Bonus points if the author first mentions a specific trait, physical build, or whatever else halfway through the novel and totally fucks up my mental image.
I don’t expect a biology model description for each character, but write me something brief and evocative of how they should look, you fucking dork author. I don’t even know how tall she should be, her hair colour, anything. Why are you like this, author?
I don’t care for a person’s biological appearance, but care a lot about how they dress and their idiosyncrasies.
Some of it, at least when it’s about the protagonist, is that it’s easier for readers to imagine themselves in their shoes. Which is why, even with drawn fiction, the protagonist has a generic/formulaic appearance.
Many books also lack detail in dress and idiosyncracy terms =)
Uh does that really work though? Do people actually "he just like me fr fr
" and project for the whole runtime? Is self-insert protagonist a big thing in written fiction??
Pulp fiction and fantasy? Yeah.
I cannot imagine this being real…
I’ve always thought this blank-slate approach was really pointless, because whatever traits you give your blank slate will alienate someone in the audience. Kind of like a statement “YOU MUST BE THIS CISGENDER, HETEROSEXUAL, WHITE AND NEUROTYPICAL TO RIDE”, you know? I also just cannot imagine trying to project myself over what is ostensibly a character with in universe autonomy though…
It’s not necessarily the main reason, but it’s a reason. Tons of stories, I’d even argue that it’s most, don’t even venture into someone’s sexuality, race and neurotypicality. Readers generally don’t care, as long as it isn’t shoehorned in just for the sake of ticking boxes because you want to have a vibrant cast.
All these characteristics bring their own baggage with them, and thus conflict. If you’re focusing on a story about a parent choosing to move on from losing their partner and having to remarry to make ends meet, sacrifice their own desire for love for the well-being and future prospects of their children, just as an example for conflict. Then giving the character autism, or an ethnicity that’s being discriminated against in that society, or any other characteristics; then it might take away from, diminish or even undermine the story you want to tell.
In longer stories you can have different character arcs that allow for more nuanced characters and sub-plots. Weaving all of that together in a cohesive whole is a skill not many writers possess. Heck, if you’ve ever frequented fiction aggregate websites you’d know that the top user created lists are collections of stories that lack any and all romance.
I used to think this was utterly lame when I was younger, then I began to notice not many of the characters I read had particularly strong personalities. I much prefer characters I can’t see myself in because just like in real life you’ll have people who are majorly different to you especially in motive.
Kinda depends on your definition of “see yourself in”, but yeah I get a lot of mileage out of being in the headspace of different characters narratively