creative writing describing old man

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Writing Tips Oasis - A website dedicated to helping writers to write and publish books.

10 Words to Describe an Old Man’s Face

By Ali Dixon

Do you have an elderly male character in your novel? Are you currently thinking about what features to give to this person? Here are  10 words  to describe an old man’s face to help you.

1. Wrinkled

Bearing wrinkles ; ridges or furrows on the skin that generally form with age.

“Although his eyes were bright and engaged, his  wrinkled  face gave away his true age.”

“The man’s face was  wrinkled  and his smile was welcoming—she felt she could trust him immediately.”

How It Adds Description

As people they older, they get more and more wrinkles on their faces. You can describe the old man in your story as being particularly wrinkled if he’s very old. This will show readers without needing to state outright that the character you’re describing isn’t a young person.

Turning gray ; having grey hair.

“The man was old and  graying  with wisps of white hair.”

“Although he moved around efficiently, he could tell the man was old, especially because of his  graying  face.”

Along with gaining more wrinkles, people who get older also tend to have hair that turns gray or white. Perhaps the old man you are describing has a head full of gray hair, or maybe he has a big gray beard. Either way, you can describe his face as graying to help emphasize his age.

Lacking in brilliance ; slow in perception.

“She was speaking directly to him, but his face remained  dull  and impassive.”

“His face was  dull  and aged, but when she asked him questions later, he was perfectly responsive and remembered everything that had happened.”

If someone’s face is dull, then that can help to show readers that the person you are describing lacks youth and enthusiasm. If you want to surprise your reader, you can describe an old man’s face as being dull and uninterested and later in the story have the old man take up a pivotal role and act much more involved.

Lacking in energy or spirit ; uninteresting.

“The old man’s  vapid  expression made her think that he must not care about what was going on around him.”

“At first, he seemed distant and  vapid , but the more they all spoke to him, the more they realized that he was extremely aware and intelligent.”

If the old man you are describing is perhaps going a bit senile, then you can describe his face and expression as vapid. This will tell readers that mentally, he may not be entirely present.

Having no energy or strength ; worn.

“The man in front of them had a  tired  look on his face, and he seemed unwilling to move very much.”

“The  tired  old man in front of her wasn’t very responsive.”

The word tired doesn’t just have to refer to a person’s physical state. When people are young, their expressions tend to be quite vibrant and excited. Older people, on the other hand, may appear perpetually tired. You can use this word to describe how old your character looks as well as to describe his general personality.

6. Sparkling

Lively or animated .

“The man was so old he could hardly walk or move at all, but his  sparkling  expression told of his internal youth.”

“He sat in a wheelchair in the corner of the room, and she would have almost missed him entirely if not for his  sparkling  eyes.”

This is a very fun word to use, as you can use it to subvert your readers’ expectations. The man in your story may be quite old, but if you describe some features of his face like his eyes as sparkling, this shows an inner youth that he may have.

Dried or shrunken, often with age ; failing vitality.

“She took note of the man’s  wizened  face, which over many years had become tired and wrinkled.”

“Although his face was  wizened , his mind was sharp, and he still remembered specifics of the event even all those years later.”

If the old man in your story appears particularly old or wrinkled, then describing his face as wizened can demonstrate that to your readers. It can help show readers that the old man may be very near the end of his life.

Unkempt ; not well maintained or cared for; messy.

“The man had not shaved his face in a long time, and his patchy,  scruffy  beard was proof of that.”

“Although his face was  scruffy , he was well-dressed which made him presentable enough for the event.”

As people get older, they may find it more and more difficult to perform personal grooming tasks. This can lead to things like an overall unkempt appearance. Using this word to describe the old man in the story will demonstrate that he may not be as good at maintaining his appearance as he once was.

9. World-Weary

Demonstrating boredom or fatigue at material pleasures or other aspects of the world .

“His  world-weary  expression made her hesitant to try talking to him.”

“He had seen many things in his life, but his  world-weary  appearance made him seem unenthusiastic about his adventures.”

The old man in your story may have seen many things in his life, and at this point, he may find the world boring because of it. If that’s the case, world-weary is a great word to use to describe the way he looks.

Overworked or exhausted to the point of fatigue ; apathetic or cynical because of past experiences.

“His eyes were  jaded  by the knowledge he held and the many experiences that came with old age.”

“The old man appeared  jaded  at first, but the more she spoke to him, the more he began to open up and tell more stories about his youth.”

When someone has many experiences, especially negative ones, they can become jaded and unhappy with the world. This makes it a great word to describe someone who is old and who has been through many difficult things.

Search for creative inspiration

19,898 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,964 themes

old man - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

• a handsome man
• a young man
• father's advice
• knobbly hands
• old fisherman
• rag and bone man
• Rough hands

The old man had that look about him, the look of a life well lived, one where love took a front row seat in the challenging times and the good times.

Age and wisdom are quite separate things and each can arrive ahead of the other. This was never truer than with this combination of old man and boy.

He was an old man, but I could see the young boy in him still yearning to return to his train set. It was as if his soul sat down at one of those little platforms with the tiny trees, waiting at the miniature station for the steady sound of turning wheels and puffs of steam. Or maybe that inner boy waited for a time to put down the mask of sanguine resilience and be himself all over again, playful and silly. I could see the worry lines and how they made crosses with those of joy, the boy his parents welcomed and the man the world asked for, the one who'd love to rise and the one who'd love to rest.

The doctor wore that face he always did when the news wasn't good. "Burt, you're developing Alzheimer's like your father did." Burt's wrinkled face crumpled as he rubbed it with his spotted hand. "Pops got so violent. He wasn't himself anymore. Doc, I can't be like that..." His voice broke away as his chest heaved. The doctor shook his head with the tiniest of smiles. "A cup can only spill over if there's something in it. There's no anger in you. You're just not going to remember things so well, and it's slow, you've got a while."

A wizened face peered out from under a wedge of blue hat, which was the only thing on his otherwise bald and mottled scalp save a sparse fringe of white. His eyes were so heavily lidded and weighed down with wrinkled folds that it was almost like talking to someone asleep, yet he was quite alert. Not seeing Lacy beneath the level of the counter he said “One youth admission?” Sophie had been expecting the croak of old age but his voice was more like a sergeant major, strong and distinctly upper class.

The map of wrinkles on his face told of the most incredible journey. His eye lines told of laughter, of warm smiles and affection. His forehead told of worries past and worries present. But mostly they were so deeply engrained they told or a man who had travelled through eight decades to that moment; to stand here as an old man, beaten and forlorn. To be dismissed as "old" when he was so much more than the sum of his parts.

Age only brings wisdom if the heart remained vulnerable and pure in the most challenging of times. In this the old man had paid his fare in tears of every kind - he was one who had earned these listening ears.

Sign in or sign up for Descriptionar i

Sign up for descriptionar i, recover your descriptionar i password.

Keep track of your favorite writers on Descriptionari

We won't spam your account. Set your permissions during sign up or at any time afterward.

BRYN DONOVAN

tell your stories, love your life

• Writing Inspiration
• Semi-Charmed Life
• Reading & Research
• Works In Progress.

Master List of Physical Description for Writers

I created this list of ways to describe people

because physical description, when done well, helps the readers see characters in their minds. But sometimes when you’re in the middle of writing, it can be hard to think of physical adjectives and distinguishing features for characters. I find that describing facial features can be especially tricky!

That’s why I created this long list of physical characteristics. It’s kind of like a character description generator, and it’ll help you when you’re trying to think of how to describe a character’s appearance.

Eyes – General

 For all the words about describing facial features, I’m focusing more on physical descriptions rather than emotional expressions, though there’s a little crossover! You can also check out my long list of facial expressions.

heavy-lidded

fringed with long lashes

with sweeping eyelashes

with thick eyelashes

By the way, this post on how to describe (and not describe) the eyes of an Asian character  is really great. Check it out.

Eyes – Color

Brown is the most common eye color by far. Green is quite rare.

chocolate brown

cocoa brown

coffee brown

sienna brown

Support My Site

If you like what I do, please support me on Ko-fi!

cornflower blue

Arctic blue

glacial blue

crystal blue

electric blue

slate blue / slate gray

storm blue / storm gray

silver / silver gray

concrete gray

gunmetal gray

Skin – Color

Josh Roby made a great chart of skin tones and descriptor words, and I got a lot of these words from him. You can get that here .

The quote from N.K. Jemisin interested me: “I get really tired of seeing African-descended characters described in terms of the goods that drove, and still drive, the slave trade—coffee, chocolate, brown sugar. There’s some weird psychosocial baggage attached to that.” 

cream / creamy

rose / rosy

Skin – General

Some of these are better for the face, and some are better for other parts of the body.

translucent

luminescent

with large pores

weather-beaten

Face – Structure

heart-shaped

high forehead

broad forehead

prominent brow ridge

protruding brow bone

sharp cheekbones

high cheekbones

angular cheekbones

hollow cheeks

jutting chin

pointed chin

receding chin

double chin

dimple in chin

visible Adam’s apple

People don’t write much about noses, but they can be distinguishing features for characters!

