Describing character traits

There've been countless stories out where the characters aren't described physically like that, at all, and yet they're still brilliantly amazing stories.

What I mean is, like, instead of saying: "He was completely ripped, purple veins ran down his arms and slightly up to his muscular neck", you could say something like "He lifted the car above his head like it was lighter than air".

You don't have to tell people how your characters look but if you sprinkle things throughout your story, people'll get a fairly good mental picture. Show them instead of telling, you know?

:D

It helps if you interweave it into the text. Like "She flipped her black hair over her shoulder as she leaned down to look at the map." instead of just stopping to describe them.

Also, for things like high cheek bones and deep set eyes are things that they reader will have to decide for themselves when they read the descriptions.

If you feel you're being too "telly" but you want the reader to know about physical attributes, how about having another character describe them? That will be a double whammy since it will show the relationship between the characters too.

"You look better with your hair up," he said. "Did you know you have really good cheekbones?"
She looked steadily at him. "Blonds aren't really my thing," she said, and turned away.

Edited for a typo.

I think people become really stupidly obsessed over the idiotic "show, don't tell" advice to the point where they fail to realize what they're doing is "showing". And fail to realize that there are some things you have to tell. If you've got a situation where it's appropriate to describe a character, don't be afraid to describe the character, anymore than you should be afraid to describe the scenery if it's appropriate and remotely relevant to the story. (When it's appropriate is another discussion entirely... I'd say if a character is shooting at the protagonist, they aren't going to much bother with noticing more than the most basic, obvious features of them. :P)

I've gotten fairly sick of the whole "show don't tell" advice as well as the "write what you know" advice. You get to the point where you're trying to "show" everything, whether it's appropriate to the story or not. If a character is extremely muscular, your POV character is probably going to notice this, you don't need to "show" them lifting something heavy to demonstrate that or be afraid to mention it, unless there's a good reason for the big guy to be lifting cars at the moment. And even then, mentioning that he's muscular is absolutely not verboten or anything! if you didn't, the reader might assume he's am average-looking skinny guy who has some amazing superpower or is really a robot or something, especially if there's no prior indication he's actually buff.

Just remember that you're describing things through your characters' eyes, and different people notice different things, and some are more observant than others. While some basic, obvious features will be immediately apparent to anyone, many people don't even notice such things as eye color unless it's a particularly unusual, striking hue. While others, on the other hand, particularly those who work with art or whatnot, might be able to pick out the precise hue of everything. Myself, while I might be able to tell you the basic hair, eye, and skin color, I couldn't begin to describe the features of someone's face beyond "He looks Asian" or whatnot.

I'd say the best way to decide how to describe your characters is to pick up one of your favorite books and see how they do it.

I think the importance of character description also depends on your genre. If you're writing literary fiction, you probably don't need to describe much of the character at all. In some of Cormac McCarthy's books, you're lucky to get a name. The characters are often referred to as "he" and "she" for the first few chapters. But it doesn't matter because the character personality is developed so well, you don't care what they look like.

If you're doing fantasy/sci-fi and you have a new breed in the story, character description is going to be important. So, maybe pick up your favorite book and a book you like that fits in your genre and see how the author does it.

Another writing no-no, besides don't-tell-but-show, is the use of cliches.

The author of Paul Newman's obit. in The Economist uses negatives as part of the description of Newman.

"...He did not care whether his name was on the right of the left of the poster, and bigger or smaller than that of Steve McQueen's. He was unbothered when age began to furrow the brow and fill out the jowls. Unlike...he made no attempt to preserve his prettiness."

Is that not-telling telling, in order to show Newman's distain for Hollywood? :)

And the skillful manipulation of cliches about his famous eyes:
"The eyes were blue. Cornflower blue, steel blue, ice blue. They smoldered through the soft-focus foliage in 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' as he swayed on a bicycle with Katharine Ross on the handlebars. They stared beautifully in his middle-aged lawyer's face as, in 'The Verdict', he was handed an enormous cheque which he refused to take. They were so blue they registered even in black and white...they glowed with the colour of some deep, distant sky."

Good writing. Gotta love it.