In his 1979 introduction to The Elements of Style, E. B. White fondly and memorably describes the book’s original author, William Strunk Jr.:
From every line there peers out at me the puckish face of my professor, his short hair parted neatly in the middle and combed down over his forehead, his eyes blinking incessantly behind steel-rimmed spectacles as though he had just emerged into strong light, his lips nibbling each other like nervous horses, his smile shuttling to and fro under a carefully edged mustache.
This is one of the most evocative descriptions of someone’s personal appearance that I have ever read. It strikes an impressive balance between the detailed facial descriptions provided by Victorian authors and the vague descriptions we find in contemporary literature, which usually note hair color and nothing more.
White uses three techniques to paint a word picture of his beloved college professor:
Choose expressive words—The modifier puckish describes not only appearance but personality; it tells us the types of expressions we might expect to see on this man as well as the spirit behind them. (Off the top of my head, other words that do this are dour, drowsy, angelic…)
Give specific details—White lists “short hair parted neatly in the middle and combed down over his forehead” and “a carefully edged mustache.” We can effortlessly imagine how the hair looks as well as the precision of Strunk’s personality.
Describe movement—My favorite aspect of this description is White’s depiction of a face in motion: Strunk’s “eyes blinking incessantly…his lips nibbling each other like nervous horses, his smile shuttling to and fro.” Expressions are just as important as features in constituting a person’s unique appearance, and far more important in conveying personality.
Writing Exercise
Describe a person’s face. Choose a person you have observed in real life or on-screen, not someone in a still shot. In addition to portraying the person’s features, try to evoke facial movements and expressions so that it is easy for the reader to imagine the person in action.
How did it go? Share your character description in the comments!