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10 Words to Describe an Old Man’s Face

By Ali Dixon

Do you have an elderly male character in your novel? Are you currently thinking about what features to give to this person? Here are 10 words to describe an old man’s face to help you.

1. Wrinkled

Bearing wrinkles ; ridges or furrows on the skin that generally form with age.

“Although his eyes were bright and engaged, his wrinkled face gave away his true age.”

“The man’s face was wrinkled and his smile was welcoming—she felt she could trust him immediately.”

How It Adds Description

As people they older, they get more and more wrinkles on their faces. You can describe the old man in your story as being particularly wrinkled if he’s very old. This will show readers without needing to state outright that the character you’re describing isn’t a young person.

Turning gray ; having grey hair.

“The man was old and graying with wisps of white hair.”

“Although he moved around efficiently, he could tell the man was old, especially because of his graying face.”

Along with gaining more wrinkles, people who get older also tend to have hair that turns gray or white. Perhaps the old man you are describing has a head full of gray hair, or maybe he has a big gray beard. Either way, you can describe his face as graying to help emphasize his age.

Lacking in brilliance ; slow in perception.

“She was speaking directly to him, but his face remained dull and impassive.”

“His face was dull and aged, but when she asked him questions later, he was perfectly responsive and remembered everything that had happened.”

If someone’s face is dull, then that can help to show readers that the person you are describing lacks youth and enthusiasm. If you want to surprise your reader, you can describe an old man’s face as being dull and uninterested and later in the story have the old man take up a pivotal role and act much more involved.

Lacking in energy or spirit ; uninteresting.

“The old man’s vapid expression made her think that he must not care about what was going on around him.”

“At first, he seemed distant and vapid , but the more they all spoke to him, the more they realized that he was extremely aware and intelligent.”

If the old man you are describing is perhaps going a bit senile, then you can describe his face and expression as vapid. This will tell readers that mentally, he may not be entirely present.

Having no energy or strength ; worn.

“The man in front of them had a tired look on his face, and he seemed unwilling to move very much.”

“The tired old man in front of her wasn’t very responsive.”

The word tired doesn’t just have to refer to a person’s physical state. When people are young, their expressions tend to be quite vibrant and excited. Older people, on the other hand, may appear perpetually tired. You can use this word to describe how old your character looks as well as to describe his general personality.

6. Sparkling

Lively or animated .

“The man was so old he could hardly walk or move at all, but his sparkling expression told of his internal youth.”

“He sat in a wheelchair in the corner of the room, and she would have almost missed him entirely if not for his sparkling eyes.”

This is a very fun word to use, as you can use it to subvert your readers’ expectations. The man in your story may be quite old, but if you describe some features of his face like his eyes as sparkling, this shows an inner youth that he may have.

Dried or shrunken, often with age ; failing vitality.

“She took note of the man’s wizened face, which over many years had become tired and wrinkled.”

“Although his face was wizened , his mind was sharp, and he still remembered specifics of the event even all those years later.”

If the old man in your story appears particularly old or wrinkled, then describing his face as wizened can demonstrate that to your readers. It can help show readers that the old man may be very near the end of his life.

Unkempt ; not well maintained or cared for; messy.

“The man had not shaved his face in a long time, and his patchy, scruffy beard was proof of that.”

“Although his face was scruffy , he was well-dressed which made him presentable enough for the event.”

As people get older, they may find it more and more difficult to perform personal grooming tasks. This can lead to things like an overall unkempt appearance. Using this word to describe the old man in the story will demonstrate that he may not be as good at maintaining his appearance as he once was.

9. World-Weary

Demonstrating boredom or fatigue at material pleasures or other aspects of the world .

“His world-weary expression made her hesitant to try talking to him.”

“He had seen many things in his life, but his world-weary appearance made him seem unenthusiastic about his adventures.”

The old man in your story may have seen many things in his life, and at this point, he may find the world boring because of it. If that’s the case, world-weary is a great word to use to describe the way he looks.

Overworked or exhausted to the point of fatigue ; apathetic or cynical because of past experiences.

“His eyes were jaded by the knowledge he held and the many experiences that came with old age.”

“The old man appeared jaded at first, but the more she spoke to him, the more he began to open up and tell more stories about his youth.”

When someone has many experiences, especially negative ones, they can become jaded and unhappy with the world. This makes it a great word to describe someone who is old and who has been through many difficult things.

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Describing an old man 31 comments.

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Posts similar to this are in my new book ‘Writing with Stardust’. The techniques and 5 different Levels of ability used are the same as in the book.

For many more chapters like these, please check out my book Writing with Stardust by clicking the book title. It is now for sale on Amazon.com.

Or just type in ‘Describing a forest’ or ‘Describing a mountain’ to get some free chapter previews and it will come up under ‘Best Descriptive Sites’ .

Describing an old man or a grandfather seems to cause people difficulty so here is my attempt at helping them. The post is in five levels so if you haven’t read my blogs before, Level one is for Basic English skills. It describes a grandfather in simple English. Level two describes a grandmother and it is in paragraph form. Level 3 describes an old man , Level 4 describes a homeless man and Level 5 is a World War 2 story involving an old man . Level five is the highest level and it is for those able to understand complex English phrases and concepts. I hope there is something for everyone to learn from the blog. God bless and take care for now. Here is the post:

LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5

LEVEL 1: Describing a Grandfather

1. My grandfather has winter-white hair. Hair

2. His eyes are blood-flecked as he is very old. Eyes

3. He has a goatee and it suits him. Beard

4. His face is timeworn and it is wrinkled. Face/ Skin

5. When he walks, he is unsteady on his feet. Walk/Movement

6. Some of his clothes are moth eaten but he still keeps them in the wardrobe. Clothes

7. Two of his fingers are crooked from an old sports injury. Fingers

8. He has a very friendly smile. Smile

9. His eyes are a sparkling , blue colour and he seems to see everything. Bright Eyes

10. His voice can be weak and fragile at times. Voice

LEVEL 2: Describing a grandmother

My grandmother is the nicest person I know. She makes those beautiful chocolate éclairs that all grandchildren love and she is very generous with them. Her hair has is gunmetal grey and is long and lush. Sometimes her eyes can appear milky when she is tired but usually they are gleaming with energy. Her face can appear world weary at times also but usually she is active and alert.

Every Saturday she walks the two miles into town and then she can appear drowsy in her movements on the way home. In the winter her fingers get slightly inflamed from the cold but she says it doesn’t hurt her. I have never seen her wear shabby clothes and they are always clean and fresh. She has the most angelic smile I have ever seen and, even though her voice can appear feeble at times, she is very healthy.

LEVEL 3 : Describing an Old Man

The old man who lives down the street is a reclusive character. He only comes out of his house occasionally, usually to collect his pension. When I saw him first, I thought his hair was very unusual.

It is very long and lush with a salt and pepper tint. He must read until late at night because he has crow’s feet under his eyes. He has a clipped, Abe Lincoln beard and that must be why everyone calls him ‘The President’. I reckon he must be in his seventies because his face is time chiselled and weather beaten. At times he can seem a bit spiritless , as if life and old age are getting the better of him. The clothes he wears are sometimes ragged and threadbare also, as if he is giving in to the passage of time and is unconcerned about his appearance.

I’ve noticed that his hand becomes clenched when the cold winds of winter bite the air. His fingers get knotty and then the hand forms the shape of a claw. I don’t feel sorry for him because he probably wouldn’t want me too. He smiled at me once when I met him on the street and there were a lot of megawatts in it! It totally transformed his face and the years dropped away from his face. His eyes shone a bright, cerulean-green and his teeth gleamed like piano keys.

Although his voice trembled when he said hello, I knew then that he hadn’t given up completely on life.

LEVEL 4: A Homeless man

Reading the newspaper today made me laugh out loud. It also brought back a memory that I thought had been buried forever. Let me paint the scene for you…

It was roughly fifteen years ago on Christmas Eve. The snow was falling in a cloud of Merlin-white and the air was beautifully cold. It wasn’t the skin-biting pinch of a windy day, more like the powdery cold of a crisp, refreshing Alaskan snowfall. I was standing outside the front entrance of a shopping mall in New York, enjoying the high spirits of the shoppers as they swarmed around me. My mother was inside getting some Christmas presents. I suppose I was about fourteen at the time.

There was a homeless man in the middle of the street weaving his way through the traffic. I could only assume that he was homeless as his actions and clothes were bizarre. He held a brown, paper bag in one hand and he would occasionally put it to his mouth to take a drink from the bottle within. The other hand was being used to make obscene gestures and to thump the bonnets of the honking cars. All the while he issued forth a string of obscenities and vile curses. Not just your ordinary curses either. This guy was threatening the motorists that the milk would curdle in their fridges’, their food would turn to sawdust and that he would render them barren and infertile for eternity. He was like a one man comedy show with the outrageousness of his performance.

He had a strange appearance, almost as if it was contrived. His hair was wizened and straw-like, nearly fossilized it was so dry. He had sad, way worn eyes and a distinctive beard. It wasn’t a thick, captain Ahab beard but rather something a lunatic might have: straggly, unkempt and spittle flecked. His face was toil worn and tanned from exposure to the elements and he walked with a weary, lethargic air until he would suddenly explode in a burst of rage. His fingers were gnarled and knobbly and the clothes he wore were musty and minging judging by the reaction of the people he passed. Their noses would crinkle in disgust and they would peel away from his presence. I don’t want to sound pass remarkable and over critical in all this but he was a truly unpleasant character. What made it worse is that he made a beeline to where I was standing.

I shuffled uncomfortably as he approached. His eyes seemed to laser in on me as if I was his target for the day. His voice was surprising, a gravel-and-gravy mix of whiskey roughness and educated brogue.

“Hey kid-gotta buck to spare?”

He seemed very gentle, a complete contrast to the South Park character I had witnessed earlier. I normally didn’t entertain vagrants or weirdos but I was so grateful he wasn’t shouting at me that I gave him the first note out of my pocket. It was twenty bucks. I felt a pang of regret then as it was part of my money to get Christmas presents. He looked at the note and I remember that he said: “You’re a nugget, kid. God bless all generous and good looking people.”

With that he was off. He zigzagged his way across the street, screaming at anyone who honked. I saw him going across to another shop front and that some old lady was giving him money. That was the last I ever saw of him. Now my eyes drifted to an article in the Obituary column of the New York Times. The caption was ‘New York’s Unlikeliest Billionaire.’

‘Died Monday, aged 65. Lloyd ‘The Tramp’ Carson, heir to the Carson Steel empire and notorious practical joker. Lloyd, who was a dedicated actor and keen observer of human life, liked nothing better than to dress up as a vagrant and shout insults at his fellow New Yorkers. Although knocked down twice as a result of these escapades, he played out the role until his last day on this earth. His last words were known to be: “You’re a nugget, man. God bless all good looking people.” Indeed, these are the exact words which shall be on his epitaph as per his wishes.’

It is believed that Mr Carson has left an estate worth north of $1.7 bn. As he does not have any immediate family, speculation is mounting as to who shall be the beneficiaries of his largesse. Rumours abound that he had a team of private detectives following him and they would discover the identities of people who were particularly generous to Mr Carson’s alter ego. It may be another urban myth, of which New Yorker’s are particularly fond of, but sources at the New York Times are adamant that Mr Carson intended to pay back those who had a generous spirit.

I laughed out loud again as I finished the article. He was most definitely a character, this guy. I had to hand it to him. He knew how to get a kick out of life.

I thought nothing more of it until a letter arrived three months later. Then I didn’t laugh at all. I cried with happiness.

LEVEL 5: A War Story

Tap-tap-tap.

The old man was trying to remember his wife’s epitaph as he clutched clumsily at his walking-stick. His memories were getting as cloudy as his eyes these days. The ebb and flow of time had chiselled away at his wizened face, ravaging it with careful patience. It was as crinkly as faded parchment now. The chapters of his life were written there to read; strength of character and memories of lost loves tinged with sadness because he was alone in the world now. He had done nothing base or ignoble in a lifetime of happy mediocrity and he was proud of that. He appeared sluggardly and spiritless to the many who rushed past him in the street. Although he was ashamed of his threadbare, tatty clothes and their musty odour, it was a choice between dog food and washing-powder these days. His bones ached constantly and his soul was weary occasionally but the desire to live still flared as bright as star-flame. He was a product of his mother’s quote.

“You are a precious gift of the womb, Luke”, she had told him daily.

He had been the only child of a widowed mother. That was a long time ago. His neighbours weren’t sure now if he was as old as the village over the hill or older than the hill over the village. He had outlived everyone who could say. His knobbly and gout-swollen fingers found it difficult to grasp the stick in the rain. Once the cold got into his bones it was difficult to get it back out. Wracked with ague and gnarled with age, his thoughts drifted more and more to his wife lately. When he had first met her, her electrifying smile had completely won him over. So too had her cupid-bow lips, her coral-black hair and her eyes of paradise-blue which glittered as clear as a mountain stream. Her memory would never leave him even though many others were becoming hazy. His stomach ached with pain and his left leg throbbed. Tap. A pause. Tap-tap. A longer pause. He thought of his dog at home, hungry and dreaming his doggy-dreams on the cold floor, probably shivering. The old man decided he would light a small fire tonight with the last few sticks. He could cope without it but the dog deserved. . . . . THWACK!

He felt an acute pain and a ringing sound filled his head. He tried to stay upright and summon strength and for a brief moment he did. Then his left leg betrayed him and he felt a hard rap above his ear. The only sense he had was of the cold concrete against his wet hair. . . .

“Man up, soldier!”

The sergeant was the first person he had ever known to use that phrase. He had Hercules shoulders and a hard stare. When he raised his voice, it was as loud as bottled thunder. He glared with contempt at the young recruit who was cowering in the trench.

A soldier called out to the sarge from the end of the trench. “Man down, sergeant!”

The sergeant cursed and leaned into the ear of the recruit. He said something to the novice and made his way down to the medics.

Luke could see that the young tyro had the thousand-yard stare common to most of the new soldiers. They always took time to adjust to the trenches and the whims of war. War was a harsh master, totally indiscriminate. It didn’t matter sometimes whether you were brave or craven, vigilant or lax. At any moment a stray shell or gas canister could send you on your way to the Maker. It was a lottery of lives and that single, salient fact seemed to unman even the best of soldiers. Conditions in the trenches didn’t help either. Corpse-engorged rats, beady-eyed, ring-tailed, and as big as cats, waddled past with their bounty, heedless of the men. The arachnid-cold defiance in their eyes made the men feel like potential prey in a reversal of nature’s laws.