Cupid’s bow

straight teeth

gap between teeth

gleaming white teeth

Facial Hair (or lack thereof)

clean-shaven

smooth-shaven

mutton-chop sideburns

a few days’ growth of beard

five o’ clock shadow

Hair – General

I threw a few hairstyles in here, though not many.

shoulder-length

neatly combed

slicked down / slicked back

buzzed / buzz cut

widow’s peak

Hair – Color

There are some repeats here from the eye color section!

salt and pepper

charcoal gray

brown sugar

tawny brown

toffee brown

Titian-haired

strawberry blonde

butterscotch

sandy blond

fair-haired

Body Type – General

average height

barrel-chested

heavy / heavy-set

pot-bellied

full-figured

leggy / long-legged

broad-shouldered

sloping shoulders

stubby fingers

long fingers

ragged nails

grimy fingernails

ink-stained

This list and many more are in my book Master Lists for Writers: Thesauruses, Plot Ideas, Character Traits, Names, and More . Check it out if you’re interested!

And if you don’t want to miss future writing posts, follow the blog, if you aren’t already — there’s a place to sign up on the lefthand side of the blog. Thanks for stopping by, and happy writing!

Related Posts

Share this:

127 thoughts on “ master list of physical description for writers ”.

Thanks, Bryn! This list has sparked a spark in my brain. I haven’t seen one of those for a while. I was getting worried I’d lost my flint!

I’m so glad you like it!

I love this, do you mind if we share on our blog WritersLife.org ?

Thanks for the positive feedback! You can’t reproduce it on your blog, but you can share an excerpt of 200 words or less plus a link to my site.

As a new novel writer all I can say is thank very much for sharing with us this wonderful list.

Ah you’re welcome! Thanks for visiting!

This is amazing! Thank you very much!

Thanks for the kind words–glad it seems helpful!

Reblogged this on looselyjournalying.

Reblogged this on Of Fancy & Creativity .

• Pingback: Bryn Donovan | Shadows Publishing

Aw thank you for this it helped so much! I’m 15 and I’m trying to write a novel and this was sooooo helpful so thank you a billion 🙂 Best wishes.

Ah you’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by. Good for you for working on a novel, and good luck–I bet it will go great!

Hi, Bryn Thank you for doing these lists. They helped me a lot. Can you make a list on how to describe emotions like sadness or anger.

It’s funny you should ask 🙂 There’s a list like that in my book MASTER LISTS FOR WRITERS coming out this fall! I haven’t officially announced it yet, but hey 🙂

You can get a free copy when it comes out if you agree to give it an honest review. SIgn up for my newsletter if you’re interested!

Reblogged this on Kalynn Bayron and commented: Yes! This is great!

Was just looking for this type of lists.Great work.

This is so helpful.

I love your blog, btw. Your posts are informative and/or inspirational.

Are you on any social medial where I can follow you?

Oh, thank you so much! I just checked out your blog — I love the dream casting post! http://sbhadleywilson.com/blog/pull-ideal-cast-2/

I’m @BrynDonovan on Twitter, just followed you!

VERY helpful. I need to get basic descriptions of people done and out of the way to move on with plot. This quickens any details that might have taken me a long time to think through, or strain a sentence. Yuck. I know my females characters would pay attention to lots of physical details. not so with the males. Thanks!

Oh, so glad it’s helpful! That’s always what I’m trying to do with my lists — speed things up. I hate getting stuck on a detail and losing my momentum 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!

godsent list! Bryn, I wish you more brains.

Reblogged this on Jessica Louis and commented: This list is beyond helpful. Who knew there were so many eye colors!?

Thanks Bryn your list was amazing. I’m an aspiring writer and it really helped me a lot. When I can I’m going to get a copy of your book. I think it would help me become a better writer. My genre of choice is erotic, but it is so hard to get out there, but I’m hopeful one day I will. It’s what I love to do and I’m going to keep trying.

Hi Beth! Thank you so much for the kind words. If you do get the book, I hope you like it! And good luck on writing erotica — I’m doing a “WIP Wednesday” this Wednesday where you can share a bit of your work in progress, if you like 🙂

That would be great. I have some short stories publish on a site called Literotica. I have some editing issues that I’m trying to work out, nothing a few classes wouldn’t help. How do I share my work.

I am so sorry! I missed this comment before. The next WIP Wednesday on the blog is Dec. 2… if you’re following the blog you’ll see the post! (The follow button is on the righthand side of this page.) Hope your writing’s going well 🙂

• Pingback: A Great Resource for Writers | I Read Encyclopedias for Fun
• Pingback: MASTER LIST: Physical Descriptions |

Reblogged this on PRINCE CHARMING ISN'T HERE and commented: what an amazing list! I always have a hard time describing features! words sometimes fail me!

i loved this list! thank you so much for making it! 🙂

So glad it was helpful!

• Pingback: Describing People « Chestnut ESL/EFL

Thank you! This is so helpful to have for reference. Occasionally I’ll have a particular word in mind and can’t think of it, and I can usually pop over here and find it right away!

I absolutely love your master lists. They have helped me so much in diversifying the words I use when I’m writing. 🙂

Ohhh thank you! That is so great to hear. 🙂 Hope your writing projects are going great!

Thank you, and they are. I’m just about to publish a works I’ve been working on for the past couple of months, which is so exciting. XD Hope all your writing projects are going great as well. 🙂

What a wonderful and thorough list Bryn. Thanks for sharing it! I will at some point ‘link back’ to this fabulous article (I’ll let you know when I do.) I’m new to your site, but will certainly be back for more! I’m fascinated to learn that you’re also a home-grown KC girl. =0) Although, I remarried and moved to California 9 years ago, KC still tugs my heart-strings.

Hey, so glad you like it! Yeah, Kansas City is a special place. Come visit anytime 🙂 And thanks for visiting my blog! — I LOVE your username, by the way. Made me smile.

thanks for following my blog!

Reblogged this on A Bundle of Cute.

Reblogged this on A Blissful Garden and commented: I find this very important!

• Pingback: List of Physical Descriptions » Mary M Cushnie-Mansour
• Pingback: The Perfect Character | Simply frannie

Reblogged this on Insideamoronsbrain and commented: Wow!!

• Pingback: Writing Links Round Up 2/15-2/20 – B. Shaun Smith

Thanks for sharing this list! It is amazing and so helpful !

I’m going to save this as a favorite. You always provide great information Bryn. Continue with your success.

Oh, thank you so much, Christopher! I really appreciate the kind words. So glad you like this!

This list is so complete! I haven’t worked on fiction in a long while, but lately I’ve been wanting to get back into it. I know this is going to be a great help when i sit down to create my characters!

• Pingback: 25 Holy Grail Resources For Writers! - NATASHA SOLAE
• Pingback: How Do You Describe a Character’s Looks In His or Her Point of View? – Bryn Donovan

This is absolutely perfect for aspiring writers so that we don’t have to use Microsoft Word synonyms that tend to nit have what we’re searching for. Your introductory paragraph about readers falling in love with characters’ personalities and not theit physical attributes was spot on. Thank you thank you, thank you!

Chunny! Thank you so very much for the kind words. I’m so glad you found it helpful!!

• Pingback: Sick of the same old descriptive words? | myislandofbooks
• Pingback: Character Details: Face – BUCK OFF BLOG

This is amazing! Thank you! I hope it’s alright if I use this as a reference in a blog post for character development.

Hi Jacquelyn! So glad you like it. That’s fine, just please link to the post!

I read this over and over, thank you for creating this! Can I just ask, when thinking of clothing and how to describe it, what are some things you would put? (I’m making a book draft and have never needed clothing described to me as much as now)

Thank you! It’s so important that we don’t reuse the same words too often, so this will help a lot with that problem.

• Pingback: Writing The Best Characters – LJBNovels

Thanks for helping me. It really made a big difference of helping me come up with something.

Hi Joseph! Sorry for the delayed reply! I’m so glad you liked it. Thanks for the kind words!

• Pingback: Prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo [2 days left] – Cayleigh Stickler

Your book “Master Lists for Writers” has helped me incredibly. I’ve always wanted to be a romance writer but didn’t have the nerve until now. I am currently working on a short story about a college girl who is assaulted by a classmate. It was based on a dream I had a few nights ago. I haven’t developed how she gets her revenge on him. I know the story line seems dark but the dream stuck with me so much, I felt the urge to turn it into a story. Thank you again for your awesome book. What a great resource

Rhonda! Thank you so much for the kind words. I am so happy that the book is helpful, and even gladder that you’re going for it and writing! Sending you best wishes on your story!

• Pingback: MASTER LIST of Physical Descriptions! | Written By Gigi

Great advice in this post, Bryn! Thank you.

Used this for school! It was really helpful!

Oh yay! So glad it was helpful!

• Pingback: Best Writing Websites of 2017 – lmnelsonscorner

This is a great list! So comprehensive, and just what I was looking for. I struggle with physical descriptions of people and have a tendency to write the same kins of attributes. So this list is fab!

This is great!

• Pingback: Character Descriptions – Queer Sci Fi

keep up the good work

Hey thanks 🙂

This is so helpful!!!!!

• Pingback: Thursday Thoughts: On Writing – Bookish Book Nerd

Tiptoeing out there to publish my first book (I’ve been writing a long time). This post helped so much. Thanks!

oh my gosh, thank you! You have put a lot of effort in this list. I def appreciate it 🙂

Thank you I´m always using this when I´m creating new characters.

• Pingback: Listing Characteristics for Character – Newcomers
• Pingback: Characteristics of Character – ESOL II

Incredibly helpful! Thanks a lot :3

Thank you for sharing this!

• Pingback: How do you introduce your character's appearance?
• Pingback: ? Writing Links Round Up 11/5-11/9 – B. Shaun Smith

More extensive than my general list. My wizened goatee and elder Fu Manchu thank you for sharing your time and devotion to the craft.

• Pingback: NaNoWriMo Prep Resources – Quinn M. Nichols

Very useful for ready reference. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Mohan! So glad you liked it!

