well be a picture. It's so much detail it's overwhelming.

And I love them.

The only reason I include this chapter in this book is because of personal experience. Never, NEVER, use your entire character sketch in a character introduction, or slap it in your book as one big chunk of description because that is the devil's ass.

If you can't use them in writing, why bother making one?

Well I find that having a written character sketch, with all the character details lumped into one collective space, is handy. Keep it separate from your book, create it in some other file or journal it doesn't matter. Then later you can reference to it when writing your character in your book.

I know that probably doesn't make sense so here's an example of one of my characters:

Lauren Grace-
Her hair is a light dusted brown that coils like the curls of serpents at her shoulders. Her frizzy hair often looks as though she just jumped in a pool with a loose electric wire and shocked her entire body, styled in a crazed wild yet elegant 80s fashion of volume and dexterity. You can almost smell the hair spray aroma everywhere she goes. Her eyes are warm and a light simple brown, rather like hazel. Her irises are like dim curtains that shield an impossible light, her expressions are vibrant. Often she wears brightly colored eyeshadow that adds to this affect, with a thin bridge of eyeliner that crosses her lid ever so carefully. On her ears are always some eye catching earring, as she has two piercings in each. The earrings are a shocking mix of pattern, shape, and color every day. Her face is lightly adorned with simple freckles, hardly noticeable on first glance. Her figure is rather slender and lean as if she were a stick man with no curves at all. Her hips are small and her chest is flat, making her look like she put a box around herself and sucked in her tummy. Her chest so flat, one would think she was binding it.

That's a lot of description, right? No one wants to read all that in the first description. So how would I describe her when first introducing her?:

The girl had brown, frizzy, electric hair which was pulled into a thick pony tail. Her hazel eyes looked over Jason with worry, asking him questions to make sure he was ok. She was tall and nimble, Jason had no idea how she's managed to pull him out of the street so quickly with a physique such as hers.

That is it.

Just enough to give a basic idea of what Lauren looks like. Her three prominent traits are her eyes, hair, and body shape.

Here's another example:

Iisan Takanashi-
His hair is jet black, perfectly trimmed and brushed forward with bangs. His sharp eyes are a cruel and dark black, with such intensity in his stare it makes him rather frightening. His irises appear to be as dark as night, so dark that you cannot separate his pupil from the surrounding color. His nose is rather small and nimble and his lips, a chapped, scarred and scabby brutal mess that look bloodied from open wounds. His teeth are long, sharp, and rather jagged looking, almost like the open front row of a great white shark in their cartoonish devilish way. His face would look soft and gentle if not for the massive and frightening scars adorning it. On his right side of his harsh face is a deeply red colored jagged/lumpy facial deformity that covers almost half of it. On his left, two large gashes like a deep claw dragged multiple times down his face and over his eye. One is long enough to reach his lips where it bows under his chin. His body is unusually tall, especially for being Japanese. His figure is thinner, not too muscular looking at all like he rarely does anything physical. His shoulders are broad which adds to his tall towering look, and his legs long, taking stretched strides as he walks.

But how would I initially describe him?:
The frightening boy was tall. His dark eyes pierced through Lauren, silently screaming at her to go away. His hair was jet black, as were his clothes and face mask. All he wore was black, from head to toe. His face was deformed and scarred brutally, but his expression was the most frightening of all. Lauren wanted to run.

Voila!

Character sketches are handy to have. You can reference your descriptions frequently throughout your writing, but never use them all at once. Make sure to include strange descriptions that leave an impression, such as the "electric frizzy hair" I gave Lauren or the "cartoonish shark teeth" Iisan has.

I'm curious to see what you come up with! If you make one, don't be afraid to put it in the comments!

Also if you have questions, just ask!

I think my favorite one I've made is where I compared a side character to the prince from Shrek...