It was forbidden to shoot them as bullets were scarce. You couldn’t bayonet them either as their swollen stomachs burst open, spreading disease. Some of the men, hunters and poachers from country villages, caught them with blankets and threw four or five into a barrel for weeks on end and sealed it up. Eventually, one would emerge, huge and vicious. ‘King rat’ had become a cannibal and would be set free to terrorise the other rats. Men grunted with satisfaction that nature’s laws had been restored; rats should eat rats, not men. It never fully solved the problem but it gave the soldiers peace of mind. To Luke, the real problems weren’t the rats.

Trench foot was a constant worry. Standing in a foot of mercury-red water every day made the skin doughy and inflamed, leading to amputation for the afflicted. Hair-lice, gum disease from a lack of vitamin c, hypothermia and cholera from infected water were all daily battles. The worst by far was what the experienced soldiers called ‘zombie sickness’. The constant whining of bullets and screaming of clod-thumping bombs made some of the soldiers owl-eyed from lack of sleep. That’s when a sly German sniper was only too happy to punish you for a simple mistake like not keeping your head down.

There weren’t too many left now from his original company three years ago, which was why he was a corporal, ranked just below the sergeant. Every day, the new recruits kept coming in, getting younger and more naive. It was up to old hands like him to try to keep them alive as long as possible. He edged over to the shell-shocked recruit.

“How long have you been on the front, private?” he asked.

It took a moment for those horror-filled eyes to register that someone was talking to him.

“Just five days, sir” and he gave what could only be described as a fatalistic smile.

There was a nervous tic under his left eye as he spoke. Some men became doppelgängers of what they once were in the terror-filled crucible of war, mere mannequins cast adrift from their souls. It could be the constant, mordant smell of death. It could be the sight of men being blown apart or their faces turning to jelly if they lost their gas masks, liquefied from the inside out. It could even be a lack of contact from family if the letters didn’t get through.

“Any secret loves back home then, private?” he inquired, anxious to break him out of his reverie. He got a faint smile, slightly dreamy, in return.

“A girlfriend who wants to have a child whe- if I get home. Didn’t have my mind on the job earlier. That’s why Sarge was giving out to me. Forgot to put the rifle back onto safety and it went off. ”

“What’s your name, soldier?”

“Billy Highcross, sir. All the men get a great kick out of it. Want to know was I at the crucifixion of our Lord, that kind of thing. ”

“Well you mind yourself, Billy Highcross. If I can, I’ll keep an eye out for you.” Luke moved on, talking to his men, accepting cigarettes even though he didn’t smoke himself. Comradeship was all that separated them from beasts.

Two nights later it happened. The Germans had a crack sniper with an unusual technique. He was brave and the soldiers who caught a glimpse of him swore that he was uncommonly large, a big, hulking figure who came into no-man’s land when the days fighting was over. He was also a sadist. He would crawl up to the wounded and torture them as they lay dying, daring his comrades to attempt a rescue. Many had tried and all were dead. In Luke’s company alone, nine soldiers had died. Eventually, the sarge had been issued orders from command that no one was to engage in rescue missions any more. It grated with the sarge, but orders were orders.

Night after night, the screams and heart-rending cries of their comrades could be heard, shaming them all to silence. That days head count listed six men dead but only one missing- Billy Highcross. Luke was sitting in a puddle of water, rifle resting on his knees, when the roll was called. He thought of Billy’s girlfriend back home but he also thought of the promise he gave his mother before he left.

“Promise me you’ll come back alive, Luke. You’re all I have in the world.”

“I promise.”

Those two words were ringing in his head and had kept him alive when most of his company had fallen like jerking puppets around him. He sat there for a long time. He heard a heart-rending scream coming from the German side.

He rose up, taking off his greatcoat, leaving it slide into the puddle. He put his rifle aside and took out the large skinning knife he had found on the battlefield months before. He rubbed some fire-ash on his face and, placing the knife between his teeth, climbed a few steps up the ladder and was gone. Not a soul saw him leave. The ground was cold and slick. It was a chilly December night, banks of clouds blotting out the moon and stars. Craters full of icy water littered the battlefield. Tortuously, cautiously, every sense honed, he crept like a phantom through blood-soaked puddles and quietly-misting pools. He stopped only once to cut off the bottom of his shirt. He placed the strip around his mouth to block off both the noise and smell of his breath. It took him twenty minutes to do this for fear of discovery.

The knife was in his right hand now, his elbows aching from the effort of crawling and his heart was hammering like a piston in his chest. His pupils dilated with the intensity of his gaze, trying desperately to locate his quarry. His nostrils flared. Even amongst all the ichor, his hair matted with congealed blood and rotting corpses all around him, he detected the faintest scent in the air. It was the odour, barely discernible, of body sweat. He froze. Somewhere out here, in the midst of all the death, was a living being. At the same time, a soul-harrowing howl rent the air, a dreadful imprecation that chilled him to the marrow. Evil was abroad this night. He moved towards it, not giving into his fear.

His next decision would determine whether he would live or die that night. The gentle breeze was in his favour but the sniper had the advantage of immobility. He could work his dark arts on Billy Highcross and move to another location to wait for his prey, gun at the ready, blending in amongst the corpses. Luke decided to lay stock-still also, hoping against hope that his adversary would reveal himself. A puff of breath, a stifled cough, a small movement- anything.

Time dragged on in a way he had never experienced. Occasionally, Billy would scream, not forty yards away but still an eternity. Luke prayed. He cursed inwardly and he waited. He was just about to break when the barest whisper of cloth fluttered not five yards from him, coming from a sunken bomb-crater. He moved his head what seemed like a millimetre a second and it finally came to rest on a monster. The German had Samson shoulders and a tree-trunk neck. Hugging the ground, he resembled a cunning gorilla, sliding over bodies even more carefully and slowly than Luke had done.

When Billy screamed again, the Germans mouth opened up in a goblin-grin, revealing canines like broken glass. Luke could swear he moved his head to watch Billy’s pain and chose that moment to act.

He pounced on the German, springing like a tiger but silent in his fury. Before the German had time to react, Luke had skewered him with his knife in the shoulder, just missing the jugular. The German hissed in shock but at the same time whipped his right hand around and caught Luke in the temple with the butt of his rifle. Luke fell back and immediately felt two boulder-hard hands around his neck, the nails burrowing into his flesh like shards of flint. He tried to groin him, tried to push him aside, tried to butt him. Every effort was repelled with ease. As he slipped into unconsciousness, his mind registered two things. He had never seen eyes as cruel as the barracuda-black coals of the German, two pitiless pools of death. The other was that the coming dawn above the German’s back was the most beautiful he had ever seen; clouds of dusky-pink drifting past a slash of molten-gold in the sky.

Little stars, conflagration-red, flashed on and off in his mind, through a murky haze of black. Then the pressure on his neck eased and he heard the disgusting sound of grunting and growling. He opened his eyes and saw two shadowy Titans rolling and grappling on the ground. One was on top of the other with his hands around his neck, their two noses almost touching. The sounds of their rage, muffled but murderous, was terrifying. Both were bizarrely trying to avoid the morning guns homing in on their position. There was one final gurgling, a bloody, rattling throaty sound. Then there was a very eerie, very sad expulsion of death-breath from one of them. A pregnant pause followed and Luke tried to get his breathing back. His throat passage felt reduced to the size of a penny. Someone hissed in his ear:

“Can you make it back on your own, corporal?”

It was the sarge. He had Billy Highcross tucked in under one massive paw, one hand on the ground for balance. Luke nodded.

They made it back just before the dawn volley erupted. Billy had a ruptured lung and didn’t see any more of the war. One question nagged at Luke for months. He finally summoned up the courage to ask one night when the sarge was on his own.

“Why didn’t you just knife him, sarge? Why kill him with your hands?”

The sarge took a while to answer.

“For all of our lads who died suffering. I wanted him to see my eyes. It’s what men do, isn’t it?”

Two days before the war ended the sarge was killed trying to rescue a soldier pinned down by enemy fire. As far as Luke knew, he never got a medal. Luke was decorated twice afterwards for bravery as sergeant of his company

There was a crowd of young people around the old man. The same stars were flaring in and out of his consciousness, winking then disappearing. He could see the emblems on their trainers-Nike, Reebok, and Adidas. Snatches of conversation came to him, mostly boys and one girl. There seemed to be an argument.

“. . . . shouldn’t have done it,” said the girl.

“. . . . an accident”, said one of the boys.

“. . . . did the same yesterday. . . at least call an ambulance”.

“. . . . . got no credit, have I?”

A deep, male voice shouted in the distance and the trainers disappeared.

He remembered his dog was alone and sadness overcame him. The words on his wife’s epitaph came to him then:

“I loved you so

‘Twas heaven with you”

and he cried for the first time in over half a century. A couple of adult voices were getting closer and he could hear fragments of their conversation as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

“. . . . who were they?”

“. . . . that Billy Highcross and his gang”.

“. . . why would they do something stupid like that?”

The last words the old man heard before he slipped away was. . . . “It’s what they do around here, isn’t it? The saddest part about it is that his grandfather was a war hero. ”

31 responses to “ Describing an Old Man ”

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I found this list very useful. Thank you. 🙂

Hi BunKarydo: I hope you’re well. Thanks for the friendly comment and I’m delighted you found the post useful. Cheers for now. Liam.

You’re welcome, Liam. I was looking for a suitable word for something I was writing and had found nothing suitable at Thesaurus.com. In desperation I tried a Google search but with very low expectations. I was delighted when your post appeared because it was exactly what I needed. There was a wealth of good stuff there. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference too.

I hope you have a great week. Bun (pron. Boon!) 🙂

I loved reading your page!

Hi Nameless: Thanks for taking the time to post such a nice comment. It’s much appreciated and I wish you the best. ‘Bye for now. Liam.

Thank you on level for i was struggling for words but this page was just what i needed

Hi Spike: I hope you are well. Cheers for the comment and I’m glad the post helped you. Be well and thanks again for the kind words. ‘Bye for now. Liam.

can you make a paragraph an ugly old man

Thank you so much for this blog. It has helped me sharpen my creative writing skills.

Hi Chukwuezue: I hope you are well. You’re very welcome and I’m glad it helped you. Thanks for taking the time to leave a kind comment and I wish you the best. Cheers for now. Liam.

Need hyphens 😢😢😢

Great information! Read my book called #Tween Tales it will really help with descriptions too… Thanks once again.

Hi mmt: I hope you are well. I will read the book as soon as time permits and thanks for telling me about it. Thanks for the nice comment and ‘bye for now. Liam.

I’ve got one too: Now I’m living with Fagin, an ancient elderly who looks like a fossilized mummy with the face of a deflated balloon derived from a walnut. ( from Oliver Twist- re-describing Fagin.)

Hi Joshua: What an interesting comment. It shows humour, intelligence and perception all in one go. Very impressed. Go you. cheers for now. Liam.

This post is really helpful and it help me to write what I wanted. Thanks you😊

Thank you.it helped me alot

Hi Prateek: I hope you are well. You’re very welcome and thanks for commenting. Cheers for now. Liam.

Fuck this website you are shit you are shit

this was so helpful,thankyou so much and god bless.

this was so amazing thanks it was truly wonderful

it was the best website i have ever seen

Hi all: Thamks very much for the enthusiastic comments. Very much appreciated. Cheers for now. Liam

AMAZING. surprised (in a good way) that someone was willing to make a website like this. Good job.

Hi Yl: Thanks for taking the time to post a kind comment. I’m glad it helped you in some way. ‘Bye for now. Liam.

loved the website

nice website. suited me and helped me

Hi Sajeel: Thanks very much for the kind comment. Liam.

Thanks for the page!

Hi erisss: You’re very welcome. Thanks for the kind comment.

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Describing Old Age-The Traps And An Idea List

From Char's doll collection

By Sharla Rae

When writing, we have to describe all kinds of people/characters. I’d venture to say that older adults or seniors are one of the most difficult people groups to describe.

Because what you see is not always what you get. Okay, this might be true with any age group, but it’s doubly so with the older generation. There’s a world of experience and living under their belts and their faces don’t always tell the story.

Also, yesteryear’s elderly are now a cliché when compared to the modern seniors.

My grandparents had false teeth they’d take out at night and dunk in a glass of water on their bedside tables every night. Current grandmothers, if they have the funds, opt for veneers or dental implants that permanently screw into the jawbone.

Both of my grandmothers were old timey one-room schoolteachers who never worked outside the home once they married. Modern grandmothers prefer to stay active and often that means working until a ripe retirement age – maybe longer.

Fashion comes and goes but my grandmothers were never seen in anything but modest, below-the-knee dresses or slacks no matter the fashion. And if you had suggested an exercise program to her, they’d claim to got plenty of exercise cleaning house. Modern seniors exercise more than today’s youth and have bodies fit enough to wear the latest fashion, even if they choose to go for comfort instead.

On the list below you’ll see physical descriptions as well as actions and doings of old people. Some phrases are unflattering, some humorous, some are clichés but all serve as an idea springboard.

Terms For Growing Older -- All Clichés

Advancing years Autumn of life Declining years Long in the tooth Old as Methuselah Old as the hills Old fogey Old fossil Older than dirt One foot in the grave Twilight years Winter of life

Word And Phrase Descriptions

A little too ripe to be job hunting Age-spotted pate An Anachronism – as in old fashion, something old that is out of place Ancient bones creaked Ankles swelled with gout Arthritic Banging his cane demandingly Battered shell of his youth Bending forward to keep his balance Beyond the first blush of youth Bingo night is her social life Blue-rinsed hair topped with a pillbox hat Bushy salt and pepper brows Cabinet of medicine, hot water bottles and Ben Gay Cackles of the old biddy Calcified grin Called the shop girls girlie Cemented in his ways Changes his underwear after a sneeze Cheated the undertaker once again Codger, geezer, graybeard, Contrary, and snappish Crabbed with age Crone, witch, hag Crotchety old man with his Damn young whippersnapper Dapper old chap Doddering along the park lane Double-dumpling figure, bent with age Dowager Queen Dowdy old maid Dried up Drooping eyelids he could barely see out of Dunked his false teeth into a water glass Eyes bright with age Face lined with experience and wisdom Face was road map to his glorious past Faded blue eyes Faded version of his son Feeble-minded, forgetful Feisty antique of a lady Forgot where she put her dentures Frail old woman slowly shuffled Fuddy-duddy Fusty and set in her ways Getting some action, he ate his fiber today Gnarled hands knitting Gramps zones out once in a while Grandma and grandpa-might used a derogatory for anyone old Gray dandelion hair Growing love comfortable shoes and clothes Grumped at the noisy children Grunted and creaked with every move Grunts when he sits, then sighs with relief only to grunt and rise Hair a crown of faded glory Hair billowed cobwebs in the draft His get-a-long got up and went Hoary, whiskered old fellow Humped over and leaning on her cane In his declining years In his dotage Infernal loud music Infirmities aside, she was in good shape Jowls flapped when he talked Laugh like crackling paper Laugh lines bracketing twinkling eyes Long nose hair Looked 45 but liver spots hands gave her away Loved the decadent indolence of retirement Matriarch who rules the roost Matron aunt Ol’ fart Old and decrepit Old duffer is deaf Once a rock and roller, now he rocks only the chair Patriarch of the family Prune juice a staple of her diet Rheumy eyes Rocked and rocked and stared within Room full of crooked backs, colorless hair and time-faded eyes Ruminating on when she was young Sagging skin Sat on the tenement steps and watched the world go by Senile and helpless She’s a classic Shriveled by half Skin as thin and white as parchment Skin like used tea leaves Skin of leather Skin stretched over knobby bones Smelled of Chantilly Lace and moth balls Sparse eyebrows with a chaotic growth pattern. Stale, moldy and far-sighted Stooped and bent frame Strains to hear Stroke left her expressions scary/endearing Tottering and unsteady Transparent blue-veined skin Trapped behind the walls of age Tufts of hair grow out of his ears Turkey neck Wattle neck Wise old eyes widened with a twinkle Withered skin Wizened and shrunken like a fading rose Wrinkled skin costumed a youthful heart Young mind trapped in an old body Youth was waning

Definitions

centenarian -- person 100 years old or older

glaucoma -- hardening of eyeball resulting in poor vision or blindness; associated with aging

leucoma -- disease of the eye in which the cornea becomes white and opaque

noachian -- old enough to date back to Noah

octogenarian -- person in their 80’s

preadamite -- dates back to before Adam

quinquagenarian -- person in their 50’s

septuagenarian -- person in their 70’s

sexagenarian -- person in their 60’s

Dementia -- loss of cognitive ability

Alzheimer’s disease -- type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.

