Charles W. Chesnutt, a respected African-American writer in the late 1800s and early 1900s, wrote The Colonel's Dream. In the excerpt below, the colonel is worrying about a certain man's influence in the community. Watch how he describes the man without giving us any physical description:
From the colonel's worries, what do you know about Fetters?
Notice that Chesnutt uses Fetters' name to tip off readers to the inner workings of the character (fetters = chains). Then he uses a scary simile before listing how Fetter's power affects the people of the area. All that--without recording hair or eye color, the shape of his nose, the curve of his jaw, or a list of what the man is wearing.
Write a description of a character, but do not write anything about how the character looks physically. Write how the character affects those around him or her. How do other characters feel around him? How does she influence those around her?
Fetters had begun to worry the colonel. [The colonel] had never seen the man, and yet his influence was everywhere. He seemed to brood over the country round about like a great vampire bat, sucking the life-blood of the people. His touch meant blight. As soon as a Fetters mortgage rested on a place, the property began to run down; for why should the nominal owner keep up a place which was destined in the end to go to Fetters?
