Chapter 1
Character Summaries
Now here's the problem I've noticed in a lot of writings...
Writers tend to give a detailed summary of what the character is wearing, their occupation, and their looks when introducing their story.
You see my dear reader, this is a problem simply because half of their introduction is a description of characters we already know about. I mean lets think logically about this for a second. Obviously if someone is looking up stories about their favorite show, they already know what the character looks like, their personality, even their admissions; so stating the obvious is usually a big turn off for a story to have. Someone may have a good idea for a story, but they are losing half of their readers because they got bored after the first two sentences. But don't get me wrong, having some character description is a good thing too. To prove my point let me give you two examples; one good, one bad.
Example 1
The Straw-hat's navigator , Nami, slowly stood up from her stop on her lounge chair at the sound of her captains excited cries. She was a pretty girl, no older than 18, with curves in all the right places. Her playful brown eyes sparkled at the thought of adding another island to her map. She was wearing her usual outfit, that was a simple tee-shirt and mini-skirt. Her heels cliqued on the deck of the Thousand Sunny as she walked toward the edge of the ship to get a better view of the island.
Example 2
Nami slowly looked down at her wrist to see the log pose pointing to the same area her captains excited cries came from. She stood up from her lounge chair , brushed away some of her long hair that had fallen onto her face when she looked down at her wrist, and made her way over to the edge of the ship to get a better view of the island she would soon be documenting.
In the first example, told you things about Nami you already knew. I also gave you more description about her in that one paragraph, than you would probably see in the entire story, excluding the other character descriptions in it. The first example is the bad one because I'm essentially just adding unneeded fluff to a story. Please keep in mind that in a story like example one, not only would Nami get an unwanted description, but so would the others as well.
In the second example I gave you a description of her as a way of establishing the time where the story will take place (her long hair would imply that this story will that place after the war). I also told you that she was the navigator without actually saying the word navigator (she was holding the log pose, and I mentioned that she would want to document the island).
Just remember my dear reader that "less is more" when it comes to descriptions. That way you can get to the main story that much faster, and manage to keep your viewers.
I also want to take the time to mention OC's or Mary Sue's, as they are famous for being the center of long winded, detailed explanations. It would make sense for me to include them in this chapter, but I think the subject of OC's should have its own chapter.
~Done
Well my dear reader, I think that's all I have to say about character descriptions regarding cannon characters. I hope it helps you out. Until next time!
Thank you for reading. I hope you have a wonderful day/night. Bye~