Playing Dr. Frankinstein – 5 Questions To Ask Your Characters Before You Begin

Keep Characters True To Themselves

If you’ve read my list blogs before, you know I love descriptions in Poems.

Poems about old age

Humorous poems on old age

When she’s not writing and researching ways to bedevil her book characters, Sharla enjoys collecting authentically costumed dolls from all over the world, traveling (to seek more dolls!), and reading tons of books. You can find Sharla here at Writers In The Storm or on Twitter at @SharlaWrites .

31 comments on “Describing Old Age-The Traps And An Idea List”

What an incredible resource! Thanks for sharing this 🙂

Welcome Gene and thank you for visting today!

Great post, Sharla! It really made me think about how old changes with the audience. In my recent, her heroine is 49, the hero early fifties. Nowadays, this generation would be one step from the old folks home. Not true today, as you pointed out. The challenge for me in writing romance about this age group was getting readers over forty pulled into the story from a romantic angle. When a reader in her late thirties told me that she "fell" for the hero, I figured I'd done my job :-). Will save your phrase descriptions...a great list.

Sharon, this is so true! I'm often surprised at how fit and good looking people 40 and over really are. My grandmothers "expected" to look older and less fit and were content to accept their condition. Today's seniors don't accept it and it shows. They educate themselves on the best ways to stay fit mentally and physically.

Sharla, I'd venture to say that the new "chick-lit" is "geezer-lit" and that Boomers are more likely to describe their parents and grandparents using the cliched descriptionns above. It has been easy and fun for me since I grew up with multiple generations ... people who were born during the turn of the 19th Century and cousins who fought in Korea. The concept of old didn't hit me until mom moved into an independent living apartment and I asked her why she wanted to live with a bunch of old people 🙂

But how do Gen-X kids see Boomer Granny's? That would be my kids who have kids who are plugged into eletronic gadgets 24/7. My kids who are looking at me the way I looked at my mother and thinking ... Hey, who are you and what have you done with my mom?

I love, love your extraordinary "lists" and this one has got to be one of the best.

Thanks. I laughed at when you mentioned how you're kids look at you. Mine are often the same way. There is no way my mother would tweet, blog, etc. 🙂 She never went to an exercise class in her life. Sometimes my kids look at me like -- but mom aren't you too old to do that? Ha! I think they kind of got over that though went I went zip lining over the rain forest. 🙂 I participate in activities that my mother would not have thought of doing even when she was in her 20s!

Good point about how the elderly aren't so "old" and out of the mainstream any more. Great info and list of phrases! Thanks!

Glad you like the list, Betty. Thanks for stopping by.

Bookmarking this—thanks!

Absolutely love this. Thanks so much! Now I have to get this old gal to the gym, put on my wig, and then go to work:)

Hey, it make us a more effort to "stay" young, but we know the payoffs are great. 🙂

Another great list, Sharla! Today's "old folks" are texting and on FB and Twitter. I still remember my grandmother yelling into the telephone because she couldn't figure out how someone in a different country could hear her without a little extra help. 🙂

Oh, Lord, I'd forgotten about that! So funny.

Thought-provoking list. As one of the old geezers, I'm constantly annoyed when people (and TV) portray 60-year-olds as "old." On the other hand, the 60-year-olds in my novel set in 1913 are old. Gout was a real problem. And their teeth didn't hold up. But even then, some lived into their 90s. As I say - thought provoking.

Unfortunately, few of the problems of old age have gone away. I think the difference is better medicines, education about benefits of staying fit, etc. And yes, if you writing about years ago, all those infirmities were a reality to deal with. Lets face it, if a woman in the early 1900s or 1800s dressed for exercise and then performed it the way we currently do, she would have been considered a loose woman!

Better healthcare, exercise, staying out of the sun. We can be young forever! Or think we are. It's true, Sharla, if we showed up in 1900 wearing what we do now, I imagine we'd have been committed to an asylum, That is what they did to women who didn't conform.

Hey! I resemble all those remarks! lol

LOL Jo. Sometimes I think we all do. It's hard work staying young.

Great blog, Sharla, and oh so true. I do all that my kids 19 and 14, do as far as tweet, FB, blog, text and all that. Plus I'm in love with my iPhone. My son jokes about me being "old" and then says he's just kidding. However when my daughter and I were talking about me getting the tattoo I've always wanted he asked me why I'd want to do something like that when I'm so "up in years". I asked him why he would think that way. I mean, was I ready to pick out my gravestone? Is it too late to do some things? In my mind, it's NEVER too late to do anything. He quickly shut up.

One thing I've learned Pat, is that kids today think they are indestructible. They think in terms of the here and now. They can do anything but their parents as far as they are concerned are beyond having any concept or even wanting an understanding of the latest and greatest. They seem to think we are too old to enjoy anything new. Ha! My son has said things like, mom, you don't have to worry about that, or you have no need of that or why would you want to even do that mom? In which case, I pretty much say the say things you did. 🙂

Theses are wonderful terms and words. Tweeted.

Thanks so much Ella.

Great post! I actually feel much healthier than I did over a decade ago, because now that my children are grown, I can focus on myself instead of burning myself out to meet their needs. I workout every day with hand weights an exercise bike, and dance exercises, as well as take the dog out twice a day. I feel better and have lost more than a few pounds I'd put on in my thirties and forties. I can't imagine my mother having done the type of workouts I do at my age.

Exactly Susan. And I'm with you. I put on pounds like crazy when the kids were in junior high and high school. I look and feel so much better now. It's like I said in the blog, todays seniors just don't fit into the old mold of . . . Old. 🙂

Great post. Very thought provoking. I know I'm sixty and can run rings around some of the young ones I work with, although I will admit that at my age "Pulling an all-nighter means not having to get up to go to the bathroom." Dory

LOL Dory. I sometimes wonder if it's that I have more energy than younger people, or they just don't care to expend theirs. 🙂

Thanks, Sharla, brilliant as always. You're so right about the changes in these times too.

Thanks stopping in today Yvette. 🙂

OK, I'm gonna confess it, I saw "sexagenarian" as "sexy vegetarian." That shall be forever imprinted on my brain from now on. 🙂

Haha...our choir director in college announced on like day one of my first year that he'd just turned 60 and his wife had dubbed him a "sexy-genarian." As awkward 18-22 year olds we all found it very funny and gross.

LOL Jen. I like that! Could be sexy genarian too!

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How to describe a person vividly: 8 ways

Learning how to describe a person so that the reader forms a vivid impression of your characters is essential for writing compelling stories. Read 8 tips for describing characters so they come to life:

Post author By Jordan
12 Comments on How to describe a person vividly: 8 ways

Knowing how to describe a person so that your reader forms a vivid impression is vital for immersive writing. How can you describe a person precisely and avoid pace-crushing info dumps or eyes, eyes, eyes? Read 8 ways to write better, varied character description:

8 ways to describe people in a story

Start with character profiles and pin boards
Focus on details that reveal personality, use detailed descriptive language
Practice describing people in brief
Prioritize unique character features
Describe character actions and gestures
Find descriptive precise adjectives and fitting comparisons, use descriptive verbs too
Describe personality via dialogue and voice
Read writers renowned for good characterization

Let’s dive into each of these ideas for bringing your characters to life:

1. Start with character profiles and pin boards

Before you begin describing people who’ll populate your story, it’s useful to sketch character ideas . It helps if you can answer questions such as:

What clothing does my character wear?
What is idiosyncratic or recognizable about how my character moves? What does their body language reveal?
What would a stranger notice first about this character if they entered a room?
What is their physical description? What is their eye and hair color, do they have freckles, scars or tattoos?

To build richer descriptions , you could create a pin board on Pinterest before you draft of clothing your character would wear, places they might love to visit. Any visual reference point that captures the essence of their persona.

Another option is to answer character prompts to build a character profile , which you can do in the Now Novel dashboard as you build a downloadable story outline packed with useful story background.

Describing people and outlining in Now Novel Dashboard

In our monthly writing craft webinars, writing coach Romy Sommer also suggests ‘reverse-casting’ your characters for inspiration:

2. Focus on details that reveal personality

A character’s hair or eye color doesn’t tell the reader much (there are other ways to use eye descriptions to build personality).

When you introduce a character, focus on details that reveal character personality or psychology .

Here’s Dostoevsky describing his character Katerina Ivanova (who has tuberculosis) in Crime and Punishment (1866):

Describe habitual actions to reveal personality

Katerina Ivanovna had just begun, as she always did at every free moment, walking to and fro in her little room from window to stove and back again, with her arms folded across her chest, talking to herself and coughing. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866), Chapter 7.

Dostoevsky conveys Katerina’s fragile mental health and state clearly. The coughing is a reminder of her life-threatening condition. The fact she continues to pace despite her discomfort suggests her determined, fighting spirit, which we see in further scenes.

You could also use descriptions of a character’s physical appearance to show their personalities, for example: ‘Jenna’s curly hair was bouncy, like her character. bouncy and bubbly.’

Use objects such as possessions left behind to suggest persona

The acclaimed short story author Alice Munro is a master of understated character development.

In her story ‘Free Radicals’, Munro describes a recently-widowed woman named Nita coming to terms with her husband’s death:

She thought carefully, every morning when she first took her seat, of the places where Rich was not. He was not in the smaller bathroom, where his shaving things still were, along with the prescription pills for various troublesome but not serious ailments which he’d refused to throw out. Alice Munro, ‘Free Radicals’, available via The New Yorker

Munro creates the emotional affect of a deceased spouse’s absence by describing objects in detail that remain once they’ve gone.

A precise detail – the prescription pills Rich refused to throw out – describes something about his hoarding character.

Detail the type of behavior characters might exhibit

Another way to describe a character’s personality is to give an example of something they might do.

Further on in the story, Munro describe pranking behavior that was typical of Rich to suggest a playful nature:

He was of course not out on the half-scraped deck, ready to peer jokingly in the window – through which she might, in earlier days, have pretended to be alarmed at the sight of a peeping tom. Munro, ‘Free Radicals’

The details Munro shares combine character behavior (Rich’s joking at the window) and setting detail (pills left behind that he refused to discard) to simultaneously create a sense of character and place . Her details describe the way people inhabit their spaces. This creates Rich as a vivid, lingering, ghostly presence in Nita’s memory.

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3. Practice describing people in brief

One thing to avoid in choosing how to describe a character in a story is an info dump.

Info-dumping character description makes your reader go, ‘Oh, the author wants to squeeze in everything they possibly can about their character.’ It alerts your reader to the author’s hand, the wizard behind the curtain conjuring Oz. Such spurious description may lose your reader.

Instead, pick a specific detail to focus on for an introduction, and bring in other visual or descriptive character details as they become relevant to the story/action.

Examples of how to describe people succinctly

Here are a few examples of character descriptions that are precise and impactful:

Her hair had been long and wavy brown then, natural in curl and colour, as he liked it, and her face bashful and soft – a reflection less of the way she was than of the way he wanted to see her. Alice Munro, ‘Dimensions’, Too Much Happiness (2009), p. 2. Available online .

Note how Munro succinctly creates a sense not only of a character’s appearance but how it is affected by her being in a controlling relationship (which we find out more about as the story continues).

A sense of time and change is bundled with character description as we read a factor that shaped the protagonist Doree’s past appearance, now changed at the story’s start.

Below, Kent Haruf uses simile drawn from two elderly brothers’ farmland world to describe their appearance:

Their faces were red and weather-blasted below their white foreheads, the coarse hair on their round heads grown iron-gray and as stiff as the roached mane of a horse. Kent Haruf, Eventide (2004), p. 3.

Practice describing characters in three lines or less. What can you compare their appearance to? What does it say about them?

4. Prioritize unique character features

A large part of learning how to describe a person believably is showing what makes them unique or distinctive.

The Victorian author Charles Dickens, a master of characterization, described people with vivid, characteristic humor.

Here Dickens describes the schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, ‘a man of facts and calculations’ in his novel Hard Times (1854):

The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854), full text on Project Gutenberg .

Although Dickens describes his character’s hair, he uses a striking visual metaphor (‘a plantation of firs’).

This leads quickly back to description showing the schoolmaster’s fact-obsessed nature (‘…as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside’).

Dickens takes the description of Gradgrind as obstinate and fact-obsessed further:

The speaker’s obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, – nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, – all helped the emphasis. Dickens, Hard Times

Thus Dickens mines a single, defining detail – Gradgrind’s tyrannical obsession with fact over imagination – for cohesive, comical description.

If Dickens had simply said ‘he was balding and inflexible and would lecture the students about facts’, this would create some sense of character. Dickens instead writes stronger description to show us what the character is like.

Yet the unique details Dickens chooses make Thomas Gradgrind especially vivid.

5. Describe character actions and gestures

Showing characters’ gestures and actions is an important part of bringing characters to life.

The way your characters move , their body language and gestures, is a key part of describing personality, status, or mental state.

In the example from Dostoevsky above, Katerina Ivanovna’s anxious pacing conveys her mounting fear over her husband (who drinks away the little money they have).

