Yeah, I think you might be side-stepping a genre convention there. ;-)
I can kind of see it for romance, though. At the very least, if A is busy being attracted to B, it makes sense that A would be noticing what B looks like. And possibly contemplating A's own appearance, as well, in hopes that B is also being attracted. (Though even there, I'd be more likely to write about a character realizing that this is the shirt with the gravy stain on it, than thinking about their own hair color or skin tone.)
I'm trying to remember if I paid any attention to what characters looked like in the last romance I read. But I think that might have been by the author I quoted in the OP, so not much of a test case. ;-)
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Date: 2019-Apr-05, Friday 01:00 am (UTC)I can kind of see it for romance, though. At the very least, if A is busy being attracted to B, it makes sense that A would be noticing what B looks like. And possibly contemplating A's own appearance, as well, in hopes that B is also being attracted. (Though even there, I'd be more likely to write about a character realizing that this is the shirt with the gravy stain on it, than thinking about their own hair color or skin tone.)
I'm trying to remember if I paid any attention to what characters looked like in the last romance I read. But I think that might have been by the author I quoted in the OP, so not much of a test case. ;-)