• Pingback: Clear-Cut Advice For Latinbridesworld – Where To Go | Bart De Clercq
• Pingback: Vital Aspects Of Latinbrides World – The Options – Construtora Colombo
• Pingback: Clarifying Programs Of Latinbrides world — SunHouseDOO
• Pingback: Selecting Painless Products In Latin brides world site – Bie-Usha (WA) Limited

I’ve been writing for a while, mostly for fun, but this was the one thing I could never get down, but this list is great! all around solid, and incredibly useful, I see myself using it every time I need to make a new character, good job!

You’re a legend! This is fantastic, thank you!

Hahaha, thanks for the kind words! 🙂 Glad it’s helpful!

I am following your prompts and valuable advice for writing a fantasy teen fiction novel. I think you are amazing. You might not know it but I was able to clear hundreds of my doubts through your help. Please keep up the good work and providing your valuable support to all of us upcoming writers.

Hey, thank you so much for the kind words—you made my day! It’s wonderful to hear that you’re working on YA fantasy. I’m so glad I could help, and I wish you every success!

I honestly would not recommend this as good writing advice. The focus is too much on describing someone’s physical features using analogies for food. That is not a good thing, it becomes trite and overdone. If used sparsely it’s okay but almost every word in this list is food related.

Hi, Larissa! Thanks for taking your valuable time to share your opinion.

You have done a great job preparing this Master List. Those who think such precise words for describing someone hurt their sensibilities, move on to another URL. I appreciate every bit of your effort.

Hi, Pradeep! I am so glad you like the list. Thanks so much for commenting!

Bryn, I love your master list book and use it all the time!

Ohh, thank you so much! I’m so glad it’s helpful!

• Pingback: The Latest On No-Hassle Methods For latin brides world - Delta Hijau Abadi
• Pingback: Deciding Upon Quick Systems In latin brides world – Rasa estampación
• Pingback: Word Lists – Skymark Streets

This is a godsend. I owe you my soul.

I work 20 hours per day, (regular business and writing the memoir). Just ordered the Master List–seems like having my own research assistant. I may be able to get 5 hours sleep now. Thanks

• Pingback: Character Bio Template: 200+ Character Development Questions - SEO News Media
• Pingback: Character creator | Doug Weller Writer

No jaw descriptions? ;(

You saved my day with your wonderful, descriptive words! Now I’ve found the perfect features for my handsome male character. Thank you!

That is a lot of hours for books but I guess if you keep pushing it will happen.

Survêtement OM 2020, Survêtement PSG 2020 ou Survêtement France 2020, fais ton choix parmi la plus grande gamme de survêtement de football disponible sur internet et c’est seulement chez Foot Dealer, ta boutique 100% football !

writing cause and effect essays english language essay writing college essay requirements

• Pingback: 5 Mistakes Men Make Writing Women Characters - Richie Billing

Hi Bryn, thanks so much for this information! I always appreciate your lists because I like comprehensive material all in one location as a reference (then if I decide to break the rules, at least I know what the rules are “supposed to be” first!). Have you considered making comprehensive lists of creative writing genre conventions (tropes, archetypes, settings, devices, etc.)?

Hello, and thank you for the valuable and useful information. I agree with Eleanore regarding the list of genre conventions. I’m more than pleased I found you website.

Thank u so much ❤️ that was so helpful

• Pingback: Appearance in English – wygląd zewnętrzny po angielsku - kapitanenglish.com
• Pingback: Ukraina a nie Rosja powinna gościć Euro 2028 - kapitanenglish.com
• Pingback: How to create a memorable non-player character - Skull RPG
• Pingback: Master Lists of Character’s Physical Description – Verbum Amoris

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Discover more from BRYN DONOVAN

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

Writers in the Storm

A blog about writing.

Describing Old Age-The Traps And An Idea List

From Char's doll collection

By Sharla Rae

When writing, we have to describe all kinds of people/characters. I’d venture to say that older adults or seniors are one of the most difficult people groups to describe.

Because what you see is not always what you get. Okay, this might be true with any age group, but it’s doubly so with the older generation.  There’s a world of experience and living under their belts and their faces don’t always tell the story.

Also, yesteryear’s elderly are now a cliché when compared to the modern seniors.

My grandparents had false teeth they’d take out at night and dunk in a glass of water on their bedside tables every night. Current grandmothers, if they have the funds, opt for veneers or dental implants that permanently screw into the jawbone.

Both of my grandmothers were old timey one-room schoolteachers who never worked outside the home once they married. Modern grandmothers prefer to stay active and often that means working until a ripe retirement age – maybe longer.

Fashion comes and goes but my grandmothers were never seen in anything but modest, below-the-knee dresses or slacks no matter the fashion. And if you had suggested an exercise program to her, they’d claim to got plenty of exercise cleaning house.  Modern seniors exercise more than today’s youth and have bodies fit enough to wear the latest fashion, even if they choose to go for comfort instead.

 On the list below you’ll see physical descriptions as well as actions and doings of old people. Some phrases are unflattering, some humorous, some are clichés but all serve as an idea springboard.

Terms For Growing Older -- All Clichés

 Advancing years Autumn of life Declining years Long in the tooth Old as Methuselah Old as the hills Old fogey Old fossil Older than dirt One foot in the grave Twilight years Winter of life

Word And Phrase Descriptions

 A little too ripe to be job hunting Age-spotted pate An Anachronism – as in old fashion, something old that is out of place Ancient bones creaked Ankles swelled with gout Arthritic Banging his cane demandingly Battered shell of his youth Bending forward to keep his balance Beyond the first blush of youth Bingo night is her social life Blue-rinsed hair topped with a pillbox hat Bushy salt and pepper brows Cabinet of medicine, hot water bottles and Ben Gay Cackles of the old biddy Calcified grin Called the shop girls girlie Cemented in his ways Changes his underwear after a sneeze Cheated the undertaker once again Codger, geezer, graybeard, Contrary, and snappish Crabbed with age Crone, witch, hag Crotchety old man with his Damn young whippersnapper Dapper old chap Doddering along the park lane Double-dumpling figure, bent with age Dowager Queen Dowdy old maid Dried up Drooping eyelids he could barely see out of Dunked his false teeth into a water glass Eyes bright with age Face lined with experience and wisdom Face was road map to his glorious past Faded blue eyes Faded version of his son Feeble-minded, forgetful Feisty antique of a lady Forgot where she put her dentures Frail old woman slowly shuffled Fuddy-duddy Fusty and set in her ways Getting some action, he ate his fiber today Gnarled hands knitting Gramps zones out once in a while Grandma and grandpa-might used a derogatory for anyone old Gray dandelion hair Growing love comfortable shoes and clothes Grumped at the noisy children Grunted and creaked with every move Grunts when he sits, then sighs with relief only to grunt and rise Hair a crown of faded glory Hair billowed cobwebs in the draft His get-a-long got up and went Hoary, whiskered old fellow Humped over and leaning on her cane In his declining years In his dotage Infernal loud music Infirmities aside, she was in good shape Jowls flapped when he talked Laugh like crackling paper Laugh lines bracketing twinkling eyes Long nose hair Looked 45 but liver spots hands gave her away Loved the decadent indolence of retirement Matriarch who rules the roost Matron aunt Ol’ fart Old and decrepit Old duffer is deaf Once a rock and roller, now he rocks only the chair Patriarch of the family Prune juice a staple of her diet Rheumy eyes Rocked and rocked and stared within Room full of crooked backs, colorless hair and time-faded eyes Ruminating on when she was young Sagging skin Sat on the tenement steps and watched the world go by Senile and helpless She’s a classic Shriveled by half Skin as thin and white as parchment Skin like used tea leaves Skin of leather Skin stretched over knobby bones Smelled of Chantilly Lace and moth balls Sparse eyebrows with a chaotic growth pattern. Stale, moldy and far-sighted Stooped and bent frame Strains to hear Stroke left her expressions scary/endearing Tottering and unsteady Transparent blue-veined skin Trapped behind the walls of age Tufts of hair grow out of his ears Turkey neck Wattle neck Wise old eyes widened with a twinkle Withered skin Wizened and shrunken like a fading rose Wrinkled skin costumed a youthful heart Young mind trapped in an old body Youth was waning

  Definitions

centenarian -- person 100 years old or older

glaucoma -- hardening of eyeball resulting in poor vision or blindness; associated with                             aging

leucoma -- disease of the eye in which the cornea becomes white and opaque

noachian -- old enough to date back to Noah

octogenarian -- person in their 80’s

preadamite -- dates back to before Adam

quinquagenarian -- person in their 50’s

septuagenarian -- person in their 70’s

sexagenarian -- person in their 60’s

Dementia -- loss of cognitive ability

Alzheimer’s disease -- type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.

Playing Dr. Frankinstein – 5 Questions To Ask Your Characters Before You Begin

Keep Characters True To Themselves

If you’ve read my list blogs before, you know I love descriptions in Poems.

Poems about old age

Humorous poems on old age

When she’s not writing and researching ways to bedevil her book characters, Sharla enjoys collecting authentically costumed dolls from all over the world, traveling (to seek more dolls!), and reading tons of books. You can find Sharla here at Writers In The Storm or on Twitter at @SharlaWrites .

31 comments on “Describing Old Age-The Traps And An Idea List”

What an incredible resource! Thanks for sharing this 🙂

Welcome Gene and thank you for visting today!