In Hard Times , Dickens uses movement and body language to reinforce the impression of Gradgrind as domineering and forceful:

“Girl number twenty,” said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger, “I don’t know that girl. Who is that girl?” “Sissy Jupe, sir,” explained number twenty, blushing, standing up, and curtseying. Dickens, Hard TImes

Dickens extends Gradgrind’s ‘squareness’ through his pointing. Sissy Jupe’s own body language conveys both her own bashfulness and the fact that Gradgrind wields stern authority over his pupils.

Dickens could simply use dialogue for the schoolmaster’s inquiry. Because of Gradgrind’s gestures, though, we get a clear sense of his dominant, demanding persona.

6. Find descriptive adjectives and fitting comparisons

There are two useful tools for accurate description of characters in stories: Precise, exact adjectives , and comparative language.

Finding adjectives to describe people with positive and negative connotations

Positive adjectives to describe a person include:

Kindness: Kind, fair, caring, thoughtful, non-judgmental, respectful, loving
Conscientiousness: Principled, upstanding, disciplined, rigorous, thorough, careful, decisive
Selflessness: Selfless, giving, generous, dedicated
Intelligence: Smart, insightful, perceptive, brainy, whip-smart, aware, informed, knowledgeable
Attractive: Beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, hot, sexy, alluring, glamorous, studly, magnetic, hypnotic, fit [UK slang]

These are just some adjectives to describe a person in positive terms. If you need a good word for description:

Look up a similar, broader word in a thesaurus.
Find a word you like and look up its full definition and even etymology to ensure it has the right connotations (latent or associated meanings).

Negative adjectives to describe a person might include:

Cruelty: Cruel, unkind, nasty, vicious, wicked, evil, despicable, malevolent, vindictive
Ugliness: Hideous, vile, gross, creepy, fugly, monstrous, disgusting
Boring: Dull, dreary, insufferable, tedious, insipid, bland
Non-intelligence: Stupid, thick, ignorant, cretinous, basic

Keep in mind that some words to describe people negatively may have socially-offensive connotations (for example ‘dumb’ in the informal sense to mean stupid comes from ‘mute’).

If in doubt, find the most exact adjective whose connotations cannot be read another way.

Find fitting comparisons and use figurative language describing character

Comparisons are a great tool for writing character descriptions that are vivid. Look at how Dickens describes Gradgrind’s bald head in the example above, for example. Dickens uses metaphor (there is no ‘like’ or ‘as though’ which would make it a simile): ‘[Gradgrind’s hair] bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface.’

Now this isn’t the most fitting description (Gradgrind’s head has nothing to do with trees or a plantation of firs). Yet it conjures a precise, memorable image.

In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon , a father’s anger is shown using the metaphor of a volcano likely to erupt at an time.

Morrison extends this metaphor beautifully to show how Macon’s (the father) anger affects his daughters:

Solid, rumbling, likely to erupt without prior notice, Macon kept each member of his family awkward with fear. His hatred of his wife glittered and sparked in every word he spoke to her. The disappointment he felt in his daughters sifted down on them like ash, dulling their buttery complexions and choking the lilt out of what should have been girlish voices. Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (1978), p. 10.

7. Describe personality via dialogue and voice

In deciding how to describe characters in your story, dialogue and voice in narration are two powerful tools to create a persona.

People’s speech describes so much about who they are:

Tone : Is a person often angry, huffy, disappointed (like Macon in the example by Toni Morrison above)
Vocabulary: Does the person have an extensive vocabulary suggesting they are educated or well-read or the opposite?
Diction: Does the character have a marked accent, drawl, lisp or other distinguishing feature of the way they speak?
Voice: What are the actual timbral qualities of your character’s voice? Is it high, low, or in-between? Loud or soft? Grating or pleasant to the hearer?

What your characters talk about (and what they leave unsaid) describes their persona in addition to visual descriptive details. Tweet This

8. Read writers renowned for their characterization

To learn how to describe a person brilliantly, collect memorable character descriptions . Read authors who are particularly noted for their vivid characters.

Many short story authors ( such as Anton Chekhov ) are good at compressing character detail into shorter passages.

Here, for example, is Chekhov describing his character Mihail Petrovitch Zotov, an old man, through dialogue and action tags in his story ‘The Dependents’:

“What an existence!” he grumbled, rolling crumbs of black bread round in his mouth. “It’s a dog’s life. No tea! And it isn’t as though I were a simple peasant: I’m an artisan and a house-owner. The disgrace!” Anton Chekhov, ‘The Dependents’, available online.

Chekhov combines this portrait of the character’s psychological state with description of his appearance:

Grumbling and talking to himself, Zotov put on his overcoat, which was like a crinoline, and, thrusting his feet into huge clumsy golosh-boots (made in the year 1867 by a bootmaker called Prohoritch), went out into the yard. Chekhov, ‘The Dependents’.

Start keeping a journal where you collect character descriptions that strike you as effective. This can become a useful source of inspiration to page through when you are sketching out your own characters.

Before concluding, let’s briefly take a look at how to detail character if you are writing in the first person. So far, we have looked at how to describe when you are writing in the third person point of view. First person description examples will need to be slightly different as you don’t have access to the omniscient narrator device.

There are various ways to do so, however, and effectively. For example another character could comment on the appearance of the first-person character. Here are some ways:

‘John looked at me with a shocked expression and asked why I had black dots under my eyes.’

‘I glanced into the mirror, and noticed my mascara had smudged, leaving a trail of black dots under each eye.’

Ready to flesh out your characters and get feedback on character descriptions? Start outlining characters , and get constructive feedback from the Now Novel community when you’re ready to revise.

Now Novel is a great platform for all writers to check out – especially for plotting, brainstorming, characterisation and even world building. Their customer service is top notch and I highly recommend NN!— MJ

How to describe hands: 6 ways to make characters real
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Tags character description , description writing , how to describe a person

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

12 replies on “How to describe a person vividly: 8 ways”

Great post 🙂 Thanks for the tips!

Thanks, Amy! It’s a pleasure. Thanks for reading.

My name is Muhammad saqlain mushtaq I am from pakistan

Hi Muhammad, welcome to our blog. Let me know if you have any questions about character description (or anything else writing related) and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Thanks for very descriptive and inspiring inputs. Impressive and very helpful. This is helpful not only for me but also for everyone. My salute .

Hi Alex, it’s a pleasure. Thank you for reading our blog.

Hi😊 It’s your newest fan here. Thanks Jordan😊

Hi Glajol, I’m glad you’re a fan of our blog. Thank you for reading and saying hi.

I feel like everything you wrote was meant for me because I’m having alot of trouble describing my characters,so thanks alot

Hi Kaitlyn, I’m so glad to hear that. Hope your story goes well further.

Jordan- Wow! This information on building vivid characters is exactly what I was looking for. I am in the early stage of my writing career and struggling with describing my scene or setting and characters. Thank you for providing this resource. This information is great!

Dear Melika, Thanks so much for your comments! So pleased to hear them. All the very best with your writing.

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KathySteinemann.com: Free Resources for Writers

Word lists, cheat sheets, and sometimes irreverent reviews of writing rules. kathy steinemann is the author of the writer's lexicon series..

Ways to Replace “Old” in Writing: A Word List for Writers

Too Many Repetitions of Old in Your WIP?

Does your work in progress feature an elderly character? This post provides hundreds of ways to replace old when used to describe a person.

Most of the words and phrases refer to the stereotypical oldster who isn’t pleased about the aging process.

Emotion Beats and Physical Manifestations

Some older people might experience sadness over a bucket list never completed, or anxiety about waning physical prowess and health. This could result in frustration and anger . Loneliness could lead to depression, as could the realization that one’s mental faculties are not as acute as they used to be.

The early stages of dementia might cause fear . A knowledgeable oldster might initially blame lapses in memory on a busy schedule, stress, or lack of sleep. Eventually, however, the realization might result in insomnia, irritability, and efforts to hide the developing condition from family and friends.

Modern seniors are more likely to accept aging with an upbeat attitude than would seniors in decades gone by when there were fewer options for dealing with conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, and hormone changes. Consider Dick Van Dyke, who in his nineties has a workout routine that would be difficult for some people half his age.

Remember this as you write, and provide details appropriate to the period in which your story is based.

Adjectives and Adjectival Phrases

Some of the words in the following list might surprise you. An obsolete character? Sure. If you describe a male protagonist as so ancient he’s obsolete, readers will conjure a different mental image than they would with a simple characterization of old .

Some adjectives such as antique and senior can double as nouns.

A to E advanced in years, aged, aging, along in years, ancient, anile, antediluvian, antiquated, antique, archaic, barnacled, broken-down, crotchety, crumbling, crusty, decaying, decomposing, decrepit, deteriorating, doddering, doddery, elderly

F to P festering, fossilized, full of years, fusty, geriatric, getting on in years, gnarled, grizzled, hoary, horse-and-buggy, long-lived, mature, moldering, moldy, obsolescent, obsolete, past one’s prime, pensioned-off, prehistoric, primordial, putrefying

R to W retired, rickety, seasoned, senescent, senile, senior, stale, timeworn, tottering, unsteady, unyoung, venerable, vintage, weather-beaten, weathered, wizened, wobbly, worn-out, wrinkled

Similes and Metaphors

Here’s where your writing can shine, as long as you avoid purple prose. If you create a memorable phrase, use it only once. Rather than copy any of the following, leverage them as creativity springboards.

beyond the age of remembering what good [______] [felt, looked , tasted] like
born before [the Bronze Age, dinosaurs roamed the Earth, King Tut, the wheel was invented]
bowed by one’s years like a tree buffeted by coastal winds
death pushing a walker toward the cemetery
decaying faster than the compost heap in the backyard
enveloped by one’s years in a mantle of wisdom
gnarled by time into a gargoyle husk
like an elastic that has lost its spring
like a blind hound tripping over one’s own feet
like a black-and-white movie with gravelly audio
more wrinkled than a shriveling winter apple
timeworn as one’s overworked excuses
walking death, with mummified skin and rheumy eyes

The colors used most often to describe old people’s beards, eyebrows, and hair are shades of grey/gray such as the following.

A to I alien grey, aluminum grey, anchor grey, ash grey, battleship grey, bottle grey, boulder grey, carbon grey, cement grey, charcoal grey, cloud grey, coin grey, corpse grey, crater grey, death grey, dove grey, elephant grey, exhaust grey, fling grey, flint grey, fog grey, fossil grey, fungus grey, ginger grey, granite grey, graphite, gravel grey, gruel grey, gum grey, gunmetal grey, hippo grey, hoary grey, ice grey, iron grey

K to W knife grey, lead grey, mercury grey, meteor grey, mummy grey, nail grey, nickel, otter grey, pebble grey, pepper grey, pewter, pigeon grey, porpoise grey, porridge grey, rat grey, salt-and-pepper, seal grey, shadow grey, shark grey, shovel grey, silver, slate, sleet grey, slug grey, slush grey, smog grey, smoke, steel grey, stone grey, storm grey, stormy grey, stormy-sea grey, sword grey, tabby grey, tank grey, tweed grey, wax grey, wolf grey

See 1000+ Ways to Describe Colors for more options.

The scents of substances in our environment are absorbed by skin, hair, and clothing. The stereotypical oldster might apply liniment, ignore the doctor’s advice about snuff, or overindulge on beer. Perhaps the person spends hours gardening, baking, or playing bridge while puffing on cigars.

Here are a few idea starters for scents .

Your senior characters might smell like, reek of, or be redolent with the scent of:

A to T antiseptic, apple pies, an ashtray, baby diapers, baby powder, a bakery, a barn, booze, calamine lotion, camphor oil, cat urine, cigarettes, cigars, cinnamon, cottage cheese, dirty socks, foot powder, a dumpster, hairspray, the kitchen, a leather recliner, licorice, lilac perfume, liniment, “medical” marijuana, money [figurative], mothballs, moustache wax, old laundry, rancid cheese, room deodorizer, shaving cream, singed hair, stale urine, tobacco snuff, too much perfume, turpentine

The Versatility of Verbs and Phrasal Verbs

We typically think of older people as slow movers with dragging feet. They might clear their throats frequently, gripe about neighbors, or forget people’s names.

Here are a few verbs that might suit your character(s).

A to G amble, annoy, argue, badger, bait, bellyache, bicker, blather, bluster, brood, carp, complain, cough, criticize, crochet, deride, disagree, disapprove, disparage, droop, equivocate, falter, flout, forget, fret, get lost, gibber, goad, gob, gossip, gripe, grouse, grumble, grunt

H to O harangue, hawk, hiss, hobble, hork, hound, huff, humiliate, hunch, ignore, insult, jabber, knit, limp, lose one’s way, lumber, lurch, meander, mock, mope, mosey, nag, natter, neglect, niggle, nitpick, overlook

P to R pant, pester, play [bridge, canasta, checkers, chess, poker, lawn darts (illegal), shuffleboard], plod, pout, prate, prattle, puff, quibble, quiver, ramble, rant, rasp, rattle, reel, ridicule

S to W scorn, shamble, shuffle, sigh, slouch, snarl, sneer, snivel, snore, snort, snub, snuffle, spit, split hairs, splutter, squabble, stagger, sulk, sway, taunt, tease, teeter, torment, torture, totter, tremble, trudge, waddle, wander, wheeze, whine, whisper, wink, wobble

Many nouns that could replace old person create a negative impression.

B to W battle-ax, beldame, centenarian, crone, dodo, dotard, dowager, elder, fogey, fossil, gaffer, geezer, golden-ager, granddame, graybeard, greybeard, hag, matriarch, nonagenarian, OAP, octogenarian, oldster, old-timer, patriarch, pensioner, retiree, senior, senior citizen, septuagenarian, whitebeard

Clichés and Idioms

Clichés and idioms have their place in dialogue . However, avoid phrases such as the following unless they suit your narrator’s voice.

falling apart at the seams
long in the tooth
no spring chicken
old as Adam
old as Methuselah
old as the hills
old enough to know better
older than dirt
on one’s last legs
one foot from the grave
out of the ark
over-the-hill
the worse for wear

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4 thoughts on “ Ways to Replace “Old” in Writing: A Word List for Writers ”

Wow. I think you have this covered. I can’t think of a thing to add. Thanks for the post.

Thanks, Rosi.

I loved this! I’m always looking for new words or ways to say things. Most of these I knew already, but it was still fun to read them. Most of the color description were new to me. Shovel gray was one I’d never heard before.

Thanks, Connie. So many words and so many ways to combine them …

How To Write A Damn Good Man

by Robert Wood
March 7, 2016
33 Comments

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What is a man? If you believe Dracula in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night , the answer is ‘a miserable little pile of secrets’. Far be it from me to question the dark lord (again), but if you’re going to try and write a convincing male character then there might be a bit more to it.

