Character Description Examples: Creating People Not Caricatures

Great characters, like people, are made up of many complex components that come together to form a believable whole. From appearances to personality traits to speech patterns, the best character descriptions focus on specific details that both set them apart and make them feel like they could be your neighbor.

In this article, I’ll be taking a look at six essential character description techniques as well as some illustrative examples from literature, tv, and movies to give you some inspiration for how to write multi-dimensional characters yourself.

❗Before you start, consider creating a character profile. You’ll need to know your character well in order to write them in a way that feels authentic and original on the page. Once you have that ready, let’s dive in. 

1. Describe the characters’ appearance

The first thing that comes to mind when you think about character description is probably physical appearances — hair, body composition, age, clothing style, etc. This is an important aspect of any person, real or fictional, as physical markers often reveal something about who we are on the inside.

With that said, too much focus on the outside can quickly become cliché and predictable.

So how do you balance this?

Use looks to quickly establish your character

Appearances are a good opportunity to help your reader quickly get a sense of what type of character they’re dealing with. Rather than spending a whole paragraph describing what they look like, cut straight to the chase so that you can spend more of your time developing their internal worlds.

Example: Emily Henry does this very effectively in Beach Read when she describes Augustus Everett:

“He looks exactly like the kind of guy you’d expect to see in a literary novel. Tall, dark, and brooding—he has a shadow of stubble on his chin, and his hair’s a little too messy in the way that makes it look like he doesn’t care but also knows it looks good.”

Not only does this character description capture Augustus’ appearances in two sentences, allowing readers to use their own imaginations to fill in the rest, but it also hints at his ‘brooding’ personality. And as if that wasn’t enough, the evocative writing contributes to the overall self-aware and tongue-in-cheek tone of this popular romcom, poking fun at the trope of the “tall, dark, and brooding” love interest.

Focus on specific details

The reason Emily Henry’s description of Augustus works so well is because it hones in on a couple evocative details rather than trying to paint an exact picture of the character. So instead of listing a set of generic, physical characteristics (“blonde hair, blue eyes, medium build”), try to think about what specific detail(s) you can highlight about their looks that set them apart from others. 

Example: In Margaret Atwood's Booker-winning novel The Blind Assassin, Atwood's narrator Iris opens the story remembering her sister Laura after her death:

“I could picture the smooth oval of Laura's face, her neatly pinned chignon, the dress she would have been wearing: a shirtwaist with a small rounded collar, in a sober colour - navy blue or steel grey or hospital-corridor green. Penitential colours - less like something she'd chosen to put on than like something she'd been locked up in.”

Atwood's description is specific in detail, giving clues to Laura's personality: from the 'sober' and 'penitential' colors of her clothes, we get a sense of her severe and depressive personality — important details to understand both Iris and Laura as the story progresses.

Let the outside reflect the inside

While readers want to know some surface-level details about your character, appearances should never be just about the surface; they should ideally offer insight into the character's personality, backstory, and emotional state.

Perhaps they always have dirt under their fingernails because they work in landscaping, or maybe they have a scar on their forehead from a traumatic childhood event. Whatever the detail, it should be relevant to the story or help readers understand your character better.

Example: Miss Havisham in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: 

“Her hair was white and she had a pale, almost ghostly, appearance. She sat in a chair, with her wedding dress still on, rotting away as she herself had done, with all the paraphernalia of her wedding in a decaying state.”

This description perfectly balances surface-level description (white hair, pale complexion) with details that reveal something about who the character is. Miss Havisham’s physical state reflects her emotional state and the lasting impact of her heartbreak. Her attire and the paraphernalia that she surrounds herself with symbolise her inability to move on from her past, particularly her traumatic wedding day.

Moving past looks, another thing that defines characters is their actions.

2. Show their personality through action

The best way to show who a character is is to let their actions speak for themselves. After all, actions speak louder than words, so use your character’s behaviour to reveal their personality, emotions, values, and motivations.

