I’m at an important part in my novel but…

[BelleBriar]

I don’t know how I want my male lead to look 🤣I should, but I don’t. I’m back and forth with different ones.

So, how do you like your male lead to look like? I’m just curious.

[joannekwan]

Usually I model my characters after people or a set of physical traits that I personally find attractive. Especially if it's a romance, I want to have a small personal stake in it to be able to write the attraction as best I can.

[BelleBriar]

That probably does help! I’ll have to think about it still

[ThunderChicken]

For Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days all the characters are real people, so deciding their looks was easy.

For Finding Daecon’s Way I wanted tall, thin-muscular (like a swimmer’s build), long Snow White hair and eyebrows (even though he’s only 25), darker skin, and heterochromic eyes (one dark blue one light blue). Also elf-ears and large, pointy canine teeth (but not really big like a dog or vampire). He was raised among humans and until just this morning thought he actually was one. Turns out that he was wrong.

[BelleBriar]

Ooh Very descriptive, I love it! I will have to check it out now​

[NickRowler]

I know this sounds a little silly, but you could try recreating how you might want your character to look in a character creator. Maybe having a visual guide could help when it comes to writing your novel.

Or, you can just make it ambiguous and let your readers fill it in with their own imagination.

I don't really have a preference. The main thing I don't like is when the author is trying to make him an "average joe" to be a self insert character and not realizing that everyone isn't a thin white guy with brown hair. I would rather a character be unique and stand on their own instead of just being a reflection of the reader.

[joannekwan]

The main thing I don't like is when the author is trying to make him an "average joe" to be a self insert character and not realizing that everyone isn't a thin white guy with brown hair.

That's a great point! Whenever any of my characters aren't white I make it a point to emphasize it because usually people visualize white as default.

[BelleBriar]

I was thinking oxblood red hair with coal-like eyes but I’ve been mulling it over 🤣

[2DLenzy]

You dont have to do this, but u could try to pick features that reflect your characters traits. Theres some general-albeit stereotypical- physical traits you can choose from.

Blonde=pretty, maybe dumb (me, lol)
Brunette=intelligent
Black= idk, musterious, goth emo?

Pale= hates outside/labor or loves indoor activities
Tan= opposite

Eyes? Maybe whatever you want. Try researching color theory.

This is just off the top of my blonde head. Dont have to follow stereo-archetypical traits, it's just what i start with, then change up what i want to reflect- or contrast. Gothic boy loves dolls, with pink eyes? Imaginative!

Idk, your choice. I got no prefs, except i like em soft and round(not so muscley, lol!)

[cherrystark]

I do what @joannekwan does and pick traits that I personally find attractive.

I did learn a while back that character descriptions aren't really necessary. While they are important, readers are going to cast whomever they want in their heads to play the character. This is part of the reason why authors default to descriptions like "tall, hunky male lead with black hair and blue eyes" or "Female lead with long dark brown hair and who is self-conscious about her body." That description fits a lot of people.

What I've started doing is 1. letting other characters do the work of describing the MC 2. Analogies and metaphors! You could describe a man as looking like a high school gym coach and his wife dressed like a lesbian art teacher. Both convey very distinctive images, the same way calling a classically handsome man who steps in to protect someone Captain America. People do that kind of thing all the time. For me, those descriptions hit better than just describing their hair or skin tone.

[WorldBreakerNovels]

I have a general idea of how characters should look, but I'm just the writer of my stories, so I usually let my artists take the lead on certain details or characters. With ones that have specific looks, we toy with different designs until we find one that works for us.

[TheLemmaLlama]

character descriptions aren't really necessary.

Seconded When I real novels, I usually forget the character descriptions stat; if your character's appearance isn't important, you don't really need to describe them anywhere - we can still empathise with and feel connected to him, I promise XD

Also this!

1. Analogies and metaphors!

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So, how do you like your male lead to look like? I’m just curious.

If you're just curious though, I guess I can go through some of my choices for my male leads:

Saku

bitwam: Back in this world, as myself was initially kind of an homage to isekai (as you could probably tell by the title :P), so protag's just a generic-looking guy

Sigma

Initially it was mostly about subverting the edgy white-haired guy trope, with Sigma's white hair symbolizing 'purity' (both in the sense of 'innocence' and 'pure mathematics' - Sigma is a pretty 'theoretical' person with more interest in logic than facts and is pretty detached from 'the real world' and 'common sense')

Joey

Not too sure tbh; probably just a vibes-based design XD I guess he's supposed to look 'rugged', but in sense 1 rather than sense 2 of the word:

which symbolizes his nervous instability and a sort of self-neglect?

[BelleBriar]

Love this! I agree. I use so much figurative language. I never really get too much into appearance because I like the reader to imagine what they want (because we all do that anyways) but I always like adding small details because it’s also not great when there’s no information at all. I don’t think you can leave everything up to the readers imagination but giving them small hints and details along the way is better than info-dumps on every character’s appearance. So now I really have to think of a good way to introduce them 🤣

[BelleBriar]

This is awesome. I love the thought you put into them. But the one character’s description “rugged” 🤣 not all of them need more descriptive detail than that

[cherrystark]

Of course! You can't forgo all description but it's a lot easier to throw in a few "he scratched his beard" or "ran a finger through his shaggy curls" than do one of those scenes where you're describing every inch of him upon introduction

[Glofernwolfe]

Whenever I'm stuck thinking about a character I just draw. Drawing the character sketch helps me figure out the details that I can describe in my story. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to draw or if you are not good at it. You just have to draw for yourself and things will naturally flow out of it.

Here's my male character from my novel.