I’ve written before about how difficult it can be to write outside your gender, but in fact it’s difficult to get a grip on any character’s personal experience and expression of their gender. Compare, for example, Pride and Prejudice ’s uptight but upright Mr. Darcy with the scummy, womanizing Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon . Compare either to the kind, imaginative Haroun of Haroun and the Sea of Stories , Patrick Bateman of the appropriately named American Psycho , or secretive, heartbroken Patrick from The Perks of Being a Wallflower .

Could it be that these male characters, so different in their expressions of what it means to be a man, are reacting to a similar set of experiences and values? Surprisingly, the answer is yes, and by understanding how expressions of gender can be so complex, authors can write far more realistic men than they might ever have suspected.

Gender performativity

The term ‘ gender performativity ’ was coined by philosopher Judith Butler, and is used to describe a theory of what gender is, and how it influences us, that many authors will find revolutionary in terms of how they craft their characters.

Butler suggests that society’s concept of gender is prescriptive rather than descriptive – it creates a set of expectations and rules that define our behavior, rather than just being an observation of natural behavior. According to this theory, men are less emotionally expressive than women because they have grown up understanding this as the norm, rather than because of an inherent and gender-wide impulse towards stoicism.

Whether you subscribe to this theory or not, it foregrounds a truth that is essential to writing a complex male character; a man’s expression and experience of his gender is a reaction to how society defines that gender. Certain attributes and behaviors are understood as ‘masculine’, and in his everyday life a man is constantly reacting to that understanding. He is, in other words, comparing himself to an ideal man.

The ideal man

The ideal man is a theoretical individual – a man who embodies perfect and unfaltering masculinity. This fictional construct is seen to define the male gender, and is an essential component of men’s experience of gender.

In effect, men construct their own personal masculinity in reference to their version of the ideal man. They ask – sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously – what this idealized figure would do in a given situation, and judge their own actions in comparison. That’s not to say that every man does what the ideal man would do, or that every male character should behave as the ideal man. Remember that the ideal man is a point of comparison – if a man is in a situation where he can fight or run, he makes his decision while knowing what his version of the ideal man would do. He may fight or he may run, but if he fights then he knows he has lived up to this idea of masculinity, and if he runs then he understands he has failed to live up to the ideal. This is why a man confronted with impossible odds may make the sensible decision to run but still feel he has done the wrong thing – he has failed in comparison to the ideal.

Real men, and your male characters along with them, can be understood via their relationship to the ideal man. This is gender as a form of absolute morality – what the ideal man would do is often treated as the right thing to do. Understand how your character imagines the ideal man, and how they understand their personal masculinity in comparison to his, and you’ll understand exactly how they feel in any given situation. Since that’s the case, it might be useful to know a little more about how the ideal man behaves…

Defining ideal masculinity in writing

Much of literature is given over to considering what it means to be a man, and while there’s no definitive account, Rudyard Kipling’s If comes pretty close. The entire poem can be read here , but it’s so popular that the extract below may be all it takes to jog your memory:

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you… If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss… If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much… Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son! – Rudyard Kipling, If

The poem celebrates traditional concepts of masculinity, lauding attributes such as:

Pragmatic thinking,
Capability,
Isolationism,
Leadership,
Physical ability.

These are the qualities of the ideal man – the standards which influence your character’s behavior and worldview. They’re powerful motivators, but remember that your character experiences them through a middle man. It’s not that every male character is striving to be brave, stoic and able, but that they understand that these qualities are what society expects of them.

This may mean a character tries to be brave, but it may also mean that a character who knows they are cowardly is especially sensitive about this being discovered. It may mean that a character will go out of their way to confirm that they are brave – this is the case with Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II , who is talked into a deadly race when a rival brands him a ‘chicken’. Marty’s ideal man isn’t afraid of anything, and when an antagonist suggests he does not live up to this ideal, he jumps into a foolish action in order to prove him wrong.

It’s important to understand that these standards, compelling as they are, aren’t something the narrative has to agree with. It’s entirely possible to write a story where the character holds a certain idea of masculinity as the ideal, but the narrative suggests something different. This is the case in About a Boy ; musician Will Freeman begins the story with a strict isolationist attitude, believing emotional attachment to be a dangerous weakness.

All men are islands. And what’s more, this is the time to be one. This is an island age… With the right supplies, and more importantly the right attitude, you can become sun-drenched, tropical, a magnet for young Swedish tourists. – Peter Hedges et al, About a Boy

This changes, however, when Will comes into contact with vulnerable schoolboy Marcus Brewer. Will protects Marcus from bullies, and is drawn into meeting, and caring about, more people through his efforts. The story suggests that Will’s ideal man is flawed, and that Will is much happier once he allows his experiences to change his concept of masculinity.

Will’s ideal man gives him an idea of what he ‘should’ do, and influences decisions which would not otherwise make sense. Why would a man eschew real emotional connection? A lazy reading would suggest he’s incapable of establishing it, but Will’s status is clearly a choice. His journey isn’t learning how to be around other people, but learning that his conception of the ideal way to be is flawed.

This is something you can apply directly to writing male characters – how do they imagine the ideal man, and how do they imagine they live up to, and fail to live up to, their idea of him? When you consider your male characters’ decisions, focus on what parts of the ideal he is trying to emulate and the perceived failings for which he is attempting to compensate.

Remember, also, that some male characters may abhor society’s idea of the ideal man. They may go out of their way to flout this perception of masculinity. Even here, however, their self-perception still exists in contrast to the ideal. A male character who embraces his emotions is still aware that society’s ideal man is stoic – he has either come to terms with not meeting this standard or he remains conflicted.

This relationship between the character’s ideal man and his actual behavior is key to his point-of-view and all his decisions, but if the ideal man is shaped by wider societal attitudes, then how can he provoke such different behavior in different characters?

Male psychological narratives

Kipling’s poem doesn’t touch on sex or violence in great detail, and yet they’re two of the most frequently addressed aspects of masculinity. They are, really, just extensions of the blanket ‘capability’ a man is expected to have – both things to be ‘good at’ – but also seem to run counter to attributes such as stoicism and isolationism. This begs the question of how one character’s understanding of the ideal man could lead him to avoid violence, while another’s could lead him to seek it out. In other words, how do the hero and villain differ in their understanding of masculinity?

Often, in fact, the broad definition of masculinity is something which characters share. What differs is their relationship to the ideal, the emotions that this stirs up and the masculine narrative the characters imagine to be at play.

One near-perfect example of a masculine narrative is Jack Shaefer’s famous cowboy story Shane . Shane is a gunslinger who goes to work on a ranch, seeking to leave behind a violent past and attain solitude. Unfortunately the local gang have targeted his hosts, and Shane is forced to engage in an orgy of violence to set the situation right. What’s more, Shane is so attractive to women that the farm owner’s wife quickly falls in love with him, and Shane leaves the farm rather than break up the family who own it.

Here, the narrative is constructed so that Shane is all things. He is stoic to a fault – has changed his life to avoid violence – but when he is forced to fight, he is deadly. Likewise, he is intensely desirable and yet too honorable to act on it. Studied in detail, Shane is a near-impossibly perfect man. Even when being praised by other characters, the paradoxical nature of his being is difficult to escape:

“He’s dangerous all right,” Father said it in a musing way. Then he chuckled. “But not to us, my dear… In fact, I don’t think you ever had a safer man in your house.” – Jack Schaefer, Shane

This is the example of one incredibly popular masculine narrative – the nonviolent stoic who is forced to enter into combat. The key to understanding how this same narrative can influence characters in very different ways is in realizing that the terms which make it up are subjective.

In Hydra Ascendant , the human protagonist finds himself in combat with the vampiric Baron Blood. Blood is preparing a plan which would place humans under the thrall of vampires, creating ‘a feast eternal’ that would allow vampires to thrive as the planet’s dominant species. Blood says:

Nature demands we kill any who bar us from our tribe’s needed resources. A true man would kill a nation to provide for his family. – Rick Remender, All-New Captain America: Hydra Ascendant

While Blood’s plan is catastrophically villainous, his words highlight that he is engaged in a nearly identical narrative to the protagonist – both believe they are fighting to protect their people, and are able to justify extreme actions on that basis.

This is often described as ‘toxic masculinity’, where a man’s perception of his situation – and what the ideal man would do in his place – drives him to redefine immoral acts as the right thing to do, or as what is expected of him by society. A less extreme example might be the man who cheats on his wife, seeking out the sense of sexual ability that will bring him closer to his ideal man. At this level, the character’s need to establish an acceptable sense of self can be as insistent a drive as any other – a character who feels deprived of a deserved or badly desired sense of masculinity may behave as extremely as if his life was under threat.

The ideal man can therefore inspire heroic feats and acts of unspeakable evil, all depending on how the character frames their situation. Knowing this can help to give even the most diabolical character a cohesive worldview, or inspire seemingly illogical or dangerous acts from seemingly normal men.

There’s a lot of theory behind how masculinity is constructed and how it’s performed, but for authors it’s also important to think about the most basic levels of practical application.

Male dialogue and body language

The ideal man is stoic but he’s also an incredibly capable leader. This means that if you’re trying to portray the perfect man, body language and speech should be basic, insular, but packed with meaning. Generally, in this style of writing, when a man’s physical actions are described, it’s because they’re particularly effective or evocative.

Parker couldn’t tell yet whether it would be best to claim to knowing nothing or everything, so he went on waiting. Younger had been trying some rudimentary kind of psychology, because now he said, “Or is it here? Do you know for sure it’s here? How come you were digging in the cellar?” Parker shook his head, but didn’t say anything. – Richard Stark, The Jugger

Here, a single shake of Parker’s head shows that he is unwilling to talk. It’s a response that’s cool under pressure but also effective – his opponent doesn’t press him or force him to deny again. Parker is a version of the ideal man, and so his communication is clear and absolute.

As with everything else I’ve described, however, the ideal man is just a concept of which more complex male characters are aware. This is the model of communication that your male character strives for, is conscious of not meeting, or actively rebels against. This may mean he over-explains, seeking the ideal of being totally understood, or is accidentally brusque. He may be overly verbose, conscious that he is not trying to be the gruff he-man, or grow irritated when questioned. The outcomes are varied, but they can be kept consistent and understandable by understanding the ideal against which they are defined.

Graphic storytelling offers a host of good examples, as body language choices are immediately visual while remaining static. Marvel comics character Luke Cage acts as a great case study in this medium, showcasing the dialogue and body language choices used to portray an ideal man. Cage has many idealized male attributes – he is a leader, a concise speaker, and possesses bulletproof skin and enhanced strength. Cage can literally take a bullet, adding great weight to any attempt to end things peacefully; he chooses nonviolence even though violence would usually guarantee his success. As an (at least partially) idealized man, Cage’s speech and movements are simple but effective:

– Al Ewing and Greg Land, Mighty Avengers

Here Cage expounds on his worldview, vowing to take action but remaining stoic while doing so. While extolling his commitment to family and detailing a major life choice, Cage sips coffee, an accepted visual shorthand for casual behavior. As he states his intention to change the world he has one eyebrow raised – an incredibly mild gesture given the impact of his words. Cage’s words have intense personal and emotional relevance, but Ewing uses repetition to reinforce this rather than having Cage be more emotionally expressive in other ways.

This is the body language and dialogue of the ideal man – a huge subconscious influence on male characters. This is the accepted standard for confidence; a way that a confident character might behave, having been taught that it properly expresses their surety, but also something that a less-confident character might try to establish authority.

In contrast is the scene below, where Spider-Man attempts to apologize to Cage:

– Al Ewing and Luke Ross, Captain America and the Mighty Avengers

Here Spider-Man adopts body language and dialogue that stands in direct contrast to Cage’s. He performs large, frequent movements and rambles, having difficulty making his point. This, however, is not simply a failure of masculinity. Spider-Man is abasing himself before Cage – he acts counter to the masculine ideal because he is both consciously and subconsciously submissive. He places Cage in the dominant position, making it easier for Cage to be the ideal man (one who Spider-Man hopes will be magnanimous enough to forgive him).

This brings us to the final, and perhaps most important, aspect of masculinity to consider when writing male characters.

Masculinity as a dialogue

One of the defining traits of masculinity I listed above is ‘leadership’. Because of this, male characters will generally have some appreciation of the power relationships in any given group, or will make attempts to understand those relationships.

Again, this does not mean that a male character will always be in charge, or always try to take charge, but it means they will be aware of whether or not other characters are trying to do so, and of where they stand in the hierarchy of a group. They may be comfortable with a lower position or chafe under orders, but they will have a particular awareness of where they stand, and a sensitivity to occurrences that may alter the status quo.

In Hellbent , Anthony McGowan details his teenage protagonist’s journey through hell. Throughout the book, the character pretends he has no knowledge of why he’s there, but the conclusion of the story sees him admit his single greatest sin; the mistreatment of a bullied classmate.

I certainly didn’t join ‘the line’. And what was ‘the line’? Every few days the school thugs would make Jason walk slowly down a line of boys – they tried to make everyone join in – taking a punch or a slap from each person as he passed. The ‘winner’ was the one who made him cry… Sometimes I caught [Jason] looking at me. It was unsettling. I felt bad because I thought he might want to join in with my gang, play footie… But what did he think I was? A social worker? I’d fought hard for my status as maybe the second or third coolest kid in the year… Next time, I thought, I’ll join the line. It’s that or get infected with monkey fever. – Anthony McGowan, Hellbent

Here the character makes a horrifying moral decision not out of cruelty, but because he fears for his own place within the group. He is not attempting to gain anything, but simply to retain his standing and the regard of his peers.

The character might have made another decision, but the point is that he would still have considered his place in the schoolyard. Likewise when a male character is mocked, challenged, corrected or praised; they may react to it in many different ways and for many different reasons, but they will always factor in how it influences the way in which they are seen.

In A Visit from the Goon Squad , Jennifer Egan writes several male characters who are intensely aware of the way in which they are perceived.

‘You don’t want to do this,’ Bennie murmured. ‘Am I right?’ ‘Absolutely,’ Alex said. ‘You think it’s selling out…’ Alex laughed. ‘I know that’s what it is.’ ‘See, you’re a purist,’ Bennie said. ‘That’s why you’re perfect for this.’ Alex felt the flattery working on him like the first sweet tokes of a joint you know will destroy you if you smoke it all… Alex felt the sudden, riveting engagement of the older man’s curiosity. – Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Here the characters make decisions not just according to their own sense of masculinity, but in an attempt to manipulate that of the other man. They flatter each other, and Alex is even aware that an older man’s curiosity validates his masculine identity. Bennie wants something, and is trying to both leverage his own masculine power as an older, more successful man, and to frame what he wants in terms of a masculine narrative Alex might accept.