Link behaviour to personality and background

Rather than saying that your character has an “anxious” or “kind” personality, try to think of ways that you can show these traits through habits or mannerisms. Maybe they always fidget, or maybe they always stop to help old ladies cross the road. These types of details will help you show, rather than tell, what your character is like and how they move through the world.

Example: When Katniss Everdeen shouts “I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!” in The Hunger Games it’s a save the cat moment that shows the reader that Katniss is fiercely loyal, brave, and somewhat impulsive.

Example: Or consider how Virginia Woolf hints at Mrs Ramsey’s personality in this subtle scene in To the Lighthouse:

“She rose to her feet and moved towards the window. She opened the window with a decisive gesture, and for a moment stood looking out at the view.” 

Set in the Ramsey family’s summer home, Mrs. Ramsey is an accomplished matriarch and hostess. In this scene, however, Mrs. Ramsay’s actions reveal that beyond that she is more than just a decisive and nurturing figure; there is also a sense of internal longing and complexity beneath her domestic duties.

You can also tie current behaviour together with past experiences to give your character depth.

Example: In the opening page of her novel, Jazz, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison takes her time to show her character Violet in action:

“I know that woman. She used to live with a flock of birds on Lenox Avenue. Know her husband, too. He fell for an eighteen-year-old girl with one of those deepdown, spooky loves that made him so sad and happy he shot her just to keep the feeling going. When the woman, her name is Violet, went to the funeral to see the girl and to cut her dead face they threw her to the floor and out of the church. She ran, then, through all that snow, and when she got back to her apartment she took the birds from their cages and set them out the windows to freeze or fly, including the parrot that said, 'I love you.'”

Morrison doesn't say, “Violet was driven crazy by grief, even to the point of disfiguring a dead girl, when her lover cheated on her.” Instead, she shows Violet acting out her grief.

Establish habits and mannerisms

Special traits or habits are another way to make characters come alive on the page. These subconscious behaviors can act as a window into their minds.

Example: In Normal People by Sally Rooney, Connell’s habit of pushing his hair out of his face and avoiding eye contact enforces the picture of hesitance and nervous disposition that Rooney wants to paint:

“Connell’s movements were always hesitant, like he wasn’t sure where he belonged in a room. He’d often look down, pushing his hair out of his face with a quick gesture, but never holding anyone’s gaze for too long.” 

Next, to give some depth to your character, let’s look at beliefs and motivations.

3. Reveal their beliefs and motivations

To truly ground your character in reality, you should give them a strong set of beliefs and motivations. These will provide context for their personality, behaviors, and emotional state, allowing readers to understand why they act the way they do and, ultimately, who they are. 

Let’s look at how to capture this in your character descriptions.

Connect motivations to core values

To create compelling and realistic characters, it's important to implicitly or explicitly establish some core values.

Example: Take this simple sentence from To Kill a Mockingbird: 

“Atticus did not fear the anger of the community, for he had faith in the courts to deliver justice.”

In just one sentence, Harper Lee establishes a central belief that Atticus Finch has: that the legal system will and should uphold justice for all. This belief informs all of his subsequent actions, explaining his calm demeanor, and providing him with a moral compass that allows him to go against his community when he thinks the community is wrong. It also indicates some overarching qualities that define Atticus, without spelling them out: integrity, courage, and compassion.

Example: Another example is Vianne Mauriac in Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale:

“Vianne Mauriac was a mother. It was her job, her reason for being, and she would do whatever it took to protect her daughter.”

Set in France during WWII, Vianne is motivated by her intense love for her daughter. She holds the belief that she must keep her head down in order to survive. This causes her to compromise her own principles and turn a blind eye to the harsh realities of the German occupation, but as the novel progresses, she realizes that survival at all costs is not enough; that it builds a world where no one can be truly safe.

Give your characters some false beliefs too

As we can see in the example of Vianne, the problem is that characters often have a flawed idea of what they want or need to achieve in order to reach their goal. No character is perfect, so giving them this kind of “flaw” can make them feel more real.

Example: Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice holds the false belief that Mr. Darcy is prideful and arrogant, and that marriage to him would lead to great unhappiness, causing her to reject his sincere confession.