Great post, Sharla! It really made me think about how old changes with the audience. In my recent, her heroine is 49, the hero early fifties. Nowadays, this generation would be one step from the old folks home. Not true today, as you pointed out. The challenge for me in writing romance about this age group was getting readers over forty pulled into the story from a romantic angle. When a reader in her late thirties told me that she "fell" for the hero, I figured I'd done my job :-). Will save your phrase descriptions...a great list.

Sharon, this is so true! I'm often surprised at how fit and good looking people 40 and over really are. My grandmothers "expected" to look older and less fit and were content to accept their condition. Today's seniors don't accept it and it shows. They educate themselves on the best ways to stay fit mentally and physically.

Sharla, I'd venture to say that the new "chick-lit" is "geezer-lit" and that Boomers are more likely to describe their parents and grandparents using the cliched descriptionns above. It has been easy and fun for me since I grew up with multiple generations ... people who were born during the turn of the 19th Century and cousins who fought in Korea. The concept of old didn't hit me until mom moved into an independent living apartment and I asked her why she wanted to live with a bunch of old people 🙂

But how do Gen-X kids see Boomer Granny's? That would be my kids who have kids who are plugged into eletronic gadgets 24/7. My kids who are looking at me the way I looked at my mother and thinking ... Hey, who are you and what have you done with my mom?

I love, love your extraordinary "lists" and this one has got to be one of the best.

Thanks. I laughed at when you mentioned how you're kids look at you. Mine are often the same way. There is no way my mother would tweet, blog, etc. 🙂 She never went to an exercise class in her life. Sometimes my kids look at me like -- but mom aren't you too old to do that? Ha! I think they kind of got over that though went I went zip lining over the rain forest. 🙂 I participate in activities that my mother would not have thought of doing even when she was in her 20s!

Good point about how the elderly aren't so "old" and out of the mainstream any more. Great info and list of phrases! Thanks!

Glad you like the list, Betty. Thanks for stopping by.

Bookmarking this—thanks!

Absolutely love this. Thanks so much! Now I have to get this old gal to the gym, put on my wig, and then go to work:)

Hey, it make us a more effort to "stay" young, but we know the payoffs are great. 🙂

Another great list, Sharla! Today's "old folks" are texting and on FB and Twitter. I still remember my grandmother yelling into the telephone because she couldn't figure out how someone in a different country could hear her without a little extra help. 🙂

Oh, Lord, I'd forgotten about that! So funny.

Thought-provoking list. As one of the old geezers, I'm constantly annoyed when people (and TV) portray 60-year-olds as "old." On the other hand, the 60-year-olds in my novel set in 1913 are old. Gout was a real problem. And their teeth didn't hold up. But even then, some lived into their 90s. As I say - thought provoking.

Unfortunately, few of the problems of old age have gone away. I think the difference is better medicines, education about benefits of staying fit, etc. And yes, if you writing about years ago, all those infirmities were a reality to deal with. Lets face it, if a woman in the early 1900s or 1800s dressed for exercise and then performed it the way we currently do, she would have been considered a loose woman!

Better healthcare, exercise, staying out of the sun. We can be young forever! Or think we are. It's true, Sharla, if we showed up in 1900 wearing what we do now, I imagine we'd have been committed to an asylum, That is what they did to women who didn't conform.

Hey! I resemble all those remarks! lol

LOL Jo. Sometimes I think we all do. It's hard work staying young.

Great blog, Sharla, and oh so true. I do all that my kids 19 and 14, do as far as tweet, FB, blog, text and all that. Plus I'm in love with my iPhone. My son jokes about me being "old" and then says he's just kidding. However when my daughter and I were talking about me getting the tattoo I've always wanted he asked me why I'd want to do something like that when I'm so "up in years". I asked him why he would think that way. I mean, was I ready to pick out my gravestone? Is it too late to do some things? In my mind, it's NEVER too late to do anything. He quickly shut up.

One thing I've learned Pat, is that kids today think they are indestructible. They think in terms of the here and now. They can do anything but their parents as far as they are concerned are beyond having any concept or even wanting an understanding of the latest and greatest. They seem to think we are too old to enjoy anything new. Ha! My son has said things like, mom, you don't have to worry about that, or you have no need of that or why would you want to even do that mom? In which case, I pretty much say the say things you did. 🙂

Theses are wonderful terms and words. Tweeted.

Thanks so much Ella.

Great post! I actually feel much healthier than I did over a decade ago, because now that my children are grown, I can focus on myself instead of burning myself out to meet their needs. I workout every day with hand weights an exercise bike, and dance exercises, as well as take the dog out twice a day. I feel better and have lost more than a few pounds I'd put on in my thirties and forties. I can't imagine my mother having done the type of workouts I do at my age.

Exactly Susan. And I'm with you. I put on pounds like crazy when the kids were in junior high and high school. I look and feel so much better now. It's like I said in the blog, todays seniors just don't fit into the old mold of . . . Old. 🙂

Great post. Very thought provoking. I know I'm sixty and can run rings around some of the young ones I work with, although I will admit that at my age "Pulling an all-nighter means not having to get up to go to the bathroom." Dory

LOL Dory. I sometimes wonder if it's that I have more energy than younger people, or they just don't care to expend theirs. 🙂

Thanks, Sharla, brilliant as always. You're so right about the changes in these times too.

Thanks stopping in today Yvette. 🙂

OK, I'm gonna confess it, I saw "sexagenarian" as "sexy vegetarian." That shall be forever imprinted on my brain from now on. 🙂

Haha...our choir director in college announced on like day one of my first year that he'd just turned 60 and his wife had dubbed him a "sexy-genarian." As awkward 18-22 year olds we all found it very funny and gross.

LOL Jen. I like that! Could be sexy genarian too!

Subscribe to WITS

Type your email…

Recent Posts

• The Power of Character Descriptions
• Book Distribution 101 for Writers
• I DARE YOU: The Strange Beginning of an Amazing Journey
• Ten Things I’ve Learned as a Hybrid Author
• Untangling the Mess: Overcoming Common Revision Obstacles
• Ellen Buikema
• Jenny Hansen
• Lynette M. Burrows
• Lisa Norman

Copyright © 2024 Writers In The Storm - All Rights Reserved

• Subscription Box
• Shop by Category
• Shop Subscription Boxes
• Shop Past Boxes
• Writing Passports
• The Scribbler Blog
• Giving Back

New User? Register Now

• Register Now

Beyond Tall, Dark, and Handsome: How to Describe Your Characters

• May 26, 2021

The ability to describe is the key to great storytelling, but when it comes to depicting characters, our first impulse is often to go straight to the basics (height, hair color, clothing) and leave it at that. It’s not that those descriptions are bad, it’s just that they provide surface-level characterization rather than truly   characterizing .

Dwight Swain, in his book   Creating Characters , says, “When your wife says a woman is ‘loud and pushy,’ she defines her far more sharply for story purposes than any description of blue eyes, blonde hair, or pug nose.”

The reason “loud and pushy” is meaningful is because it tells us what is going on inside the character, not just what appears on the outside. And the description tells us not only what the woman is like, but reveals something about the wife who characterizes her so.

Which means when you describe your characters, your descriptions are deeply tied to who is doing the describing. A rambunctious kindergartener will be represented quite differently by a patient grade-school teacher than a cranky principal.

And this is true whether you’re writing a story narrated in first or third-person, because even in third-person we see the world through that character’s eyes.

Remember that the goal in creative writing isn’t to give your readers information, but to give them an experience. Here are some tips that will help you tap into what is significant in your characters so that you can evoke feelings in your readers and make the characters in your story come to life.

Tip 1: Choose a dominant impression

Take inventory of the traits of the character you’d like to describe. Are they lazy, sexy, insecure, irritable? Choose qualities that are particularly noteworthy about the character and actually relate to your story. Think about what the character is   like , as much as what they look like. Keep in mind that the earlier you get to these qualities in relation to the character’s appearance in the story, the better. 

In J. Ryan Stradal’s   Kitchens of the Great Midwest , the protagonist has been lamenting his sorry luck with women. On page four, through a third-person narrator, we get more of the character’s perception of himself:

“By this time, he was twenty-eight, growing a pale hairy inner tube around his waist, and already going bald.”

This isn’t an objective description. Stradal conveys the insecurities of the character through the way the character chooses to describe himself.

Tip 2: Convey the attitude of the describer

Pin down the current outlook or perspective of the character doing the describing. Zero in on their state of mind (lonely, curious, offended, prone-to-exaggeration, etc.) at this exact moment in the story. Now write your description through the filter of the consciousness of the character who is doing the describing. 

The male point-of-view character in Grace Paley’s short story “The Contest” is a bit of a player. Here’s how he describes his latest kind-of girlfriend:

“A medium girl, size twelve, a clay pot with handles—she could be grasped.”

Clay pot? Grasping? There’s one thing on this character’s mind and it isn’t a chaste afternoon at an ice cream social. In one short sentence we have insight into his sensibilities about women.

Tip 3: Lean into diction

Now’s the time to get picky with your word choices. The trick here is to pin down not only your character’s perception of other characters, but which words will best convey them. Think about how your character might verbalize the description, even if they aren’t speaking aloud. Choose words from their lexicon that will reveal them as a particular person.

Mattie Ross, the formal-speaking protagonist in Charles Portis’   True Grit , uses words like “beast” and “morn” in describing her father on his horse:

“He was a handsome sight and in my memory’s eye I can still see him mounted up there on Judy in his brown woolen coat and black Sunday hat and the both of them, man and beast, blowing little clouds of steam on that frosty morn.”