This is the next level of writing masculinity – not just being aware of how masculinity acts as a drive and influence on a character, but making that character aware of how masculinity can influence the behavior of other characters.

Writing male characters

There is, of course, no one way to write ‘a man’. What I’ve detailed above is instead a way to get into a male character’s head and identify some of the key motivators that may drive him to make one choice or another.

As Judith Butler rightly pointed out, gender may be performative but it is not separate from ourselves. We’ve been performing since we were born, and masculinity is no easier to study as an isolated quality than race or sexual preference. Indeed, masculinity is bound up in these things and should be considered alongside them.

Safe ‘truths’ like ‘men can’t process their emotions’ are inaccurate and, worse, they’re useless to authors. Instead, consider that men have been told that not engaging with their emotions is key to masculinity. A male character who just doesn’t have emotions is a joke – less than two-dimensional. More interesting, and more realistic, is the character who has strong emotions but suppresses them (and why he does so) or the character who has rejected the masculine standard and chosen to express what they feel. Consider, also, the character who tries to suppress their emotions but fails, or the character who has suppressed their emotions for so long that they have trouble bringing them to the fore.

These characterizations ask questions and let characters grow. Why might a character be trying to excavate long suppressed emotions, and why did they suppress them in the first place? Perhaps their father was unemotional, a masculine ideal, but now they want to engage more fully with their kids. Perhaps that suppression led to unhealthy behavior and they want to change. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

You’re probably expecting me to end on the advice to ‘write a character first, and a man second’, but I’m not going to. Gender is an inextricable part of who we are – it’s something that’s baked into our identity, not sprinkled on once we’re already fully formed. To not think of a character as a man is to ignore one of the most formative qualities that would define their personality. What I would suggest is to explore every nook and cranny of your character’s identity, and to spend as much time as you feasibly can mixing each part of it together, finding their unique backstory.

Do you have a favorite depiction of masculinity in fiction, or do you think it’s the least important part of a character’s world view? Let me know in the comments, or check out How To Write A Damn Good Woman and Why Authors Need To Take Care When Writing The Other Gender for more great advice on this topic.

Characters , Point of view , Protagonist , Writing gender

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Robert Wood

33 thoughts on “how to write a damn good man”.

Excellent piece, and a good angle to consider when writing characters.

One error, though: you say “proscriptive” when you mean “prescriptive”. To “proscribe” something is to forbid it. To “prescribe” something is to require it. It’s a common error – I’ve seen Samuel R. Delaney make it – but it is an error.

Thanks very much for your comment, and for catching that typo. It’s been corrected above.

This is an excellent piece, and I’m in full agreement that one’s gender identity is baked into life at all times. I am, however, fairly astounded that a discussion of masculinity and the perfect man did not include Bond, James Bond. Flemming’s badass spy with a weakness for women probably inspires men daily to ask, “What would JB do in this situation?” Okay, maybe not daily. But every time I’m strapped to a nuclear warhead with supermodel, that’s my go-to.

Thanks for the kind words. James Bond is a great example of masculine narratives in fiction. Interestingly, I believe he was originally created as an amalgamation of many of Ian Fleming’s wartime associates,

Excellent example as in “Bond, James Bond”

Fantastic article. It’s come at just the right time. It’s always challenging building the layers of a male character, but comparing him to an ‘ideal guy’ seems like an effective way to make his actions plausible in all situations. Thanks for the advice! 🙂

No problem, I’m glad it’s useful. Characterisation is so difficult – there are always going to be blindspots when a writer invents a person – but finding consistent behavioural traits is one of the best ways to nail it.

Wow, I have no words… I loved your article and how you went deep into the subject. Very enlightening, and since I like psychology, it was a joy to read. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks very much – what a great reaction. I’m glad the article was useful.

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

My pleasure, Karyn.

What about Clint Eastwood? His leading roles in movies like, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly I think he’s an ideal man. I really liked this article!

Clint Eastwood is a fantastic example – thanks for commenting.

This article has helped me reconsider how I’ve written male characters and has affirmed some of the other choices I’ve made. Basically, you’ve pinpointed, what has been up to now, elusive. Greatly appreciated.

My pleasure, Jubilee . Thanks for commenting.

Thank you for this excellent article. It has given me actionable advice and insight that I will use. Much appreciation.

Thanks for the feedback, Sue. I’m really glad the article was useful.

Excellent, thank you. There’s so much more to men than what society prescribes.

Thanks for commenting – I’d certainly like to think so.

Great article! Thank you so much for sharing these tips. I’m sure the male heroes of my romances will benefit from them. 🙂 PS: An example for your “deadly stoic” ideal type: Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) in “A History of Violence”.

Thanks for commenting, and with a fantastic example. Perhaps the ultimate ‘great at violence but trying to escape it’ character.

I have a book that I’m writing, and I’m thinking of doing each book in a different point of view, i.e., that there is going to have a book from Tanis’s male friend (Possibly boyfriend, I’m not sure yet, I haven’t even gotten a name for him) and this helped. Still not sure if I want to do the “Multiple character views” thing.

Hi Annabelle,

Thanks for commenting. What you describe is an interesting approach, I hope the articles below will be useful in considering it further.

//www.standoutbooks.com/choosing-right-perspective/ //www.standoutbooks.com/avoid-head-hopping/

Do you have one about writing female characters? I mean from a similar standpoint as in examining the ideal woman. Admittedly, it might be harder to find examples of the feminine ideal written by women but I think they do exist. (Also, I suppose feminism has changed the ideal woman to be extremely complicated, but she still does exist)

Ah I see that you seem to have one my bad!

Not at all – the articles below may be of interest on this subject, and I’ve made them more prominent in the article above.

//www.standoutbooks.com/how-a-damn-good-woman/ //www.standoutbooks.com/writing-the-other-gender/ //www.standoutbooks.com/writing-strong-female-characters/

Thank you sir The article is worth understanding.i wanna to ask one thing about it,The masculinty framework which you have discussed in the article Stoicism Bravery etc is drived from which theory of masculinty? Thanks in anticipation

Thanks for your question and kind words. The stereotyped masculine qualities I mentioned are drawn from a general overview of current Western gender theory. As I mentioned, the suggestion isn’t that these qualities are inherently or exclusively masculine, but that there’s a historical precedent of them being used to codify what masculinity is and how it ‘should’ be expressed.

I write my male characters based around the idea that “a real man is someone who stands up and does the right thing regardless of the cost to themselves.” The more likely they are to do this the more masculine they are. The “right thing” is different in every situation. At one point it might be protecting your family from a home invasion and at another point it might be knowing to not get bated into a fight. Being a man in anything I write never means, lack of emotion and always willing to solve a situation by physical force. Sure, those things may be necessary, but they’re not what makes a man a man…it doing those things when, and only when, they’re the “right thing.” And the harder the “right thing” is, if the man steps up and does them, the more of a man he is. Showing emotion, asking for help, NOT being an island, can and often are the “right thing.” I want to put male characters in positions where they have to do those things and if I want them to be real men, I have them stand up and do them. Knowing when to back down from or when to not even get involved in a fight is one clear example I use (when it fits the story) to show a man being a “real man.” Sure, brute forcing your way through a problem head on shows a man being a man and I do have male characters do this, but if it’s not necessary then it takes a real man to know this.

You’ve saved my character, this article is brilliant! I’m trying to write a YA fiction that will attract male readers as well as female ones and give them both strong role models, but my male protag’s motivations have felt so one dimensional. I’ve done more fleshing out of this character while reading this article than I have in years of idly tinkering with this story, thank you!

Very, very much my pleasure, Leslie. Glad it was useful.

Thanks so much for the insightful article. I’m in the planning stages of my fantasy novel and the one male character which was supposed to be an “extra” is turning into the protagonist. This has made me really nervous because of the masculine perspective but I feel much better about placing him in front.

For obvious reasons your content on this page is spot on for various reasons. It steers away from the usual pitfalls and traps most fall into- getting defective alternatives. Thank you!

The Gigantic List of Character Descriptions (70+ examples)

The vast majority of character descriptions are simply lazy.

They recycle typical ideas about hair, eye color, and build, giving you more information about the character’s fitting for a dress or suit than the type of information you need to know them intimately.

The first thing you should do when describing a character is to pick a category that isn’t so overused. Such as trying to describe:

Describing your character in an innovative way will help retain the reader’s interest. You want your reader to be asking questions about this character, to not only learn something about them but to create mystery. What made them like this? How long have they been this way? Is there someone currently after them or is this paranoia because of a past experience? Questions like these are what keeps the reader reading.

Not only physical descriptions are needed. Consider: “How is this person viewed by another character?” Do they seem dangerous, alluring, secretive, suspicious? The way another character views someone else gives insight about them as well. Are they attracted? Repulsed? Curious?

Another thing to take notice of is the type of person they are, despite their appearance.

How do they think?
What do they feel?
How do they view/react to certain situations compared to how others would?
What is their mental state?

Here is a list of examples of brilliant character descriptions to give you an idea and help you come up with your own:

3 Categories: Modern Literary, Literature, Popular

Modern Literary

1. vladimir nabokov, lolita.

” … Her skin glistening in the neon light coming from the paved court through the slits in the blind, her soot-black lashes matted, her grave gray eyes more vacant than ever.”

2. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

” … in the last years she continued to settle and began to shrink. Her mouth bowed forward and her brow sloped back, and her skull shone pink and speckled within a mere haze of hair, which hovered about her head like the remembered shape of an altered thing. She looked as if the nimbus of humanity were fading away and she were turning monkey. Tendrils grew from her eyebrows and coarse white hairs sprouted on her lip and chin. When she put on an old dress the bosom hung empty and the hem swept the floor. Old hats fell down over her eyes. Sometimes she put her hand over her mouth and laughed, her eyes closed and her shoulder shaking.”

3. Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot

“Phyllida’s hair was where her power resided. It was expensively set into a smooth dome, like a band shell for the presentation of that long-running act, her face.”

4. China Miéville, This Census-Taker

“His hand was over his eyes. He looked like a failed soldier. Dirt seemed so worked into him that the lines of his face were like writing.”

5. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

“And then the hot air congealed in front of him, and out of it materialized a transparent man of most bizarre appearance. A small head with a jockey cap, a skimpy little checked jacket that was made out of air … The man was seven feet tall, but very narrow in the shoulders, incredibly thin, and his face, please note, had a jeering look about it.”

6. Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

“Mama BekwaTataba stood watching us—a little jet-black woman. Her elbows stuck out like wings, and a huge white enameled tub occupied the space above her head, somewhat miraculously holding steady while her head moved in quick jerks to the right and left.”

7. John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

“A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs. In the shadow under the green visor of the cap Ignatius J. Reilly’s supercilious blue and yellow eyes looked down upon the other people waiting under the clock at the D.H. Holmes department store, studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste in dress. Several of the outfits, Ignatius noticed, were new enough and expensive enough to be properly considered offenses against taste and decency. Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person’s lack of theology and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one’s soul.”

8. A.S. Byatt, Possession

“He was a compact, clearcut man, with precise features, a lot of very soft black hair, and thoughtful dark brown eyes. He had a look of wariness, which could change when he felt relaxed or happy, which was not often in these difficult days, into a smile of amused friendliness and pleasure which aroused feelings of warmth, and something more, in many women.”

9. Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“He did not look like anything special at all.”

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10. Henry Lawson, The Bush Girl

“ Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain, f ond heart that is ever more true F irm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain — She’ll wait by the sliprails for you.”

11. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

“I am an invisible man.  No I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe:  Nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms.  I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - - and I might even be said to possess a mind.  I am invisible, simply because people refuse to see me.”

12. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.”

13. Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel

“My brother Ben’s face, thought Eugene, is like a piece of slightly yellow ivory; his high white head is knotted fiercely by his old man’s scowl; his mouth is like a knife, his smile the flicker of light across a blade. His face is like a blade, and a knife, and a flicker of light: it is delicate and fierce, and scowls beautifully forever, and when he fastens his hard white fingers and his scowling eyes upon a thing he wants to fix, he sniffs with sharp and private concentration through his long, pointed nose…his hair shines like that of a young boy—it is crinkled and crisp as lettuce.”

14. Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books

“A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path, for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.”

15. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“[Miss Havisham] had shut out infinitely more; that, in seclusion, she had secluded herself from a thousand natural and healing influences; that, her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased, as all minds do and must and will that reverse the appointed order of their Maker…”

16. John Knowles, A Separate Peace

“For such and extraordinary athlete—even as a Lower Middler Phineas had been the best athlete in the school—he was not spectacularly built. He was my height—five feet eight and a half inches…He weighed a hundred and fifty pounds, a galling ten pounds more than I did, which flowed from his legs to torso around shoulders to arms and full strong neck in an uninterrupted, unemphatic unity of strength.”

17. Ambrose Bierce, Chickamauga

“-the dead body of a woman—the white face turned upward, the hands thrown out and clutched full of grass, the clothing deranged, the long dark hair in tangles and full of clotted blood. The greater part of the forehead was torn away, and from the jagged hole the brain protruded, overflowing the temple, a frothy mass of gray, crowned with clusters of crimson bubbles—the work of a shell.”

18. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“…your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

19. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers. There warn’t no color in his face, where his face showed; it was white; not like another man’s white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body’s flesh crawl – a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white. As for his clothes – just rags, that was all. He had one ankle resting on t’other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then. His hat was laying on the floor – an old black slouch with the top caved in, like a lid.”

20. William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness.”

21. Jane Austen, Persuasion

“Vanity was the beginning and end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character: vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth, and at fifty-four was still a very fine man. . . .”

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22. Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book

“When the old king saw this he foamed with rage, stared wildly about, flung himself on the ground and died.”

23. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“He was commonplace in complexion, in feature, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe… Otherwise there was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy — a smile — not a smile — I remember it, but I can’t explain.”

24. Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“His heart was like a sensitive plant, that opens for a moment in the sunshine, but curls up and shrinks into itself at the slightest touch of the finger, or the lightest breath of wind.”

25. Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson

“He followed with his eyes her long slender figure as she threaded her way in and out of the crowd, sinuously, confidingly, producing a penny from one lad’s elbow, a threepenny-bit from between another’s neck and collar, half a crown from another’s hair, and always repeating in that flute-like voice of hers: “Well, this is rather queer!””

26. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“He had a long chin and big rather prominent teeth, just covered, when he was not talking, by his full, floridly curved lips. Old, young? Thirty? Fifty? Fifty-five? It was hard to say.”

27. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“Her skin was a rich black that would have peeled like a plum if snagged, but then no one would have thought of getting close enough to Mrs. Flowers to ruffle her dress, let alone snag her skin. She didn’t encourage familiarity. She wore gloves too. I don’t think I ever saw Mrs. Flowers laugh, but she smiled often. A slow widening of her thin black lips to show even, small white teeth, then the slow effortless closing. When she chose to smile on me, I always wanted to thank her.”

