on Jami Gold:

We all know characters are the beating heart of a story. Fashioned from imagination clay and given life by an author, these fictional people have yearnings, dreams, and fears just like us. They also have a past—one filled with challenges, strife, and hope—and this collection of experiences shape them into the person readers meet on the doorstep of chapter one.

Digging deep to explore a character’s hidden truths is hard and necessary work. I spend a lot of time coaching writers to drill down into the essence of who their character is so that when they write their behavior, every action and choice is driven by their motivation and authentic to them.

But there’s another aspect of character description that is easy to forget about or gloss over: their physical appearance.