Character Descriptions
By Mike Maillaro
August 20 , 2026
One thing I had a hard time with when writing The Story of You was deciding how much to describe the characters. As I’ve mentioned before, from the very beginning I had a crystal-clear picture of Allison in my head, but I felt hesitant to put a detailed physical description of her, or any character, onto the page.
Part of it was intentional: I wanted readers to visualize her however they wanted. As long as they had the sense of a "short woman in her mid-twenties wearing a grey hoodie that was too big for her," I felt comfortable letting them fill in the rest.
The other part is that I find describing normal people kind of boring. I’m used to writing epic battle scenes between Magneto and Sentinels. Describing scraping metal and burning rubble is second nature to me. Talking about how blue Magneto’'s eyes are at that moment? Not exactly in my wheelhouse.
Setting the scene and describing environments came much more naturally to me. I think I did a far better job building the places our characters inhabited than describing the characters themselves.
But in the romance genre, character descriptions are crucial. One of the first things my beta readers told me was, "I can't really see these characters," and that I needed to add more detail.
Once I paid closer attention, I also realized I was also being wildly inconsistent. Early on, Ethan would sometimes have "dark" eyes instead of the expressive blue-grey eyes I eventually settled on. He’d also morph back and forth between having broad shoulders and a lean swimmer’s build. I started to wonder if he was actually a shapeshifter in disguise, which would have fit my usual genre better and made keeping his appearance consistent a lot easier.
While I was struggling with his physical frame, his clothes were a whole different story. Ethan effectively lived in two completely different wardrobes. When he was playing the role of "Ethan Blackwood," he had a very specific costume, sleek, dark, structured, and carefully curated to project the mysterious romance author vibe. But "Ethan Crump" in his natural habitat was basically a living advertisement for grungy sports shorts and faded t-shirts.
It was a lot of fun toward the end of the book to finally watch those two worlds collide. As he grew more comfortable in his own skin, he stopped hiding behind the polished Blackwood armor and abandoned the total slacker outfit, blending them together into what I call his true "Ethan Hart" look. Seeing his style naturally evolve alongside his character development made him feel so much more real.
Allison was sort of easy to describe since I had a picture of her in my head when I started this The first version of her full description was basically unchanged through most of the later drafts. The only thing I changed was her hairstyle when we first met her, since it seemed like every woman I had written a messy bun.
I also added more description of Allison in later chapters as we find out she has an athletics background and is actually pretty jacked under that bulky hoodie she wears so much in the opening chapters.
After Allison and Ethan, the first secondary character I managed to write a full description for ended up being Nay, Allison's fashionista friend:
Naomi Leigh might have been the most beautiful woman Allison had ever seen. She didn’t just occupy a room; she curated it. She was effortlessly tall, with a dancer’s fluid, statuesque posture that made even the casual linen trousers and silk tank top she wore look like haute couture. Her skin was a rich, flawless mahogany, contrasting beautifully against the lines of silver jewelry stacked on her wrists. Her hair was styled in a crown of neat, elegant box braids that grazed her shoulders whenever she tilted her head, which she did often, examining the world with the critical, unblinking eye of an artist.
Once I had Nay pinned down, the other characters started to flow a lot better. I think the next ones I tackled were Maya and Paige. Maya was probably both the easiest and hardest character to bring to life. I knew exactly what her clothes looked like because they directly reflected her personality:
Everything about Maya was fluid and expressive. She never just stood still; she leaned, she stretched, she draped herself over furniture, her long fingers flying through the air as she spoke. She dressed in a chaotic, effortlessly cool patchwork of oversized vintage leather, sheer fabrics, and heavy stone rings that clicked like castanets whenever she gestured. She radiated a fierce, magnetic confidence, the kind of girl who walked into a room expecting everyone to look at her, and who possessed the exact combination of sharp wit and total fearlessness to make sure they did.
But originally I pictured her with darker skin, probably Hispanic. But the image that kept sticking in my mind was someone with red hair and a splash of freckles across her face, so I ended up following that visual spark instead.
For Paige, I needed someone with the polar opposite energy of Maya to balance her out.
Paige looked like the kind of person you immediately look for in an emergency. She had broad shoulders and the kind of stamina that came from pulling grueling twelve-hour floor shifts at the hospital. Her skin was a sun-warmed olive, and her dark brown hair was chopped into a practical, no-nonsense bob that she routinely pinned back to keep out of her eyes.
Paige’s movements were perfectly efficient, the practiced, vigilant economy of motion unique to trauma nurses. Paige’s eyes were a steady, unchanging hazel, completely devoid of panic, looking at a broken car engine, a bleeding gash, or a room full of chaotic people with the exact same calm, analytical assessment. Or exhausted roommates for that matter.
What I eventually realized was that the best descriptions weren't necessarily the ones that told the reader the most about what someone looked like. They were the ones that told the reader something about who that person was. I stopped trying to paint a perfect portrait and started looking for the little details the characters would actually notice about each other. Once I figured that out, the descriptions flowed a lot more naturally.
Beyond physical descriptions, one area where I really struggled was describing women's clothing, especially poor Allison's wardrobe. My wife and my friend Amy both had to point out that I was using completely wrong terms to describe a bathing suit Allison wore, as well as a professional outfit she bought. Later on, a dress I described for a gala scene was also way off. Poor Allison desperately needed Nay in her life... because I am clearly the last person who should be writing women's fashion.
All that to say: while Ethan turned out not to be a shapeshifter, I am still pretty sure Queenie is a fae creature who can bring people together and teleport around when no one else is looking. She definitely might not belong in a grounded romance like The Story of You, but she made it very clear from day one that I was to write her exactly as she was. No deviations allowed.
And honestly, who am I to argue with The Queen?
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