Addendum: The lack of underwear clearly is a characterization thing, because it's something the character chooses, not something the character is due to random genetics. That she would make that choice tells you something about her priorities and perhaps intentions, and if it is an unusual thing for a Victorian lady to do (IANA period costume expert), that tells you all the more.
When I'm talking physical description, I mean things like hair color, eye color, height, and so forth. Things that tell you absolutely nothing about who the character is or how they behave (except perhaps to the extent that they haven't chosen to dye their hair purple, or whatever). That's the sort of thing I struggle with, because it does not matter in any possible way that I can perceive. And yet, some readers insist they need to know it.
It's doubly frustrating when I'm dealing with a POV character who isn't much concerned with appearances, her own or others. Trying to get across hair color & style for a character whose only interest in her hair is that it stays out of her eyes -- argh. Trying to convey the police-blotter stats on her husband who she's seeing for the first time in two years (in the middle of a crisis, when she has other things to worry about, and she's known the man for two decades and really doesn't think about him in terms of the specs on his drivers license anyway) was a exercise in forehead-to-wall-application -- hence my appreciation of the Crusie quote above.
no subject
When I'm talking physical description, I mean things like hair color, eye color, height, and so forth. Things that tell you absolutely nothing about who the character is or how they behave (except perhaps to the extent that they haven't chosen to dye their hair purple, or whatever). That's the sort of thing I struggle with, because it does not matter in any possible way that I can perceive. And yet, some readers insist they need to know it.
It's doubly frustrating when I'm dealing with a POV character who isn't much concerned with appearances, her own or others. Trying to get across hair color & style for a character whose only interest in her hair is that it stays out of her eyes -- argh. Trying to convey the police-blotter stats on her husband who she's seeing for the first time in two years (in the middle of a crisis, when she has other things to worry about, and she's known the man for two decades and really doesn't think about him in terms of the specs on his drivers license anyway) was a exercise in forehead-to-wall-application -- hence my appreciation of the Crusie quote above.