Buttons and Bows: How Much Description is Too Much?

an article on writing by author Toni Blake

So your heroine is descending the stairs in the most stunning dress your mind’s eye has ever created. Perhaps the year is 1870 and she’s decked out in a frock of deep green velvet topped with a delicate white lace collar, a cameo broach pinned at her throat. Or maybe it’s 1996 and she’s a dangerous femme-fetale with killer curves poured into a sinfully short leopard-skin dress. Or perhaps it‘s her wedding day and her white organdy train stretches elegantly behind her for twenty feet. You could go on forever fawning over the fine details of each and every outfit your heroine chooses to wear. Clothes make the woman, and they can tell us much about her character. But when you feel the urge to describe your character’s apparel in down-to-the-letter detail, think twice, and ask yourself some important questions.

IS THERE TIME? If, in fact, your heroine is making a lengthy and dramatic entrance down the aforementioned staircase, then the answer may be yes. The action has paused, all eyes are presumably on her, and what she’s wearing in this moment does indeed matter. But if she pops through the door to find two men poised before her on bended knee, both offering marriage proposals and waiting impatiently for an answer, then this probably isn’t the best time to describe that cute little jumpsuit she’s wearing.

DOES IT OFFER INSIGHT INTO THE CHARACTER? Clothing can often be used to illustrate a character’s personality. A romantic-at-heart schoolteacher may clothe herself in flowery dresses and add dainty antique jewelry to complete the look. A no-nonsense businesswoman might choose dark-colored suits with straight cuts, accented with only a pair of plain black pumps. In turn, apparel can also be used to indicate a character’s mood or current self-image. A woman wishing to project the sexier side of herself at the beach may don a too-skimpy bikini, but that same woman, after having a change of heart, may overcompensate by wearing a conservative one-piece swimsuit beneath a sarong that hangs past her knees. If what your heroine chooses from her closet that morning will give us an insight into who she is or what she’s about, then by all means, describe it. But if not, save your ink.

WILL IT MATTER LATER? Is your character going to get shot during an acceptance speech at an awards dinner? Well, then choosing to wear white earlier that evening might add some gruesome flair to the drama. Is your vacationing heroine going to end up fighting her way through a blizzard before the day is through? Then the fact that she was wearing shorts and a sleeveless top when she stepped off the airplane is a pertinent piece of information. But if an outfit isn’t going to matter later, then it probably doesn’t matter now.

DO WE ALREADY KNOW? If your heroine is a Wall Street executive, we can assume that she’s wearing a conservative suit to work every day. Consequently, if she works on a farm, we can easily envision her in a t-shirt and jeans. One or two mentions of the obvious will more than suffice in this area, and constant repetitions are an insult to the reader’s intelligence. If, however, that same Wall Street executive comes strolling off the elevator in a pair of faded blue jeans, or the farmhand suddenly puts on a tailored suit one morning before heading out to the fields, then we need to hear about it.

DOES ANYONE EVEN CARE? If your character is going to feel good, or bad, about what she’s wearing, then it matters. If what she’s got on will get her noticed in a crowd, or overlooked in a room with only two other people, that’s important, too. But if she’s wearing pretty much the same type of outfit we’ve come to expect, whether it’s due to her occupation or her personality, there’s no need for a lengthy explanation. Let the reader figure it out. They like to do that on occasion.

In general, a brief description of a character’s apparel is appropriate. But if it’s not important to the story, resist your descriptive urges and keep it simple:

a flowery skirt,
tattered blue jeans and scuffed boots,
a plaid jumper,
sweat pants and an old pair of gym shoes.

The big questions to ask yourself when tempted to spend more than a phrase or two describing a character’s clothing is essentially the same question a writer must ask of each and every word in her manuscript: DOES IT MOVE THE STORY?

This doesn’t mean it has to impact the outcome or change the way the character views the world. But it does mean that the information you provide has to say something, mean something, provide an insight, serve a purpose. Don’t get me wrong; for a character who is very wrapped up in fashion and appearance, it may be entirely relevant to reveal every clothing choice she makes throughout the course of a novel. But by the same token, if a character is in the habit of putting on the same old thing day after day, it may never be necessary to state his or her fashion choices in terms of anything more than, say, flannel and denim, or silk and lace. Consider the character who wears only leather. Sometimes one word can say it all.

And when you just can’t push down that temptation to describe your character’s outfit from head to toe despite the fact that it doesn’t really serve a purpose? Stop and think about why you want to: because you’ve got this fabulous picture in your mind, the cut, the curves, the color, the fit, the detail! And that is precisely why you should leave it out. Remember, readers have creative minds too. Give them just enough to go on, then let their imaginations take over. If you’ve done a good job developing your character, this will happen effortlessly. And if you provide too much detail, the reader will simply become annoyed and skip down to the next paragraph, looking for the point where she hopes the story will resume.