28. D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover

“But her will had left her. A strange weight was on her limbs. She was giving way. She was giving up…”

29. Henry James, The Aspern Papers

“Her face was not young, but it was simple; it was not fresh, but it was mild. She had large eyes which were not bright, and a great deal of hair which was not ‘dressed,’ and long fine hands which were–possibly–not clean.”

30. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni Book One: The Musician

“She is the spoiled sultana of the boards. To spoil her acting may be easy enough,—shall they spoil her nature? No, I think not. There, at home, she is still good and simple; and there, under the awning by the doorway,—there she still sits, divinely musing. How often, crook-trunked tree, she looks to thy green boughs; how often, like thee, in her dreams, and fancies, does she struggle for the light,—not the light of the stage-lamps.”

31. Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

“Living among those white-faced women with their rosaries and copper crosses…”

32. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Though every vestige of her dress was burnt, as they told me, she still had something of her old ghastly bridal appearance; for, they had covered her to the throat with white cotton-wool, and as she lay with a white sheet loosely overlying that, the phantom air of something that had been and was changed, was still upon her.”

33. Rudyard Kipling, Many Inventions

“He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.”

34. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“He was sunshine most always-I mean he made it seem like good weather.”

35. Hugh Lofting, The Story of Doctor Dolittle

“For a long time he said nothing. He kept as still as a stone. He hardly seemed to be breathing at all. When at last he began to speak, it sounded almost as though he were singing, sadly, in a dream.”

36. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”

37. Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

“He is himself his own World, his own Universe; of any other than himself he can form no conception; he knows not Length, nor Breadth, nor Height, for he has had no experience of them; he has no cognizance even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality, for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing.”

38. Jamie McGuire, Beautiful Oblivion

“Her long platinum blond hair fell in loose waves past her shoulders, with a few black peekaboo strands. She wore a black minidress and combat boots.”

39. N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“His long, long hair wafted around him like black smoke, its tendrils curling and moving of their own volition. His cloak — or perhaps that was his hair too — shifted as if in an unfelt wind.”

40. M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“A creature–a frightfully, awful creature–was mere feet from her. Its eyes were enormous, the size of goose eggs and milky white. Its gray, slippery skin was stretched taut upon its face. Its mouth was wide and full of needle teeth. Its hands rested on the rock, hands that were webbed and huge with each finger ending in a sharp, curved nail. It was as tall as a human man, yet oddly shrunken and hunched.”

41. Amber Dawn, Sub Rosa

“When he did appear his eyes were as brown as I remembered, pupils flecked with gold like beach pebbles.”

42. Julia Stuart, The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise

“His hair had been grown to counteract its unequivocal retreat from the top of his head, and was fashioned into a mean, frail ponytail that hung limply down his back. Blooms of acne highlighted his vampire-white skin.”

43. James Lee Burke, The Neon Rain

“His khaki sleeves were rolled over his sunburned arms, and he had the flat green eyes and heavy facial features of north Louisiana hill people. He smelled faintly of dried sweat, Red Man, and talcum powder.”

44. Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

“I vividly remembered the flat black color of his eyes the last time he glared at me – the color was striking against the background of his pale skin and his auburn hair. Today, his eyes were a completely different color: a strange ocher, darker than butterscotch, but with the same golden tone.”

45. Brian Malloy, Twelve Long Months

“Whith her hair dyed bright red, she looks like Ronald McDonald’s post-menopausal sister. Who has let herself go.” (This is one of my favorites, because I find it ridiculously funny)

46. Joan Johnston, No Longer A Stranger

“Actually, Reb had the same flawless complexion as her sister– except for the freckles. Her straight, boyishly cut hair fell onto her brow haphazardly and hid beautiful arched brows that framed her large, expressive eyes. She had a delicate, aquiline nose, but a stubborn mouth and chin.”

47. Brian Morton, Breakable You

“Without her glasses Vivian did look a little frightening. She had tight sinewy strappy muscles and a face that was hardened and almost brutal – a face that might have been chiseled by a sculptor who had fallen out of love with the idea of beauty.”

48. Anne Rice, The Vampire Armand

“I saw my Master had adorned himself in a thick tunic and beautiful dark blue doublet which I’d hardly noticed before. He wore soft sleek dark blue gloves over his hands, gloves which perfectly cleaved to his fingers, and legs were covered by thick soft cashmere stockings all the way to his beautiful pointed shoes.”

49. Becca Fitzpatrick, Black Ice

“His brown hair was cropped, and it showed off the striking s ymmetry of his face. With the sun at his back, shadows marked the depressions beneath his cheekbones. I couldn’t tell the color of his eyes, but I hoped they were brown…The guy had straight, sculptured shoulders that made me think swimmer …”

50. E.C. Sheedy, Killing Bliss

“He stood, which put him eye to eye with the dark-haired woman whose brilliant, burning gaze poured into his worthless soul like boiling tar, whose mouth frothed with fury–and whose hand now curled, knuckles white, around a steak knife.” (The author gives a lot of details about the characters emotions, but there is not one specific detail about neither of their appearances. Use this as an example of how physical appearances aren’t always the most important thing.)

51. James Lee Burke, The Neon Rain

“His wiry gray and black hair was dripping with sweat, and his face was the color and texture of old paper. He looked up at me from where he was seated on his bunk, and his eyes were hot and bright and moisture was beaded across his upper lip. He held a Camel cigarette between his yellowed fingers, and the floor around his feet was covered with cigarette butts.”

52. Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

“She has bright, dark eyes and satiny brown skin and stands tilted up on her toes with arms slightly extended to her sides, as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound.”

53. Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush

“He was abominable…and the most alluring, tortured soul I’d ever met.” (This isn’t describing him physically, but it is giving insight to how the main character views him)

54. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

“A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.”

55. Anne Rice, Violin

“I deliberately thought of him, my violinist, point by point, that with his long narrow nose and such deep-set eyes he might have been less seductive to someone else–perhaps. But then perhaps to no one. What a well-formed mouth he had, and how the narrow eyes, the detailed deepened lids gave him such a range of expression, to open his gaze wide, or sink in cunning street.”

56. Kevin Brooks, Lucas

“As I’ve already said, the memory of Lucas’s walk brings a smile to my face. It’s an incredibly vivid memory, and if I close my eyes I can see it now. An easygoing lope. Nice and steady. Not too fast and not too slow, Fast enough to get somewhere, but not too fast to miss anything. Bouncy, alert, resolute, without any concern and without vanity. A walk that both belonged to and was remote from everything around it.”

57. Anne Rice, Violin

“And she looked the way he had always hated her–dreamy and sloppy, and sweet, with glasses falling down, smoking a cigarette, with ashes on her coat, but full of love, her body heavy and shapeless with age.”

58. Kevin Brooks, Lucas

“As we drew closer, the figure became clearer, It was a young man, or a boy, dressed loosely in a drab green T-shirt and baggy green trousers. He had a green army jacket tied around his waist and a green canvas bag slung over his shoulder. The only non-green thing about him was the pair of scruffy black walking boots on his feet. Although he was on the small side, he wasn’t as slight as I first thought. He wasn’t exactly muscular, but he wasn’t weedy-looking either…there was an air of hidden strength about him, a graceful strength that showed in his balance, the way he held himself, the way he walked….”

59. Iris Johansen, The Face of Deception

“Kinky tousled curls, only a minimum of makeup, large brown eyes behind round wire-rimmed glasses. There was a world of character in that face, more than enough to make her fascinating-looking instead of just attractive.”

60. Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War

“Brian Paulson was rake thin, with smooth hair the color of tin and a wet fleshy handshake…. His greeting was a nod and a blink, befitting someone who’d stepped out of the shadows only momentarily.”

61. Gena Showalter, The Darkest Night

“Pale hair fell in waves to his shoulders, framing a face mortal females considered a sensual feast. They didn’t know the man was actually a devil in angel’s skin. They should have, though. He practically glowed with irreverence, and there was an unholy gleam in his green eyes that proclaimed he would laugh in your face while cutting out your heat. Or laugh in your face while you cut out his heart.”

62. Sam Byers, Idiopathy

“Now here he was: sartorially, facially and interpersonally sharpened; every inch the beatific boffin.”

63. Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

“As always, there was an all-American war hero look to him, coded in his tousled brown hair, his summer-narrowed hazel eyes, the straight nose that ancient Anglo-Saxons had graciously passed on to him. Everything about him suggested valor and power and a firm handshake.”

64. J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

“The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars.”

65. Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.”

66. Frank Herbert, Dune

“…a girl-child who appeared to be about four years old. She wore a black aba, the hood thrown back to reveal the attachments of a stillsuit hanging free at her throat. Her eyes were Fremen blue, staring out of a soft, round face. She appeared completely unafraid and there was a look to her stare that made the Baron feel uneasy for no reason he could explain.”

67. Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

“Ender did not see Peter as the beautiful ten-year-old boy that grown-ups saw, with dark, tousled hair and a face that could have belonged to Alexander the Great. Ender looked at Peter only to detect anger or boredom, the dangerous moods that almost always led to pain.”

68. Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl

“He had his head in his hands, and his tie looked like it had been put on by an enemy, and was strangling him.”

69. Graham Joyce, Some Kind of Fairy Tale

“Peter was a gentle, red-haired bear of a man. Standing at six-four in his socks, he moved everywhere with a slight and nautical sway, but even though he was broad across the chest there was something centered and reassuring about him, like an old ship’s mast cut from a single timber.”

70. Brad Parks, The Girl Next Door

“…in addition to being fun, smart, and quick-witted—in a feisty way that always kept me honest—she’s quite easy to look at, with never-ending legs, toned arms, curly brown hair, and eyes that tease and smile and glint all at the same time.”

71. Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War

“Sterling Mulkern was a florid, beefy man, the kind who carried weight like a weapon, not a liability. He had a shock of stiff white hair you could land a DC-10 on and a handshake that stopped just short of inducing paralysis.”

72. Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

“Lord Asriel was a tall man with powerful shoulders, a fierce dark face, and eyes that seemed to flash and glitter with savage laughter. It was a face to be dominated by, or to fight: never a face to patronize or pity. All his movements were large and perfectly balanced, like those of a wild animal, and when he appeared in a room like this, he seemed a wild animal held in a cage too small for it.”

73. Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

“I thought she was so beautiful. I figured she was the kind of woman who could make buffalo walk on up to her and give up their lives. She wouldn’t have needed to hunt. Every time we went walking, birds would follow us around. Hell, tumbleweeds would follow us around.”

29 comments

woowwwwwwwwie

Love the compilation. Thank you for doing this

This is a great compilation! My students are working on writing characters right now, so I’m having them look through your list to see examples of a job well done 🙂 Thanks!

Thanks I’m using these for students to make character drawings from

This is really helpful ! Love it !

Do you have a way, where you could put the characters physical traits in this website?

Thank you for the awesome list. You should add this one; it’s from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: “Mr. Utterson, the lawyer, was a man of rugged countenance, that was never lightened by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.” There’s more after, but I thought this was a good description.

And this one: “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering, and somewhat broken voice: all these were points against him, but all of them together could not describe the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing, and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him.”

The quote that stood out to me the most was the quote from ‘The Census Taker’. That quote captured the characters feelings so well. The author was able to compare in self worth by saying it was as dirt, so much so that the dirt was written in his skin. I have never seen self worth and failure described as part of a person’s face.

Thank you. I echo Chris’s comment Wowwwwww and add a few!!!!

Wonderful! Reading these enabled me to rewrite the descriptions for my two leading characters.

Thank you for this, very helpful! I don’t know if this is really related, but I’m writing a story including a mean girl who bullies the main character (also a girl). I’m struggling to write what the mean girl uses to bully the main character – what I end up coming up with is way too mean or unreal, etc.

Blinded by tears, she could hear the haze of pink shout, “See, poor baby cries. Great actress, dear. Why do you waste your talent on us, here?”

great great any book for description of physical appearance in narrative

Great list. And I have one to add. It’s from Michael Moorcock, riding the new wave of British sci-fi back in the 1960s. He’s been a favorite of mine for decades. The passage is from “Elric of Melniboné:”

“It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone, resting on each arm of a seat which has been carved from a single, massive ruby.”

Thanks for this – very useful compilation for teaching – makes life so much easier! And helps in my writing, to look at expressions and word arrangements… I notice how some writers seem so good in visual description, and some others seem to be much better at character expressions..

wowzers!!! this is so cool!

I planned to just read a few, but I couldn’t stop reading. These are awesome! Thank you.

“Character Description” on The John Fox’s blog is a treasure trove of valuable tips and techniques for crafting compelling characters. The blog explores the art of painting vivid and multi-dimensional personas, adding depth to storytelling. Aspiring writers will find this guide indispensable for creating memorable characters that resonate with readers.

holy MOLY, thank you!

I liked them

wow thanks you have really helped me but can you put something to describe a character that is a tyrant please? that would really help

Absolutely remarkable. So very helpful in every since of the word.

OH HELLL YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

A killer set of fine examples! Thanks for compiling it!

Please, add sentences that can apply to more characters.

Love it but should be more single sentences

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19,898 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,964 themes

old age - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

a middle aged person
Earth's Age of Heroes
grandmother
knobbly hands
old fisherman
Rough hands

Arriving at old age is no achievement if all you did was hide at the back of a self-driven bus.

Choosing the right roads into old age matters more than the odometer or the bumps we encounter.

There they were, the nanas, around their table of flour making the pastas. The air was thick with their tales and gossip, sometimes an old song, no doubt helped along by the wine they shared. As they day went on the food appeared and the eldest would ring the bell for the community to come. That's how we did things. The old folk were happy and we were well fed, it took a lot of work from the mamas and the papas. We were a community from the cradle to the grave, what else could a good life be?

Old age had once seemed some distant destination on some horizon uncharted, yet just as one step in front of the other will take you thousands of miles if you keep walking, it had arrived. Her hair was the colour of silver in various stages of oxidisation, every hue from fresh coins to almost slate grey. Once in a while I would close my eyes and listen to her voice, to the quick wit and laughter, and suddenly we were kids again and she was telling me some tall tale or irreverent joke. Esme was like that, always.

In the age of more basic machinery, of those polluting combustion engines, the old could be of less help than now. In the robot age they are the hardest working generation, freeing their children up for parenting and enjoying their youth. People learn and work from their late teens and early twenties as before, but few hours. The silver army is what we rely on, for they oversea the robots, the drones, the systems that grow and transport food, provide energy, make clothing and such. It keeps everyone healthier, more active and involved in living. For the very old there is care and love, we do it right, it's who we are.

There are heroes who are old and then there are those who simply dodged death long enough to get wrinkly.

