Describing a person. What needs to be mentioned?

Question

When describing the physical features of my more important characters, I often don't add much. I of course describe important features, especially if they will be relevant in the story. For example Harry Potter's scar. Part of my problem is my mental model of my characters is their personality and not their physical features. As my readers, **what is the bare minimum you need to know about the main character(s) physical appearance?** Can I get by casually mentioning their height and gender and, if needed, their symbolic plot driving scar? Do you need more? If so what? If length is important, I am mostly interested in answers that focus on long short stories or novella length works. I would be curious to hear about other lengths as well if you have insight on that as well.

Answer 1

Although physical appearance allows the reader to better visual your story, it is important not to overdo the visuals. The story should be driven by narrative rather than driven by description. If you feel like height, gender, and symbolic plot driving scar will not overdo it then that is perfectly fine. I find that the scar is an important feature to really build a distinct physical appearance for a character. Also, maybe mentioning hair color and eye color may also be an important factor to add. A more important factor to focus on when creating a character is a more distinct voice rather than physical appearance. For example, if your character has a stutter then it is easier for the reader to understand which character is speaking if that is mentioned. This way, you do not have to mention who is speaking every time dialogue is written. To summarize, physical description may need to be a little more than gender and height, however does not need to be overdone for a visual to be created. Hope this helps!