Portis could have left out the parenthetical “man and beast,” and of course he could have had Mattie say “morning.” But his attention to the particulars of diction allowed him to characterize this unforgettable fourteen-year-old girl.

Tip 4: Go for gesture or bodily movement

If you tend to use static descriptions when you describe your characters, think about putting them in motion so that the reader can see them doing something. Action adds another dimension to your descriptions. It allows you to take physical traits, which may be general, and incorporate them into specific behaviors.

In “The Lunch Lady and Her Three-Headed Dogs,” essayist Sonya Huber writes about her conflicted relationship with her upper arms and describes them like this:

“I raise my arms to write on the chalkboard, and the skin draped over bone and muscle swings in contrapuntal melody.”

Huber isn’t just present in her classroom setting, she’s active in it. And the boldness of putting that upper arm skin in motion takes the visual from good to great.

Tip 5: Try something figurative

This is a tricky one because a bad metaphor or simile can be cringe-worthy. But a good one will delight your reader. A simple comparison can clarify your image, allowing the reader to think,   Ah, I know exactly what you mean .

Paulette Jiles skillfully uses metaphor in her novel   News of the World   during a scene in which kindly Captain Kidd is first assessing the young girl who is to be his charge:

“Her eyes were blue and her skin that odd bright color that occurs when fair skin has been burned and weathered by the sun. She had no more expression than an egg.”

When you describe your characters, with just a little extra work, you might be surprised at how deeply you can get into the minds of your story people, and how much better your reader will connect to them. More than plot, it’s your characters who are going to sweep your readers away into the world of your story.

Written by  Kim Lozano

Kim Lozano is an editor and creative writing coach from St. Louis. Her work has been published in The Iowa Review North American Review DIY MFA CRAFT and many other publications. You can find out more about her classes and the writing resources she offers at kimlozano.com.

• Author Interviews
• Contest Winners
• Debut Author Series
• Entertainment
• Inspiration
• Literary Agents
• Sponsored Posts
• Worldbuilding
• Writing Community
• Writing Tips

• Alpha Readers
• Debut Author
• Finding Time to Write
• Great Gatsby
• Indie Writer
• Microfiction
• Publishing Rights
• Social Media
• Word Choices

YOUR CART (0)

You don't have any items in your cart.

Special instructions for seller

Add a coupon.

What are you looking for?

Popular Searches:  Past Boxes   Passports   Gift Cards  

• TOP CATEGORIES
• AS and A Level
• University Degree
• International Baccalaureate
• Uncategorised
• 5 Star Essays
• Study Tools
• Study Guides
• Meet the Team
• English Language
• Writing to Inform, Explain and Describe

A description of an Old man

Siân Robinson        Old Age 10B

A Description Of An Old Man

        I’m writing this in a crisp, white hospital bed. I’m getting old. So many things are getting worse: my joints are creaking, shrieking with pain; my hair is getting greyer everyday; my memory is going now but I still know what I want.

        Lying in a ward for elderly patients, I don’t want to be here. My daughter forced me, my Doctor forced me. Why can’t they mind their own business and let me die peacefully in my own home? It’s what I want. The first line of my Will reads,

“After dying peacefully at home, I leave...” That will never come true now. I’m too weak and feeble to go home. All this has been made worse by the medication they are pouring into my veins. I hallucinate, I forget things but I still remember every vivid detail of how I got into this state-into this ward.

Huddling by the scarce warmth of the gas fire in the hospital waiting room I knew what was coming next. The Doctor would emerge from the room next door and tell me I was dying. I didn’t need to be told. I have known for months now that I am fading away. It was just the way I wanted it to be; to die peacefully at home, no-one need ever know that I was suffering. That dream, that one last wish flew out of the window when my rude, disrespectful daughter drove me to the hospital in the next town. I didn’t want to go. In fact I didn’t know I was going.

‘Let’s go for a drive, Dad.’ WOW! That sounded lovely; ‘perhaps’ I thought ‘she loves me after all’. No such luck, I should have guessed. I thought I was going for a nice peaceful drive in the countryside, something to take my mind of my aches and pains. My happiness, however, dissolved as we entered the hospital car-park. She forced my shuffling, old body into the hospital on a wobbly walking stick. She introduced me as only my  daughter would,

This is a preview of the whole essay

“My old, ill father would like to see a Doctor.” When had she ever asked for my opinion? She didn’t even stay with me. I was stuck then, no money for a taxi and no hope of being collected even if I did phone.

I sat in the cold waiting room, shivering by the open window. A nurse came to shut it and said,

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait sir. We’re running a few minutes late.” A few minutes! A few hours more like! It was just as cold sitting to the closed window as it was by the open one. The gaps between the glass and the rotting wooden frames were so big that great gusts of wind came in and chilled me right to my bones. I’m surprised I didn’t leave this world that very afternoon. I don’t know why they were so slow; there was no-one else in the waiting room.

At ten minutes to two o’clock, four hours after my darling daughter had departed, I was finally sent in to see the Doctor. Twenty minutes of intense questioning proceeded x-rays, scans and blood tests. I’m sure he only sent me for the tests because of the huge bags under my eyes, or perhaps my face was too lined and creased for his liking. I refused to tell him the truth. I repeated stolidly that I was fine and could I please go home. They ignored me and insisted on me being sent for tests. They eventually bundled me into a taxi for home.

“The letter confirming your next appointment will be sent to you as soon as we receive your test results.” That was all that was said to me as I was hustled out of the hospital and into the taxi. My daughter didn’t step foot on my doorstep again until the day of my next appointment. Three whole months later was when she finally reappeared in my life. It just shows that she really didn’t want a poor, wrinkly, elderly father on her hands. She wanted me shoved in a nursing home or stuck on a hospital ward. Well, that’s just what she got.

Here I am, stuck on a ward with a load of old people with cancer, pneumonia and all the other heart-wrenching illnesses. My eyes, sunken into my masked face, fill with tears as I realise I have no other choice.

Well, I suppose I am in the right place. I always forget how old I am, 89 years old, I don’t think that is a bad age so why do they want to keep me alive?

Alright, forget what I said earlier, I’m a bit wrinkly and I don’t have much hair left but up to the last year I have always been very active. That makes me forget that I’m getting on a bit. People don’t last forever. I feel defeated, lonely and upset to know that I will spend the remainder of my life in this hospital. I have no visitors. My daughter doesn’t love me and I have no other relatives. My friends are all in care homes or too ill to leave their homes to come and visit me. How I envy them, I wish I could be at home. The last few weeks of my life are going to be solitary but I am not afraid of what is facing me. However confused I may appear, I am excited about the next world. If only they would let me feel this way at home.

Whenever I think about what it must be like to die, it saddens me to know that I could be next. Those sad thoughts however turn to happier ones as I remember that after you die you go to a better place, place with no evil; a quiet, loving place to rest in until the end of the world. Why don’t they let me go home and get to this happy place when God calls for me? I don’t want to go when they turn my life-support machine off. That’s if I get that far.  

Document Details

• Word Count 1071
• Page Count 2
• Subject English

Related Essays

A Description of a Lonely Place

Description of An Idyllic Place

Description of a beach

KathySteinemann.com: Free Resources for Writers

Word lists, cheat sheets, and sometimes irreverent reviews of writing rules. kathy steinemann is the author of the writer's lexicon series..

250+ Ways to Describe Voices: A Word List for Writers

(Discover even more words in The Writer’s Body Lexicon .)

Your protagonist’s voice will evoke varied reactions. As a writer, your job is to make readers hear what you want them to hear.

In context, dulcet tones could imply a beautiful woman. Abrasive barks might work for an impatient CEO. Singsong droning would be appropriate for many teachers.

Let’s Review What a Few Other Authors Have Written for Voice Comparisons

“A hoarse bass voice like an echo in an empty house.” ~ Amos Oz

“A voice as hard as the blade of a shovel.” ~ Raymond Chandler

“A voice like a broken phonograph.” ~ Anonymous

“A voice like a strained foghorn.” ~ W. W. Jacobs

“A voice like the cry of an expiring mouse …” ~ Arthur C. Benson

“A voice like the whistle of birds.” ~ Arabian Nights

“Brittle as the first ice of autumn.” ~ Michael Gilbert

“Delicate voices, like silver bells.” ~ Nikolai V. Gogol

“For thy voice like an echo from Fairyland seems.” ~ Anonymous

“Gruff voice, like the creaking of the gallows-chain.” ~ R. D. Blackmore

“Her voice … creaked like the hinges of a rusty iron gate.” ~ Stefan Zweig

“Her voice is like the evening thrush.” ~ Robert Burns

“Her voice is like the harmony of angels.” ~ Beaumont and Fletcher

“Her voice was like a bagpipe suffering from tonsillitis.” ~ Anonymous

“His voice is like the rising storm.” ~ Lord Byron

“Like melting honey.” ~ Jimmy Sangster

“Liquid voice resounded like the prelude of a flute.” ~ Gabriel D’Annunzio

“No more inflection than a traffic light.” ~ John Updike

“Voice flat and hard as a stove lid.” ~ James Crumley

“Voice like a chair scraping across a tiled floor.” ~ Roderic Jeffries

“Voice like a coyote with bronchitis.” ~ O. Henry

“Voice like dark brown velvet.” ~ Josephine Tey

“Voice like dish-water gurgling through a sink.” ~ Octave Mirbeau

“Voice like down feathers.” ~ William Diehl

“Voice like the music of rills.” ~ William Cullen Bryant

“Voice soft and cool as a prison yard.” ~ Joseph Wambaugh

“Voice was like hollow wind in a cave.” ~ Ossian

“Voice, as pure and sweet as if from heaven.” ~ Aubrey De Vere

“Voice, cruel as a new knife.” ~ George Garrett

“Voice, low as the summer music of a brook.” ~ T. Buchanan Read

“Voices as soft and murmurous as wings.” ~ George Garrett

What Other Comparisons Could You Use?

