History Main / DescriptionInTheMirror

->''The reader wants to know what your characters look like. But how do you get your point-of-view character to rattle off his height, weight, and skin tone? Easy! Frog-march him to the mirror! Unfortunately, this is so obviously a convention of bad fiction that it might as well read, "Looking in the mirror, Joe saw a tall, brown-haired man, trapped in a poorly written novel."''
-->-- ''Literature/HowNotToWriteANovel''

But be warned, dear Writer: this trope is looked down on in some circles, partly because it's seen as a cliché and partly because of the amount of amateur fiction [[SturgeonsLaw that use it poorly]]. The most common abuses are using it as a lazy substitute for feeding the audience a description naturally over the course of the story, and incongruously describing the character's appearance [[PurpleProse in much greater detail]] than is used in the rest of the story, which is usually just another way to tell us how awesome your character is. It is also subject to a bit of FridgeLogic - you'd think most characters would know what they look like without having to check in the mirror.

* Done in Samael's Interlude in ''Literature/{{Anathema}}''.

* This is Bella's occasion for describing her own appearance in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. She considers her appearance [[ImNotPretty unremarkable]], but the description she gives suggests good looks, [[AuthorAvatar similar]] to those of [[Creator/StephenieMeyer the author]].

But be warned, dear Writer: this trope is looked down on in some circles, partly because it's seen as a cliché and partly because of the amount of amateur fiction [[SturgeonsLaw that use it poorly]]. The most common abuses are using it as a lazy substitute for feeding the audience a description naturally over the course of the story, and incongruously describing the character's appearance [[PurpleProse in much greater detail]] than is used in the rest of the story, which is usually just another way to tell us how awesome your character is.

But be warned, dear Writer: this trope is looked down on in some circles, partly because it's seen as a cliché and partly because of the amount of amateur fiction [[SturgeonsLaw that use it poorly]]. The most common abuses are using it as a lazy substitute for feeding the audience a description naturally over the course of the story, and incongruously describing the character's appearance [[PurpleProse in much greater detail]] than is used in the rest of the story, which is usually just [[MarySue another way to tell us how awesome your character is]].

* R.L. Stine uses this technique to describe Gary in ''[[Literature/{{Goosebumps}} Why I'm Afraid of Bees]]''.

This is usually slipped into a MorningRoutine sequence, or when the character catches themselves in the mirror abroad. As well as being used for descriptive purposes, it can effectively be used to reflect character - suppose this person hates her appearance and usually avoids mirrors, or else closes in to focus on the flaws (pimples, wrinkles, whatever); have her get a good look at herself (say, in a mirror at someone else's house) where she can't spend time obsessing over her flaws, or are unable to close the distance due to a crowd (so that she's forced to stand back and get a view she doesn't often see). It could also be used to show their vanity - reflection on how gorgeous they look, or how they were sure no-one has as stunning [body feature].

* R.L. Stine uses this technique to describe Garry in ''[[Literature/{{Goosebumps}} Why I'm Afraid of Bees]]''.

* Creator/AndreNorton used this technique in her novel ''Literature/ForerunnerForay'':

* Done by Taylor in the first chapter of ''Literature/{{Worm}}''.

* A different version of this trope occurs when Literature/{{Quiller}} is being interrogated by the Chinese as a suspected British agent, and his interrogator throws down a surveillance photo of Quiller on the table. (Quiller of course insists that he's an innocent British tourist [[ImplausibleDeniability who looks nothing like that man]]).

[[TropesAreTools That's not to say it can't be done well, just that it's easy to get wrong.]]

* Used at length in ''[[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Shadow of a Dark Queen]]'' to describe Erik von Darkmoor, complete with comments on his demeanor and public image.