In fantasy fiction, the physical descriptions of people (places and things too--all the nouns, really) play a major role in immersing the reader in your world. Of course, none of us are Tolkien, so we probably shouldn't describe a single tree for multiple pages, but I feel like a big part of creating and presenting a fictional world is how it looks. I've read a lot of criticism that insists that what your characters look like is largely inconsequential and can be left to the reader's imagination, and while I agree that a character's actions should hold more weight than their appearance, I think the importance of the physical manifestation of a character and how the author intends for them to be seen should not be glossed over.
I say this because I think representation is important and (again, since none of us are Tolkien) we have this great opportunity* to include the gamut of skin tones and facial features and body proportions and *gasp* even
genders in our work. Currently, fantasy fiction is flooded with pseudo-European-medieval worlds exclusively full of white people. While this
isn't even historically accurate, we're not going for historical accuracy anyway: we're aiming for fantasy, and that can be whatever you want it to be.
Fantasy fiction lends itself quite well to allegorizing racism. Unfortunately, this often leads itself to two things: lazy writing in the form of sweeping generalizations (all orcs are bad), and actual racism (orcs are "black-skinned" and "slant-eyed"). However, this post was not really intended to discuss representation or racism, but how to go about describing physical characteristics of multiple ethnic groups throughout your work.
If your story takes place in in the modern world, you've got a handful of useful non-visual tools you could use to denote ethnicity like a character's name, how other characters describe them, or even directly citing their country of origin/heritage, but in a fantasy world there is no Asia, Africa, Europe, just a bunch of made up place names that you're responsible for recounting. It's common to mold your world's races after existing ones, and I have based the races of the peoples in my upcoming fantasy on existing ones, but, for example, I can't use "Hispanic" to describe Kimber because, well, that ethnicity just doesn't exist in her universe!
Instead, I write up the parameters of the body shape and facial features of a group, and then try to focus on one or a few characteristics that I intend to describe for the reader. For instance, if I am basing a race off of, say, the people of southern Italy (where many of my ancestors are from) there are many broad generalizations I can make about the physical make up of the people: olive skin, dark brown and wavy hair, dark and round eyes, heavy brow, large nasal bridge, oval face shape with longer ears, few blemishes/freckles, cropped facial hair, average body hair, wide mouth, slightly shorter than average build, slightly wider than average build. Now, none of this is particularly novel-worthy description, and, frankly, not very attractive sounding either, but that is not its purpose. I use this as a base for characters, then choose one or two characteristics aside from skin tone that I'd like all or at least most people from that region/background to have and for the reader to be told of. For this race, I'd choose a prominent T-zone (heavy brow and large nasal bridge) because it's not subtle and would be recognized by others immediately (also I find it personally appealing, but that's probably not a great reason, ha!). Contrary to what you may think, it's not limiting. A character with this feature could range from frightening and Neanderthalic to dashing and mysterious depending on the severity to which it's described and, of course, who's seeing it.
I like to write (and read) from limited third person. I do this for a multitude of reasons, but especially because it affords me a set of eyes with which to guide the reader and show them new things. Jayn, the main character of what I'm currently working on, has barely been out of her village, so the reader gets to see everything new along with her, including ethnic makeup, and it makes sense for her, trying to learn the differences between people, to relate similar visuals between people. She becomes familiar with Kimber and learns about her background, and when I introduce another character who looks similar to Kimber, Jayn is able to compare, say, their cinnamon skin tone and the reader can make that connection as well. Of course, Jayn can voice this connection to her companion, which gives Kimber the opportunity to correct and teach her about her people, but again that discussion might be better left for a post actually intended to be about representation.
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| "I'm wearing miko robes for goodness sake!" - Source |
Finally, it's important to at least realize that every reader likely has a "default" character. You may have perhaps heard or read about white Americans asking why all anime characters are white.
They aren't, but to a white viewer they don't appear Japanese because "white" is their default, and probably
most everyone else's too. Sort of like how
male and
heterosexual are typically default. Again, I'm not writing a post about representation or "otherness" (wait, am I?), but I think it's important that, in our descriptions of characters we make an effort to not allow there to be a default, or a "normal" ethnicity.
I thought I'd end this post with a few links to lists of possible descriptors for facial and body features. They are not divided by ethnicity--that's your job as you're creating them--nor are they anywhere near conclusive, but just a jumping off point. And remember, it's all relative to your world and the point of view from which the story is told: if there are no chestnuts, then no one's going to have chestnut-colored eyes, skin, or hair. Similarly if you're character's never seen a beach or jewels, she's not going to describe the prince as sandy-haired and sapphire-eyed.
Skin Tone
Skin Tone (with color swatches)
Hair Descriptors
Hair Color (with color swatches)
Facial Features (general)
Nose Descriptors
Anglo Noses (with pictures) - Ignore the title and text, I just liked the captions
Eye Descriptors
Eye Action and Color
Eye Color (Wikipedia) - I just love this article, I don't know why
What you're really saying when you use "almond eyes"
Build
Female Body Shape Chart** - Not necessarily words you'd use, but they do make you think beyond typical descriptors
Male Body Types**
Beards According to Herman Melville
General Descriptors
More General Descriptors
*Not that Tolkien didn't have the opportunity, he just didn't take it. Also, it's probably more of a responsibility than an opportunity.
**I don't think these have to specifically be female or male
Also, despite that it might be included in some of those links, I don't condone using any variant of "slant" in describing eyes. Ever.