Pleasant baby’s giggle bubbling porridge cascading waterfall contented kitten cooing dove chirruping nightingale church choir finely tuned guitar gently lapping waves lilting xylophone lover’s kiss mother’s murmur pattering rain purring engine sweet cello symphony of crickets tinkling glass twittering canary whispering meadow wind chimes

Unpleasant alarm clock ambulance siren backfiring jalopy belching bully car alarm cat fight clucking hen coughing cat cracking knuckles dentist’s drill discordant violin explosive vomit freeway pileup grating manhole cover grizzly bear insistent jackhammer mewling cat microphone feedback pregnant frog simmering sewer snuffling sow squawking crow squeaky wheel squealing brakes thick phlegm violent windstorm whistling teakettle woofing seal

Tip: Listen to the sounds around you, including those on TV, podcasts, and online recordings. Make a list of agreeable and disagreeable sounds. Then incorporate them in your next writing project.

No Need to Always Use Like for Comparisons

Many of the words from 150+ Ways to Say “Look Like” or “Seem Like” could be used to create direct comparisons.

A music teacher might create an analogy based on a musical instrument: “Her shrill voice embodied every discordant violin I had ever heard.”

A lover would hear only the best from his sweetheart: “Her voice resonated: a cooing dove amidst a symphony of crickets.”

However, after an angry breakup, his attitude might change: “Her hen-clucking pecked apart everything I did.”

Be bold. Experiment. Unusual comparisons will produce the most memorable moments in your writing.

While you create, remember that what seems pleasant to one person could be disagreeable to someone else. Provide context that illustrates your intent.

Watch point of view. Your protagonist could label another person’s voice as sweet but would be unlikely to use the same adjective for self-description.

More Than 250 Adjectives to Describe Voices

Some of the following words tell rather than show.

For instance, describing a voice as mocking tells in one word what might be better shown with dialogue and body language: “You’re no better at darts than your puny brother,” Jim said, eyebrows raised. “My kid sister could beat you with her eyes closed.”

A abrasive, accusatory, acerbic, acidic, acrimonious, adenoidal, alto, animated, appealing, astringent, authoritative

B barbed, baritone, barking, bass, big, biting, bitter, bland, bleak, blunt, bombastic, booming, bored, boyish, brash, braying, breathy, breezy, bright, brisk, brittle, broken, bubbly, burbling

C to E calm, caustic, cheerful, cold, colorless, contralto, countertenor, crisp, critical, croaky, cutting, dead, demanding, disembodied, disinterested, dispassionate, droning, dulcet, dull, effervescent, energetic

F and G faint, fawning, feathery, feeble, fierce, firm, flat, forceful, fretful, fruity, gentle, girlish, glum, goofy, gracious, grating, grave, gravelly, grim, growling, gruff, guttural

H to J hard, harsh, hearty, hesitant, high-pitched, hissing, hoarse, honeyed, hostile, hushed, husky, immense, impartial, indifferent, indistinct, ingratiating, insinuating, intense, ironic, jeering, joking, jubilant

L and M lifeless, light, lilting, lively, loud, loving , low, malicious, matter-of-fact, mellifluous, melodious, mezzo-soprano, mild, mocking, modulated, monotone, monotonous, mournful, muffled, musical, muted

N to Q nasal, nasty, neutral, nonchalant, obsequious, oily, orotund, passionate, penetrating, piercing, piping, placating, plummy, polished, pretentious, quavering, querulous, quiet

R ragged, raspy/rasping, raucous, raw, razor-edged, reedy, refined, relaxed, resonant, restrained, ringing, roaring, robust, rough, rumbling

Sa to Sn saccharine, sad , sarcastic, sardonic, savage, scathing, scornful, scratchy, screeching, searing, serene, severe, shaky, sharp, shrieking, shrill, sibilant, silken, silly, silvery, sincere, singsong, sleek, slippery, sluggish, slurred/slurring, sly, small, smarmy, smoky, smooth, snide

So to Sy soft, somber, sonorous, soothing, sophisticated, soprano, sotto-voce, sour, squeaky, squealing, staccato, stark, steely, stentorian, stern, stiff, stilted, stinging, stony, strained, strangled, strident, strong, suave, subdued, submissive, subservient, sugary, suggestive, surly, sweet, sympathetic

T and U tart, taut, teasing, tender, tenor, tense, thick, thin, throaty, thunderous, tight, toneless, trembling, tremulous, trilling, unctuous, unsteady, unsympathetic

V to W vague, velvet/velvety, venomous, vicious, virulent, vitriolic, warm, wavering, weak, weary, wheezy, whiny/whining, whispering, wistful, wobbly, wooden

Are You Interested in More Word Lists and Writing Tips?

If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe to my blog . (The link will take you to the subscription widget at the top left of this post.)

I usually post two to five times monthly, and you can discontinue your subscription at any time.

Discover more from KathySteinemann.com: Free Resources for Writers

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

Type your email…

Please don't be shy. Leave a reply. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of new posts by email.

9 thoughts on “ 250+ Ways to Describe Voices: A Word List for Writers ”

Very interesting. A good way to overcome w. Block!

Thanks, Pat.

May 2023 turn out to be your best writing year ever.

Is this list of words in one of your lexicon books?

It’ll be in The Writer’s Body Lexicon , which won’t be published for a few months. The chapter in the book will contain even more options.

This table of contents shows what is available in both volumes of The Writer’s Lexicon .

Hi Kathy! I bought both your books, but I don’t see the list for voices (the list that is here). Can you tell me which page it’s on? Thank you!

Lynne, I just emailed you.

I’m sorry, Kathy! My eyes skimmed over the word Body in the title. I now see you have a new book coming out soon. Very exciting! I will definitely buy a copy when it comes out. Thank you!

Hi: Thank you for sharing this blog. I know so many times I find myself using the same descriptive words such as low, soft, angry and after a while, all the characters seem to be coming out the same. This list is most helpful as a creative, brainstorming part for me to use not only on the first write but the revisions as well. Also, thank you for taking the time to research and list the various authors and their descriptive terms. Again, thanks for sharing this great information.

Thanks for stopping by, Janice! Do you have any words you’d like me to research?

• 0 Shopping Cart £ 0.00 -->

Describing an old man creative writing

Describing old man creative writing, creative writing describing old man, creative writing describing an old man, describing an old woman creative writing, describing a man creative writing, further information.

• wits creative writing masters
• creative writing pathetic fallacy
• coursera creative writing the craft of plot
• creative writing football match
• essay help toronto
• how to do your homework last minute

Contact Details

Modern Bookbinders Ltd Pringle Street Blackburn Lancashire BB1 1SA UK

Email: modern.binders@btconnect.com Tel: 01254 59371 Fax: 01254 59373

How to describe a person | Homeschool high school writing skills

by Kim Kautzer | Mar 16, 2020 | High school , Word Banks

Does your homeschool teen know how to describe a person using vivid vocabulary? Because students can struggle with good observation skills or summoning up an arsenal of strong words, description can be a challenging task!

In The Prince and the Pauper , Mark Twain paints a word picture of King Henry VIII using descriptive language:

Before him, at a little distance, reclined a very large and very fat man, with a wide, pulpy face, and a stern expression. His large head was very grey; and his whiskers, which he wore only around his face, like a frame, were grey also. His clothing was of rich stuff, but old, and slightly frayed in places. One of his swollen legs had a pillow under it, and was wrapped in bandages. This stern-countenanced invalid was the dread Henry VIII.

Likewise, in The Bronze Bow   , Elizabeth George Speare describes a young Roman soldier with vivid words:

When he straightened again, the Roman was pulling off his helmet, revealing crisp fair hair. He wiped the back of his hand across his wet forehead where the metal had left an uncomfortable-looking crease. With a shock, Daniel saw that he was very young… The beardless cheeks and chin scarcely needed a razor. His skin was white, mottled and peeling from exposure to the sun, so that he could not have seen service long under the Galilean skies. The eyes that stared back at Daniel were a clear bright blue. He looked as though he might be about to speak.

Descriptive Writing Tools

Can your homeschool high schoolers describe a person using great detail as in the above examples? Can they describe their subject in detail without turning it into a narrative or story? 

When I was teaching homeschool writing classes, this was a hard concept for my students to grasp. Even with careful guidelines, many still ended up focusing on what the person was doing  instead of how they looked.

Use the following tips as teaching tools  in one of two ways:

• Discuss the many ways to describe a person before letting students loose to brainstorm ; OR
• Once they’ve written and edited their rough draft , give this list of ideas to stimulate creativity and to help them write a meatier revision .

Either way, whether you work on better brainstorming or focus on more polished revisions,  improved description will result.

>> How to teach descriptive writing to younger children

How to Describe a Person

It’s good to let your teens struggle with the initial writing process. When they wrestle with ideas and words, it reminds them why it’s important to thoroughly and effectively brainstorm. The following word lists will help them improve their descriptive paragraphs as they think of more concrete ways to describe a person’s appearance.

TIP: Don’t expect students to include every descriptive element listed below. Rather, a few well-chosen details will go a long way toward bringing their subject to life.

