I usually fall somewhere toward the minimalist camp, but now that I'm making a foray into fantasy, I wonder if I need to put in more than, "He had dark hair and wore an even darker cloak."

So taking off your writer's hat for a moment, think about this: when you read a sci-fi/fantasy story for enjoyment, do you need lots of concrete physical detail, owing to the unfamiliarity of the environment? (I.e., clothing, hair, etc.) Or are you content to fill in most of the gaps yourself, as you would with non-speculative fiction?

I don't mind a few well-placed hints, but it's interesting how some fantasy authors seem to relish telling EVERYTHING, down to what kind of dwarven alloy is in the hero's hauberk, or how the humidity of the tropical latitudes curls the heroine's red-gold hair just so.

Is this level of description simply a matter of style, or is it necessary to the genre?

For example, Thomas Hardy describes Tess as having large breasts, a full figure and a very red mouth. When Polanski saw the waif-like, pale and ethereal Nastassia Kinski, he immediately said "that's Tess!". Go figure.

Your choice is about whether you are happy to let them make assumptions, or whether you want to set some ground rules, or key them in about certain things. Certainly, if elements of appearance are important to the plot, you HAVE to slip them in somewhere (e.g. if two characters have the same size/build/hair colour so that one could pass for the other in the dark).

In general, I don't go for long physical descriptions, because it comes across as infodump, and can, frankly, be boring. I agree about concentrating on particular notable features - a beard, unusual height, some cultural costume that makes someone stand out. I have a very clear picture in my head of how certain characters look, but ultimately it probably doesn't matter THAT much if other people see my characters a bit fdifferently.

Just some musing that I've been doing.

I've got the basic for a couple of them. Long dark hair, the other one has long brown hair, but I haven't said the type of clothing that they wear or anything like that.

Could you guys give some advice on that?

Once again, you guys are the greatest.

Then again, you could completely fail to describe a character to me and I probably wouldn't notice. The only way I would notice would be if somehow I felt that some aspect of their physical appearance was important. If there is romance in a story, for example, even as a subplot, I'd like to know whether the two involved in that are attractive.That's not to say you have to go into lingering detail. There are no parts of a person's body -- man or woman -- that is essential to draw out. Eye color is common, but that's kind of strange because eye color is really the least meaningful feature of most people -- it's small and subtle. Breast size becomes important if the POV character cares or if there is something really out of place there.

- Adventure gear, I like to know what the character is taking with them on the adventure.

- Cataloging salvage after a plane crash or shipwreck. It gets me to thinking about how the items can be used by the character. Thus, I get "active" in the story.

- Describing interesting places. But normally, I want to read these descriptions after meeting the POV character, and through the POV character's eyes.

- What a hero or heroine is wearing to an important event. But only describe the vivid, easy to grasp images. Like - She wore a simple white satin dress with a blue silk sash. Her only other adornment was fresh flowers crowning her head.
Don't say something like - Her shoes were a size six, and covered in white beads. Her hair was back in a French twist with roses, babies breath and white lilies creating a complex crown of pure white. Her dress was made of satin, imported from Asia, and tailored by the fine ladies at Huffinstuff, Inc. - This does not appeal to me because I want to get on with the action of the story.

As Miriel said:

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If all you have to say about the character is that they're a 6'2" male with brown hair, blue eyes, who weighs 185...well, it's like reading police descriptions. I'll pass.

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Much more interesting that a character's description is the way other characters react to them. If men swoon over a woman you don't need to describe her figure, I get the picture. Ditto if children cringe in fear at the sight of an old man.

Complex question, actually.

Much of it is style. As you're seeing from your responses so far, there aren't many readers around here who go for that kind of descriptive character detail. However, there are a lot of readers who LOVE it to DEATH!! Which is why writers who write in that style CAN find success in the industry. I mean, these books are getting published aren't they?

Also, spec-fic is, by definition, about things that are unfamiliar to 20th Century, earth-bound humans. Therefore, the writer often (I say often, not always) carries the burden of needing to give adequate description to enlighten the reader on the mechanics and physical details of the writer's spec-fic world. The difference between 'adequate' and 'overdone' are often matters of style and reader taste, but 'overdone' often displays that the writer is an amateur.

However, spec-fic covers an awful lot of sub-genres--including urban fantasy in which the fantasy takes place in contemporary surroundings, in which case greatly detailed physical descriptions of mostly-normal human beings are merely tedious.

I think the thing that bothers me most about detailed descriptions is not necessarily that they exist, but they're often stuck into the narrative right in the middle of something interesting happening. SCREEEEECH!! Let's put the brakes on the story to tell you about the gold flecks in the heroine's green eyes, her full red lips, her auburn hair streaked with gold, her tiny ankles, her....! UGH!!

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a head exactly like a coconut

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Bean is described as being very small, and this is relevant to the plot. Many of the other characters get very little physical description.

Except Achilles, who again has relevance in terms of description.

Tolkein describes hobbits in detail, but not necessarily Frodo specifically, or Sam or anyone else.

But much can be implied. If every young man in the village is just DYING to hook up with the local maiden, we can assume she's pretty good looking. I don't have to have the author actually say "she's a babe!"

But it's really all up to you and what you want to portray.

In one of my stories where an alternate time-line occurs when the British and Romans banded together to form a single empire (you'd have to read to find out how this happened), I give the officers in the military what I believe the Roman toga might have evolved into for practical military use in the north. This could be very detailedly explained, but there's no real purpose in going beyond a few sentences of description.

Take for example my character Brand. He's a tallish sort of man that wears his curly, coarse black hair very short. His face is broad with many asian features, although his face has an anglo structure. His eyes are sad and he always looks tired because, in fact, he never sleeps for any reason. For the same reasons he never sleeps, he rarely blinks.

Beyond this, there's nothing much to describe. Medium build, carries himself like soldiers have all throughout history, although perhaps his gait is a little more rolling than stiff. Beyond this, the only thing of interest to note is his clothes.

His outfit is very obviously a toga that was adapated for the northern climes. It's basically a once-piece outfit that covers from neck to ankle, down to the wrists. It has straight sleeves, buttons at the left shoulder and belts at the waist using a wrap-over belt. If I cared to include it, I'd mention that it's made of thick grey wool and he wears leather boots with fleece lining and wooden soles. The lack of buttoning anywhere but the shoulder allows him to access with his left hand two inner pockets that contain his cigars and any papers he happens to need to carry.

That's about the only description I need of Brand. It should tell you right-off that he's not from our time-period. Other details, such as the fact that he carries cigars on him at all times but never any matches can be inserted later into the story.

But other stories, such as the one I was writing earlier tonight that is set entirely in the modern world, I need no description beyond "Berry was a late teens youth with short red hair he kept swept back from his face. He preferred plain t-shirts and polo shirts, but today he wore his Green Day t-shirt. He wore black denim jeans, beat up old Keds and ankle socks because they were comfortable, and that happened to be just about all he owned."

No need to mention beyond that, and even that is a little too much description in some cases.