Another part of (indirect) character description is speech.

4. Capture how they speak and interact

Describing characters through conversation is another way to make them feel like real people. What they say, how they say it, and how they interact with others can offer profound insights into a character’s psyche and give a more well-rounded picture of them in their social context. 

Establish your character’s voice

Word choices, tone, and style of speech can hint at your character’s social status, intellect, and emotional complexity without explicitly stating it.

Example: In Circe, Madeline Miller captures the personality of the eponymous protagonist in the following quote: 

“I never seemed to belong anywhere. Always an outsider, I learned to speak with the softest of voices, knowing that I would be heard by no one, until I found a way to make them listen.”

This is a great example of how one small character trait, like being softspoken, can reveal a lot about who the character is. Tired of never being heard, it is clear from this description that Circe is not just a passive, meek character who happens to be softspoken; she is perceptive and has learnt to adjust to her circumstances. But she also has a calculating nature, simply biding her time until the day people can’t ignore her voice. Through this type of character description, the reader understands that there’s an implicit, silent rage bubbling under Circe’s quiet demeanor. 

Juxtapose what is said with what is done

Human beings are full of contradictions and often say one thing but do another. Dialogue is a perfect opportunity to capture this.

Example: In Franny and Zoey, J.D. Salinger juxtaposes what is said between characters Lane and Franny with how each character feels:

“He suddenly leaned forward, putting his arms on the table, as though to get this thing ironed out, by God, but Franny spoke up before he did. 'I'm lousy today,' she said. 'I'm just way off today.'
She found herself looking at Lane as if he were a stranger, or a poster advertising a brand of linoleum, across the aisle of a subway car.”

Both characters are feeling frustrated, but we only get a few lines hinting at this. We see Lane's gesture mid-dialogue, as he tries to “get this thing ironed out, by God,” and Zooey’s feeling of distance from Lane, “as if he were a stranger.” But the dialogue never fully expresses this frustration. This creates a layered interaction where both characters seem to have rich inner lives, but hold back in consideration of the other or from an inability to express themselves fully.

💡Top tip: use dialogue tags and adverbs in your dialogue to give more nuance. “He smiled knowingly” tells us more about the character than just “he smiled” 

Let characters describe themselves

How characters view themselves gives another clue to their personalities. You can reveal this either through dialogue or monologue:

Example: In Cather in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is speaking directly to the reader: 

“I'm a madman, that's all. I don't even know why I'm mad, but I am. Maybe it’s because I’m a phony, but who the hell wants to be a phony?”

First person narration or dialogue where a character describes themselves can be revealing in a few different ways. Firstly, as Holden describes himself as a madman and phony — which may or may not be true — it gives the reader insight into his self-image. Secondly, through his brash and blustering speech, we get insight into his personality. Taken all together, this passage says less about whether he’s a madman or phone, and rather paints an image of a self-aware, cynical, and somewhat rebellious teen who isn’t afraid to be provocative.

Example: Or take George Milton in Of Mice and Men: 

“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then they go into town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they're poundin' their tail on some other ranch. Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world.”

This quote from Steinbeck’s classic novella similarly establishes how George sees himself and gives readers implicit insight into his background based on how he speaks (“They don’t belong no place.”). Besides being a guy who works on a ranch who is lonely and cast aside by society, George also displays bitterness at his lot in life, and longing for something else.

In another scene, another character, Slim, gives us his take on George instead: “A guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella. But George—he’s got brains. He’s all right.” In a similar way, you can use other characters to describe your character, which is what we’ll look at next.

5. Let other characters describe them

Using multiple perspectives in your story — whether through dialogue or whole sections dedicated to different POVs — can add depth and complexity to characters and their relationships. People rarely go around describing themselves, and even when they do, their self-perception is not always accurate, so having other characters describe your character can be a great way to make your character description more natural.