• Heart-shaped

Skin and Complexion

Complexion is the natural appearance and color of the skin, especially of the face. For example, “Mary’s soft, creamy complexion radiated health and happiness.”

• Wrinkled:   covered with lines or loose folds of skin; often associated with age 
• Freckled: sprinkled or covered with light brown spots 
• Ruddy: skin that has a reddish tint; may have the appearance of sunburn 
• Sallow:  skin that has a yellowish tint; may be associated with illness
• Tanned: skin with a warm, golden-brown tint
• Rosy or fresh-faced: pink-cheeked, fair complexion that glows with a hint of pink 
• Other skin-related adjectives: pale, fair, spotless, silky, smooth, creamy, dewy, baby-soft, peaches-and-cream, glowing, paper-thin or translucent (as with a very old person), loose, sagging, drooping, sunburned, peeling, rough, callused, weathered, weather-beaten, craggy, leathery, mottled, dry, brown, dark

TIP:  Pay attention to the eyes, because they often reveal a great deal about a person.

• Shape, size, and appearance:  large, small, almond-shaped, round, squinty, crinkly, bulging, heavy-lidded, hooded, deep-set, close-set, wide-set, hollow, vacant, tear-filled
• Eye color: black, brown, hazel, green, blue, violet, gray, amber
• Eye expressions:  piercing, mesmerizing, sad, sorrowful, haunted, gentle, sympathetic, warm, compassionate, expressive, bright, twinkling, sparkling, lively, dancing, laughing, shifty, sly, distrusting, sleepy
• Other:  brown-eyed boy, bright-eyed sister, wide-eyed child, gold-flecked eyes

Mouth and Lips

• Lip shape and size:  thin, full, pouting, rosebud (baby’s lips, often), pursed (puckered up, as when concentrating)
• Mouth expressions:  laugh, smile, beam, grin, frown, grimace, scowl, sneer, curl, pout
• Adjectives describing the mouth or mouth expressions: toothy, toothless, gap-toothed, kind, sweet, dimpled, relaxed, firm, serious, cruel, snarling
• Hair color: black, brunette, brown, chestnut-brown, blond, honey-blond, golden-blond, ash-blond, fair, towhead, corn silk, auburn, red, strawberry-blond, gray, silver, white, salt-and-pepper
• Texture or appearance:  wispy, fuzzy, wavy, curly, kinky, frizzy, wild, untamed, unmanageable, straight, spiky, stiff, buzzed, shaved, trimmed, parted, neatly-combed, tamed, cascading, long, short, cropped, dull, shiny
• Hair styles: braids, ponytail, pigtails, bun, messy bun, twist, bob, ringlets, flip, cornrows, extensions, bangs, buzz, layered, feathered, chopped, gelled, spiked, slicked down
• Lots of hair: thick, full, lustrous, bushy, coarse, wiry, stiff
• Little hair:  thin, scraggly, fine, baby-fine, downy, wispy, limp, flat, balding, bald, bald spot, receding (gradual loss of hair at the front of the head)
• Treated hair:  permed, dyed, bleached, highlighted, weaved, streaked, colored , ombre

Facial Hair

• Hair:  beard, n eck beard, goatee, mustache, handlebar mustache, soul patch, sideburns
• Beard growth:  fuzz, peach fuzz, bristles, stubble, designer stubble, five o’clock shadow (Describes new beard growth that’s shadowy in appearance. It’s usually more noticeable late in the day on the jaw, chin, or cheek area, but some men purposely grow “designer stubble.”)  
• Adjectives: bearded, bushy, stubbly, bristly, scratchy, unshaven, shaggy, whiskered, beardless, clean-shaven, smooth, trimmed, neatly-trimmed, pencil-thin

Body  

TIP:  Choose strong verbs and adjectives, since they help flesh out description.

• Build:  small, slim, slight, thin, lean, willowy, skinny, angular, bony, fine-boned, chunky, chubby, large, portly, plump, round, stout, pudgy, full-figured, ample, broad-shouldered, burly, solid, muscular
• Posture:  stand, sit, slouch, flop, lean, recline, rest, reach, stretch, sprawl, curl up, roost, squirm, arch, slump, stoop, bend, hunch, scoot, walk, run, race, jog , skip
• Fabric: denim, twill, wool, cashmere, cotton, linen, seersucker, gingham, lace, chiffon, tulle, velvet, velveteen, fleece, flannel, tweed, polyester, jersey, corduroy, spandex, leather
• Bottoms: jeans, skinny jeans, cargo pants, yoga pants, pleated pants, slacks, trousers, overalls, sweatpants, crop pants, capris, skirt, shorts, board shorts, bermuda shorts
• Tops: sport shirt, dress shirt, polo shirt, button-down shirt, chambray shirt, tank top, blouse, tunic, long-sleeve, short-sleeve, sleeveless, collared, T-shirt, V-neck, scoop-neck, boat-neck, turtleneck, sweatshirt, hoodie, pullover, sweater, cardigan, sweater set
• Other clothing: dress, gown, frock, pinafore, uniform, coveralls, costume, pajamas, bathrobe, robe, vest, jacket, blazer, coat, apron
• Footwear:  socks, stockings, tights, shoes, slippers, sandals, flip-flops, mules, loafers, heels, pumps, boots, ankle boots, riding boots, slouch boots, athletic shoes, sneakers, tennis shoes, gym shoes, runners, trainers, Chucks
• Accessories:   mittens, gloves, hat, cap, knit cap, head wrap, bandana, scarf, muffler, necklace, choker, bracelet, ring, earrings, cuffs, cufflinks, purse, clutch, bag, tote, sunglasses, eyeglasses, glasses, shades

Adjectives Describing Clothing

• When writing about appearance: stylish, natty, smart, chic, classy, elegant, polished, draped, flowing, sheer, casual, relaxed, carefree, starched, crisp, sharp, dressy, lacy, shiny, shimmering, sparkling, glittery, sloppy, torn, ripped, tattered, disheveled, slovenly, tacky, unkempt, faded, scratchy, worn, frayed, nubby, rough, smooth, pliable, warm, soft, quilted, knit
• When describing patterns: argyle, striped, solid, plaid, checked, gingham, ikat, paisley, dotted, polka-dotted, floral, houndstooth, herringbone, chevron, geometric

Sentence Starters Describing Clothes 

Encourage your homeschool students to use strong sentence openings because their writing will sound more mature.

• Smartly dressed in (name of garment), the attorney …
• Casually clothed in (name of garment), the young woman …
• Wrestling wildly, Tim and Ethan tore holes in their (name of garments) when they…
• Elderly but spry, my grandfather sported a (name of garment) and (name of garment) …
• Wearing a (name of garment), the detective …
• Quick as a flash, the acrobat whipped off his (name of garment) and began to …

There are so many ways to describe people! What other words would you include?

Do you need help teaching descriptive writing to your middle and high school homeschoolers? WriteShop I provides a strong foundation in concrete description, teaching students how to describe an object, animal, person, food, season, and place. When students learn to choose strong words, they bring their subjects to life. WriteShop II continues by offering several lessons in advanced descriptive narration , where students weave vivid description into a story or other narrative.

Let’s Stay Connected!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

• Gift Guides
• Reluctant or Struggling Writers
• Special Needs Writers
• Brainstorming Help
• Editing & Grading Help
• Encouragement for Moms
• Writing Games & Activities
• Writing for All Subjects
• Essays & Research Papers
• College Prep Writing
• Grammar & Spelling
• Writing Prompts

Recent Posts

• An exciting announcement!
• 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing in Your Homeschool
• Help kids with learning challenges succeed at homeschool writing
• How to correct writing lessons without criticizing your child

We use COOKIES to make your user experience better.

By staying on our website, you fully accept it. Learn more » It's OK

Providing students with original high-quality essays

• descriptive essay of an elderly man

Story of an Elderly Man

The room was slowly sinking into the darkness. The shapes of the objects were losing their definition, and the setting sun rays that hardly touched the windowsill were slightly illuminating a figure, sitting opposite the window and being wrapped up in a woolen plaid. The man was far not young. It was hard to determine his age as the life left a deep imprint on his face. He was pensively looking into the distance, and his eyes reflected either deep sadness or cool tranquility. The eyes… Once sky-blue, now they were bearing the color of pale winter mornings. Yet, the look was not cold at all. His eyesight also was not as sharp as before. This could be judged by a pair of glasses lying on the bookshelf. The man's look was wandering through the buildings and trees on the other side of the road, but it seemed that he did not see what was going on outside because he was thinking about his own secrets. Obsessed with dreams, the man bent his head to the shoulder, and one could notice a deep scar on the left cheek, closer to the ear. The scar did not hurt anymore, however, it remained an everlasting memory about his young, yet far not happy years. The man spent his best years on the war field fighting for life and hope, where he caught the bound shot. It was the moment of truth, when one millimeter decided whether he was destined to live or die.

Man's forehead was totally covered with deep wrinkles, which were as uneven as his turbulent life. Bushy grey brows, frowned from time to time, made these wrinkles even deeper, and all this gave the man's face rather a strict expression. His pointy face was framed with short thinning hair, and one could notice a small bald spot on the top of the head. His side whiskers that began on the temples were coming down to an accurate small beard, which he was stroking once in a while. It was possible to see a little mole on the outer side of the eye. The mole was creating an optical illusion that made one think that the man was screwing up his eyes.