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A description of an Old man

Siân Robinson Old Age 10B

A Description Of An Old Man

I’m writing this in a crisp, white hospital bed. I’m getting old. So many things are getting worse: my joints are creaking, shrieking with pain; my hair is getting greyer everyday; my memory is going now but I still know what I want.

Lying in a ward for elderly patients, I don’t want to be here. My daughter forced me, my Doctor forced me. Why can’t they mind their own business and let me die peacefully in my own home? It’s what I want. The first line of my Will reads,

“After dying peacefully at home, I leave...” That will never come true now. I’m too weak and feeble to go home. All this has been made worse by the medication they are pouring into my veins. I hallucinate, I forget things but I still remember every vivid detail of how I got into this state-into this ward.

Huddling by the scarce warmth of the gas fire in the hospital waiting room I knew what was coming next. The Doctor would emerge from the room next door and tell me I was dying. I didn’t need to be told. I have known for months now that I am fading away. It was just the way I wanted it to be; to die peacefully at home, no-one need ever know that I was suffering. That dream, that one last wish flew out of the window when my rude, disrespectful daughter drove me to the hospital in the next town. I didn’t want to go. In fact I didn’t know I was going.

‘Let’s go for a drive, Dad.’ WOW! That sounded lovely; ‘perhaps’ I thought ‘she loves me after all’. No such luck, I should have guessed. I thought I was going for a nice peaceful drive in the countryside, something to take my mind of my aches and pains. My happiness, however, dissolved as we entered the hospital car-park. She forced my shuffling, old body into the hospital on a wobbly walking stick. She introduced me as only my daughter would,

This is a preview of the whole essay

“My old, ill father would like to see a Doctor.” When had she ever asked for my opinion? She didn’t even stay with me. I was stuck then, no money for a taxi and no hope of being collected even if I did phone.

I sat in the cold waiting room, shivering by the open window. A nurse came to shut it and said,

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait sir. We’re running a few minutes late.” A few minutes! A few hours more like! It was just as cold sitting to the closed window as it was by the open one. The gaps between the glass and the rotting wooden frames were so big that great gusts of wind came in and chilled me right to my bones. I’m surprised I didn’t leave this world that very afternoon. I don’t know why they were so slow; there was no-one else in the waiting room.

At ten minutes to two o’clock, four hours after my darling daughter had departed, I was finally sent in to see the Doctor. Twenty minutes of intense questioning proceeded x-rays, scans and blood tests. I’m sure he only sent me for the tests because of the huge bags under my eyes, or perhaps my face was too lined and creased for his liking. I refused to tell him the truth. I repeated stolidly that I was fine and could I please go home. They ignored me and insisted on me being sent for tests. They eventually bundled me into a taxi for home.

“The letter confirming your next appointment will be sent to you as soon as we receive your test results.” That was all that was said to me as I was hustled out of the hospital and into the taxi. My daughter didn’t step foot on my doorstep again until the day of my next appointment. Three whole months later was when she finally reappeared in my life. It just shows that she really didn’t want a poor, wrinkly, elderly father on her hands. She wanted me shoved in a nursing home or stuck on a hospital ward. Well, that’s just what she got.

Here I am, stuck on a ward with a load of old people with cancer, pneumonia and all the other heart-wrenching illnesses. My eyes, sunken into my masked face, fill with tears as I realise I have no other choice.

Well, I suppose I am in the right place. I always forget how old I am, 89 years old, I don’t think that is a bad age so why do they want to keep me alive?

Alright, forget what I said earlier, I’m a bit wrinkly and I don’t have much hair left but up to the last year I have always been very active. That makes me forget that I’m getting on a bit. People don’t last forever. I feel defeated, lonely and upset to know that I will spend the remainder of my life in this hospital. I have no visitors. My daughter doesn’t love me and I have no other relatives. My friends are all in care homes or too ill to leave their homes to come and visit me. How I envy them, I wish I could be at home. The last few weeks of my life are going to be solitary but I am not afraid of what is facing me. However confused I may appear, I am excited about the next world. If only they would let me feel this way at home.

Whenever I think about what it must be like to die, it saddens me to know that I could be next. Those sad thoughts however turn to happier ones as I remember that after you die you go to a better place, place with no evil; a quiet, loving place to rest in until the end of the world. Why don’t they let me go home and get to this happy place when God calls for me? I don’t want to go when they turn my life-support machine off. That’s if I get that far.

Document Details

Word Count 1071
Page Count 2
Subject English

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English Language Paper 1 Q5 AQA 2018 - Describing an old man's face using 275 precise adjectives

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

5 March 2024

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This lesson was inspired by the AQA 2018 English Language Paper 1 Question 5. Students were asked to describe the face of an old man. To help students improve their description, I have created a bank of 275 words that students can use to add precision to their descriptions.

The follow up tasks gives students 8 images of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Polanski version). Students must select the adjectives carefully to describe one of the 8 images. Peers then have to work out which image they have described from the quality of the description.

The plenary asks students to write down their favourite words to describe each aspect of the face.

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ODU Creative Writing Students Partner with Norfolk SPCA to Help Get Animals Adopted

Photo of a man holding a phone with an image of a dog displayed.

Writers from Old Dominion University’s Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing program are harnessing the power of language to help adoptable animals at the Norfolk SPCA find forever homes. The effort is part of ODU’s Writers in Community , a non-profit program dedicated to helping the diverse communities of Coastal Virginia by cultivating literacy and creativity. A branch of the Old Dominion University MFA Creative Writing Program, Writers in Community works with local organizations to reach out to children and adults who can benefit from the opportunity to express themselves artistically.

Through a social media campaign that started in May, students wrote bios for the several dogs, bunnies and a cat, who are in need of new homes, including the shelter’s longest resident, Haley, who has been with the SPCA for more than a year. Students have also shared photos of their own literary-minded pets to encourage others to adopt.

“We’re thrilled to partner with such talented writers to share the stories of these wonderful animals,” said Tammy Lindquist, community engagement manager at the SPCA. “Animals make a profound difference in our lives and we’re so happy these writers are sharing the stories of our beloved animals and their own.”

The novelists, poets and essayists in the MFA program also shared photos of their own pets, with reflections on the impact these best friends have made on their lives. SPCA supporters are encouraged to share photos on social media of the pets they’ve adopted through the SPCA with #findyournewbestfriend.

“Our pets provide endless joy and inspiration,” said Kent Wascom, MFA in Creative Writing program director at ODU and author of “The Great State of West Florida.” “The incredible writers in our program are so excited to help these dogs and cats and rabbits find families who will care for them, and to share the ways their own pets impact their lives.”

The adoptable animals featured in the campaign and others hosted by the SPCA can be met from 1 to 4:30 p.m. each day except Tuesdays at their adoption center on Ballentine Boulevard.

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COMMENTS

10 Words to Describe an Old Man's Face
You can describe the old man in your story as being particularly wrinkled if he's very old. This will show readers without needing to state outright that the character you're describing isn't a young person. 2. Graying Definition. Turning gray; having grey hair. Examples "The man was old and graying with wisps of white hair."
Describing an Old Man
Level 3 describes an old man, Level 4 describes a homeless man and Level 5 is a World War 2 story involving an old man. Level five is the highest level and it is for those able to understand complex English phrases and concepts. I hope there is something for everyone to learn from the blog. God bless and take care for now. Here is the post:
Describing Old Age-The Traps And An Idea List
An Anachronism - as in old fashion, something old that is out of place. Ancient bones creaked. Ankles swelled with gout. Arthritic. Banging his cane demandingly. Battered shell of his youth. Bending forward to keep his balance. Beyond the first blush of youth. Bingo night is her social life.
Old man
The doctor shook his head with the tiniest of smiles. "A cup can only spill over if there's something in it. There's no anger in you. You're just not going to remember things so well, and it's slow, you've got a while." By Angela Abraham, @daisydescriptionari, October 10, 2015 .
PDF June 2018 Paper 1, question 5 Model answer 1
The old man·s body is present, but his mind is absent. It floats far away from these mundane surroundings, far away from where Mrs M dribbles lukewarm tea down her polyester blouse while kindly Monica doles out Rich Teas and digestive biscuits with a slapdash hand. Descriptive language Adjectives (describe nouns) Adverbs (describe verbs)
How to describe a person vividly: 8 ways
2. Focus on details that reveal personality. A character's hair or eye color doesn't tell the reader much (there are other ways to use eye descriptions to build personality).. When you introduce a character, focus on details that reveal character personality or psychology. Here's Dostoevsky describing his character Katerina Ivanova (who has tuberculosis) in Crime and Punishment (1866):
500+ Ways to Describe Faces: A Word List for Writers
50 Alternatives for Wink in Writing 100+ Ways to Say Blush. Are You Interested in More Word Lists and Writing Tips? ... Or hate. Relax and enjoy your creative journey — with The Writer's Lexicons as your guides. One of the. A Top 50 Writing Blog at UK Writers Hub. A Top 50 Blog for Mastering the Art, Craft, and Business of Writing at ...
Paper 1 Question 5: Creative Writing Model Answer
The style of the writing (sentence structure and overall structure) is dynamic and engaging; Below you will find a detailed creative writing model in response to an example of Paper 1 Question 5, under the following sub-headings (click to go straight to that sub-heading): Writing a GCSE English Language story; Structuring your story
101 Sentence Prompts To Spark Your Creative Writing
96. The Night of Creation: "Fueled by creative juices, she spent the entire night writing, producing a short story that would become her legacy." 97. The Old Man's Last Ride: "The old man took one last ride on the roller coaster, feeling the thrill of youth and a lifetime of memories all at once." 98.
70 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire You to Write
Creative Writing Prompts Can Boost Your Writing Skills. Using writing prompts can boost your creativity and improve your writing skills in a number of ways by: Helping to overcome writer's block. Exercising your imagination. Increasing your rate of practice. Teaching you more about yourself.
The Old Man by the Side of the Road
Down the Rabbit Hole We Go. The coffee seemed to revitalize him, instant adrenalin, mainlining legally, and the words tumbled out. "High school quarterback, big-time, you know, had all the colleges after him, this was back in Sixty-five, you know, narrowed down the list to USC and Notre Dame, then the cutback block happened, two-hundred and eighty pounds rolling into a knee, last game of his ...
Model example for writing to describe KS3 KS4
Model example for writing to describe KS3 KS4 - old man's face. Subject: English. Age range: 14-16. Resource type: Assessment and revision. File previews. docx, 183.97 KB. A model example for writing to describe using PEARMS (personification, emotive language, alliteration, rhetorical question/repetition, metaphor, simile). A motif of writing ...
AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1, Section B: Descriptive Writing Full
A full mark Creative Writing answer, written for GCSE and iGCSE students. The original question was taken from an AQA paper, but it's suitable for students of all exam boards. ... (Pyramids) Section B: Descriptive Writing A*/L9 Answer (Old Man) Section B: Narrative Writing A*/L9 Answer (Lake Narcissus) BONUS MATERIAL: Mock Paper 1: The Old ...
Ways to Replace "Old" in Writing: A Word List for Writers
Colors. The colors used most often to describe old people's beards, eyebrows, and hair are shades of grey/gray such as the following. A to I alien grey, aluminum grey, anchor grey, ash grey, battleship grey, bottle grey, boulder grey, carbon grey, cement grey, charcoal grey, cloud grey, coin grey, corpse grey, crater grey, death grey, dove grey, elephant grey, exhaust grey, fling grey, flint ...
The Old Man- A Short Story
The old man looked about the same. He still had his wild hair and wrinkly face. However, he seemed a little more tired as if he just lost a few lives. He looked down at the now small Em, "Thank you." The old man seemed so tall now to Em. His height towered over her. She glanced up at the sky and saw a bird flying overhead.
Writing Male Characters
Stoicism, Bravery, Pragmatic thinking, Capability, Isolationism, Leadership, Physical ability. These are the qualities of the ideal man - the standards which influence your character's behavior and worldview. They're powerful motivators, but remember that your character experiences them through a middle man.
The Gigantic List of Character Descriptions (70+ examples)
23. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. "He was commonplace in complexion, in feature, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe….
Old age
old age. - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing. Search entire site for old age. Arriving at old age is no achievement if all you did was hide at the back of a self-driven bus. By Angela Abraham, @daisydescriptionari, January 9, 2021 . Choosing the right roads into old age matters more than the odometer or the bumps we encounter.
A description of an Old man
GCSE English. Siân Robinson Old Age 10B. A Description Of An Old Man. I'm writing this in a crisp, white hospital bed. I'm getting old. So many things are getting worse: my joints are creaking, shrieking with pain; my hair is getting greyer everyday; my memory is going now but I still know what I want. Lying in a ward for elderly patients ...
Paper 1 Question 5: Creative Writing
AO6 (16 marks) Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. Overview. Question 5 is a writing question. Question 5 is worth 40 marks. You should aim to write 5-7 paragraphs. You should spend approximately 45 minutes on this question.
English Language Paper 1 Q5 AQA 2018
Students were asked to describe the face of an old man. To help students improve their description, I have created a bank of 275 words that students can use to add precision to their descriptions. The follow up tasks gives students 8 images of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Polanski version). Students must select the adjectives carefully to describe ...
1,219 Old Man Writing In Journal
Browse Getty Images' premium collection of high-quality, authentic Old Man Writing In Journal stock photos, royalty-free images, and pictures. Old Man Writing In Journal stock photos are available in a variety of sizes and formats to fit your needs. ... Creative Videos. Check out millions of royalty‑free videos, clips, and footage available ...
ODU Creative Writing Students Partner with Norfolk SPCA to Help Get
Writers from Old Dominion University's Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing program are harnessing the power of language to help adoptable animals at the Norfolk SPCA find forever homes. The effort is part of ODU's Writers in Community, a non-profit program dedicated to helping the diverse communities of Coastal Virginia by cultivating literacy and creativity.
The Old New Thing
The Old New Thing. What's the deal with std::type_identity? June 7, 2024 Jun 7, 2024 06/7/24 Raymond Chen. When you want to use a type without participating in type deduction. 1 0. Code. Can INI files be Unicode? Yes, they can, but it has to be your idea. June 6 ...
8,530 Old Man Writing Stock Photos & High-Res Pictures
Creative Videos. Check out millions of royalty‑free videos, clips, and footage available in 4K and HD, including exclusive visual content you won't find anywhere else. See all creative videos. ... Browse 8,530 authentic old man writing stock photos, high-res images, ...
Adobe Creative Cloud for students and teachers
Try Creative Cloud today. After your free trial, your Adobe Creative Cloud membership is only. US$19.99/mo US$59.99/mo . See terms. Buy now. Free trial. Purchase by phone: 800-585-0774. Students and teachers are eligible for over 60% discount on Adobe Creative Cloud. Get access to Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro and more.