Example: Virginia Woolf is a master of combining multiple characters' points of view (even within a single scene) to create a complex sense of ensemble and emotion. In this scene from To the Lighthouse, a friend of Mrs. Ramsey’s husband, Charles Tansley, is described by multiple characters at once: 

“[Mrs. Ramsay] looked at him. He was such a miserable specimen, the children said, all humps and hollows. He couldn't play cricket; he poked; he shuffled. He was a sarcastic brute, Andrew said. They knew what he liked best - to be for ever walking up and down, up and down, with Mr. Ramsay, saying who had won this, who had won that …”

We see a clear sense of the children's dislike, and of how Tansley looks through their eyes, as observed by their mother. Further on, Mrs. Ramsay notes Tansley's pompous and academic way of speaking (his continual efforts to prove his intellect due to being from a working class background and his admiration of Mr Ramsay's own accomplishment).

Shortly after the above description, Woolf switches to Tansley's point of view and we get a more romantic sense of Tansley and how he sees things (and how he views Mrs Ramsay herself):

“... and all at once he realised that it was this: - she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
With stars in her eyes and veils in her hair, with cyclamen and wild violets - what nonsense was he thinking? She was fifty at least; she had eight children.”

Woolf combines concise, clear physical description ('all humps and hollows') with a deeper sense of personality, revealed through how characters feel about one another. We see 'boring', academic and non-sportsman Tansley but also Tansley's romantic dreamer side through his own POV. In this way, Woolf makes Tansley and other characters multi-dimensional and full of human contradiction by combining external perspectives with their own.

6. Use metaphors to deepen character description

Many character description examples reveal what a powerful tool literary devices like metaphor and similes can be for building vivid character.

Example: In Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, the character Estha retreats inwards and stops talking in the wake of a traumatic experience. Roy's use of metaphor in this character description example is much more effective than if she were to say Estha is 'sad' or 'traumatized':

“Once the quietness arrived, it stayed and spread in Estha. It reached out of his head and enfolded him in its swampy arms...sent its stealthy, suckered tentacles inching along the insides of his skull, hoovering the knolls and dells of his memory, dislodging old sentences, whisking them off the tip of his tongue.”

By describing Estha's silence as a parasitic, living creature eating away at her, Roy conveys Estha's suffering while avoiding emptier, more abstract terms.

The Victorian author Charles Dickens was also a master of characterization and often used extended metaphor when introducing characters. 

Example: Here Dickens describes the boastful, self-important Mr. Bounderby in Hard Times:

“He was a rich man: banker, merchant, manufacturer, and what not. A big, loud man, with a stare, and a metallic laugh. A man made out of coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him [...] always proclaiming, through that brassy speaking-trumpet of a voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty.”

Switching from the broad detail of describing Bounderby's profession to the particulars of his appearance and voice, Dickens drives the description home with the picture of Mr. Bounderby as a “man made out of coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched.” These details combined create a clear sense of persona.

Lastly, let’s look at how you can also capture your character by writing what they are not. 

7. Compare and contrast characters

Each major character should have their own voice, appearance, world view and set of motivations, but many writers struggle to make them distinct from each other. One way to combat this is by establishing a contrasting character, or a foil character that acts as a counterpoint, representing what your character is not. 

Example: George Eliot clearly differentiates the two sisters who are introduced first in Middlemarch. We meet pious Dorothea and her younger sister, the more worldly, materialistic Celia:

“The rural opinion about the new young ladies, even among the cottagers, was generally in favour of Celia, as being so amiable and innocent-looking, while Miss Brooke's large eyes seemed, like her religion, too unusual and striking. Poor Dorothea! Compared with her, the innocent-looking Celia was knowing and worldly-wise.”

Because Dorothea's pious nature is crucial for Eliot's plot, the foil of her 'worldly-wise' sister draws our attention to this important character trait from the start.

💃 Traits such as piety are just some of the qualities that describe characters. Read a complete guide to description for characters.

There are many more ways to write great characters, but I hope that with these techniques and examples of character descriptions you have a better sense of how to write your own, wonderfully complex and real characters that jump off the page. Just remember, when in doubt, choose specifics over general, sweeping adjectives, show their behaviour rather than describe them, and weave your descriptions into the story through dialogue and other characters.

Happy writing!