On February 28, 2026, Kasie and Rex took on body parts. Here are the show notes:

Topic: Body Parts

Agenda:

• Quick catch up
• Body Parts basics
• Being Subtle
• How to do it

Segment 1

In consuming a ridiculous amount of romance fiction, I (Kasie) have come across my share of absurd body part descriptions. So I thought we haven’t ever really talked about how to talk about body parts on this show. So let’s do that.

Let’s talk:

Basic biology versus nuanced inference

When, where and how to flex that vocabulary

Body parts as vehicles for metaphor (i.e. broken heart)

What to leave to imagination and what to make explicit.

But first, if you haven’t yet registered for the upcoming Women in Publishing event what are you waiting for? This is your chance to bewith dozens of book publishing professionals, authors, writers, designers, publishers, editors, you name it and they’ll be there. Here’s a link to register.

From the website: 

The Women in Publishing Summit exists to empower, support, and elevate women and nonbinary individuals across the entire publishing industry—from idea to bookshelf and beyond.

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Okay, so that’s said and I recommend attending. Alexa does a GREAT job with events.

Let’s talk body parts. I found some other writers who have written about body parts here are some links:

• How to write better character physical descriptions from The Writing Cooperative 
• Masterlist of physical descriptions from MasterClass
• Body Build Cheat Sheet for Writers from Kathy Steinemann

Because physical description is the first time we use body parts in our work. We want to give the reader a sense of who this person is. We can default to drivers license stats: eye color, hair color, height and weight. 

And some people say start early – like as soon as the character is introduced, give the reader a sense of who they are by describing their appearance. But it shouldn’t be an info dump. A couple of well-selected details can give you a good sense of the space a person occupies.

Frankenstein’s monster: A massive figure filled my bedroom doorway. He had to angle his shoulders and stoop his head just to fit through… Black, uneven stitches zigzagged across mottled skin…

So should you use similes? Like this and as that? Should you include endearing details like a sprinkle of freckles across the nose and cheeks or a crooked sort of smile that looked mischievous?

Here’s 15 great character descriptions by famous authors.

The risk of not enough detail is that every character looks the same or the person is just kind of faceless or character-less. But the risk of too much detail is that your reader is trying hard to imagine just the person you had in mind instead of letting the character work out his specifics himself.

Segment 2

So how can you be subtle about it? 

Focus on action – how is the character moving? Gesturing? How can you fit the description into the manner in which they take up space (or don’t)? Use the action to disrupt or dishevel the appearance, or to straighten or neaten it.

Build in personality details – does the character squint because she refuses to wear her glasses? Does the character slouch because he’s always the tallest in the group? 

Look through other characters’ eyes – what do other characters say about him or to him? How do they respond to him or her? Do they stumble over words? Stare or look away? Do they get embarrassed of their own shabby appearance or acne-marked face?

Use senses other than sight – how does the character smell? Fetid? Stale? Like mildew? Or fresh? Use colors to indicate lightness or darkness and the feel of the fabric – soft or coarse – to indicate its value, its durability, or even its elegance.

Consider the what the traits enable the character to do – reach a top shelf or require a step stool, hold a camera phone out far enough to get a picture, see past the person seated in front of them or be hidden in the back of the group photo.

Think of the way a filmmaker will focus on something like the lighting of the room to show warmth, the angles of the furniture to show its comfort or rigidity.

Segment 3

What about nuance? What about euphemism? What standards exist for terminology?

Avoid stereotypes – not all slender people are graceful and not all fat people are klutzy. 

Avoid cutesy names for things – euphemism can be a character’s way of saying things but shouldn’t be in the narrative. Using food colors (mocha, cocoa, peach) is along the same lines. It’s cute but let’s not.

check out these links for additional resources:

How to Write Sex Scenes from Writers in the Storm

8 Dos and Don’ts of How to Write Sex Scenes that work from Writers Digest