Cool fall wind blew into his senile face, and the man stertorously filled his chest with the fresh air. Spinning in the wind, a yellow and red maple leaf fell on the windowsill and stopped only when it touched the hand. The man carefully seized it with his thin fingers covered with bumps, which were signs of long progressing arthritis. With these hands, he could now pick up nothing heavier than a cup of tea. However, in due time it seemed like he could move the mountains with them. Many things bore his hands. They perfectly “remembered” the softness of his wife's skin, the silky hair of his daughter, the weight of the gun, and the rough surface of the dead friends' casket. The man raised the leaf to his lips and inhaled its scent. It smelled damp and musty. The more he was examining it, the more similarities he found with himself. The leaf veins resembled his own ones which protruded from his thin, almost transparent skin in the same way. Brown, dry, and crippled edges already started to twist to the center; the same did his old spine. Thinking about such an impressive resemblance, the man involuntarily smiled with a corner of his mouth.

The sun has already set, and first stars started to appear on the sky. It was the very time he was waiting for. He slowly stood up and leaned on the wooden stick, which stood there unnoticeably by the chair leg. The man seemed quite tall, even though his shoulders were bent with age. His leanness made him look even taller, and it seemed that if it was not for the stick, he would be able to withstand the wind, which was blowing outside. However, this was a wrong assumption. Limping on one leg, he confidently came to the entrance door of the room.

How It Works

Place your order

Control the process

Download your paper

He was dressed plainly, but elegantly. He wore accurately ironed check shirt, buttoned all the way up. The collar and the sleeves of the shirt were well starched, although it was not new. In the corridor, the man sat again on a small stool opposite the shoe shelf, and leaned forward to pick up the nearest pair. These were polished to shine leather shoes, a bit worn out but still in a good condition. He was aesthetic in everything that referred to dressing and could never let himself go outside untidily dressed. That is why, he cleaned the shoes once again with a woolen cloth. The process of putting the shoes on was quite challenging. He had to use many efforts to lace them up. Old fingers disobeyed him, and the laces were slipping out of his hands all the time. Having finished with this task, the man finally breathed a sigh of relief and straightened his back. Then he stood up and slipped on a warm moleskin trench coat, which was a gift from his late wife. Then he wrapped his neck with a woolen scarf with a picture of quaint deer on it.

In the end, the man threw a quick look at a big mirror in the corner and came outside. He was met by the fresh evening wind that slightly blew into his face. The man smiled again and inhaled the air. He slowly strolled along the street nodding to the neighbors, who were, in their turn, waving to him asking about his state of health. People loved and respected him. They knew him as an interesting and smart person who, in spite of all life obstacles, kept smiling and going forward with highly lifted head. He always knew when to insert a word or when to stay silent. His determined and strong character was well-combined with his sense of sympathy and willingness to help. In due time, the man did a lot of good things. His sensitive heart never let him stay indifferent to those who needed help. The dreaminess disappeared from his face, and then his expression was livelier while he was observing the evening life of the street. He stepped only once to pat a golden Labrador that came from nowhere and now was jumping at his feet.

It was a wonderful evening. One of those, when one feels a great desire to live, sing, and make smile and happy everyone. One of those, when one understands that he needs to spend the rest of the time with dignity and without regrets.

Get extended revision - $2.00

Get order proofread by editor - $3.66

Get SMS notifications - $3.00

Get a full PDF plagiarism report - $5.99

Get Order prepared by top 10 writers - $4.40

Get VIP support - $11.55

VIP Services package 24.48

Related essays

• The Odyssey and Dantes Inferno
• The Journey of the Magi (Poetry Essay)

Please note!

Some text in the modal.

Describing Words

This tool helps you find adjectives for things that you're trying to describe. Also check out ReverseDictionary.org and RelatedWords.org . Here are some adjectives for middle-aged man : . You can get the definitions of these middle-aged man adjectives by clicking on them. You might also like some words related to middle-aged man (and find more here ).

Sort By Usage Frequency

Click words for definitions.

Loading you some adjectives... Won't be much longer! :)

Words to Describe middle-aged man

Below is a list of describing words for middle-aged man . You can sort the descriptive words by uniqueness or commonness using the button above. Sorry if there's a few unusual suggestions! The algorithm isn't perfect, but it does a pretty good job for most common nouns. Here's the list of words that can be used to describe middle-aged man :

• muscular but balding
• incredibly chirpy
• wholly colorless
• ridiculously boyish
• dry and serious
• bearded but bald
• nearly obese
• pathologically sensitive
• determinedly bald
• absurdly well-dressed
• stout and short
• unusually fine-looking
• rather rumpled
• slightly red-faced
• rather superb
• highly indifferent
• unkempt and haggard
• somewhat seedy
• amazingly fat
• timid and nervous
• somewhat paunchy
• slightly balding
• fit-looking
• brisk and efficient
• somewhat plump
• staid and respectable
• darkly handsome
• otherwise normal
• pajama-clad
• staid and sober
• otherwise ordinary
• undistinguished
• rather decent
• well-dressed
• extremely handsome
• almost comical
• early victorian
• middle-sized
• rather short
• fine-looking
• no-nonsense
• blank-faced
• nice-looking
• half-witted
• white-coated
• well-informed
• bespectacled
• nondescript
• unremarkable
• rather heavy
• good-looking
• respectable
• grey-haired
• slow-moving

Popular Searches

As you've probably noticed, adjectives for " middle-aged man " are listed above. Hopefully the above generated list of words to describe middle-aged man suits your needs.

If you're getting strange results, it may be that your query isn't quite in the right format. The search box should be a simple word or phrase, like "tiger" or "blue eyes". A search for words to describe "people who have blue eyes" will likely return zero results. So if you're not getting ideal results, check that your search term, " middle-aged man " isn't confusing the engine in this manner.

Note also that if there aren't many middle-aged man adjectives, or if there are none at all, it could be that your search term has an abiguous part-of-speech. For example, the word "blue" can be an noun and an adjective. This confuses the engine and so you might not get many adjectives describing it. I may look into fixing this in the future. You might also be wondering: What type of word is middle-aged man ?

The idea for the Describing Words engine came when I was building the engine for Related Words (it's like a thesaurus, but gives you a much broader set of related words, rather than just synonyms). While playing around with word vectors and the " HasProperty " API of conceptnet, I had a bit of fun trying to get the adjectives which commonly describe a word. Eventually I realised that there's a much better way of doing this: parse books!

Project Gutenberg was the initial corpus, but the parser got greedier and greedier and I ended up feeding it somewhere around 100 gigabytes of text files - mostly fiction, including many contemporary works. The parser simply looks through each book and pulls out the various descriptions of nouns.

Hopefully it's more than just a novelty and some people will actually find it useful for their writing and brainstorming, but one neat little thing to try is to compare two nouns which are similar, but different in some significant way - for example, gender is interesting: " woman " versus " man " and " boy " versus " girl ". On an inital quick analysis it seems that authors of fiction are at least 4x more likely to describe women (as opposed to men) with beauty-related terms (regarding their weight, features and general attractiveness). In fact, "beautiful" is possibly the most widely used adjective for women in all of the world's literature, which is quite in line with the general unidimensional representation of women in many other media forms . If anyone wants to do further research into this, let me know and I can give you a lot more data (for example, there are about 25000 different entries for "woman" - too many to show here).

The blueness of the results represents their relative frequency. You can hover over an item for a second and the frequency score should pop up. The "uniqueness" sorting is default, and thanks to my Complicated Algorithm™, it orders them by the adjectives' uniqueness to that particular noun relative to other nouns (it's actually pretty simple). As you'd expect, you can click the "Sort By Usage Frequency" button to adjectives by their usage frequency for that noun.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source mongodb which was used in this project.

Please note that Describing Words uses third party scripts (such as Google Analytics and advertisements) which use cookies. To learn more, see the privacy policy .

Recent Queries

• International
• Education Jobs
• Schools directory
• Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search

Model example for writing to describe KS3 KS4 - old man's face.

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

16 February 2024

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

A model example for writing to describe using PEARMS (personification, emotive language, alliteration, rhetorical question/repetition, metaphor, simile). A motif of writing runs through the piece. A wide range of ambitious punctuation runs through the writing too.

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• The Journals of Gerontology, Series B (1995-present)
• Journal of Gerontology (1946-1994)
• Advance Articles
• Editor's Choice
• Virtual Collection
• Supplements
• Special Issues
• Calls for Papers
• Author Guidelines
• Psychological Sciences Submission Site
• Social Sciences Submission Site
• Why Submit to the GSA Portfolio?
• Advertising and Corporate Services
• Advertising
• Reprints and ePrints
• Sponsored Supplements
• Journals Career Network
• About The Journals of Gerontology, Series B
• About The Gerontological Society of America
• Editorial Board - Psychological Sciences
• Editorial Board - Social Sciences
• Self-Archiving Policy
• Dispatch Dates
• GSA Journals
• Journals on Oxford Academic
• Books on Oxford Academic

Characterizing features of creative writing in older adults

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data

William Orwig, Daniel L Schacter, Characterizing features of creative writing in older adults, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B , 2024;, gbae111, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae111

• Permissions Icon Permissions

How does creative expression change across the lifespan? While creativity is generally preserved well into adulthood, certain cognitive functions, such as episodic detail and ideational fluency, have been shown to decline with age. The present study employs computational linguistic analyses to investigate the salient features of creative writing in older adults.

We collected short stories from a sample of 50 older adults (age 65≤) which were subsequently rated for creativity by an independent set of participants. Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to describe semantic diversity and perceptual details as predictors of creativity. Semantic diversity reflects the extent to which a narrative connects divergent ideas and is closely associated with creativity. Perceptual details, characterized by sensorial descriptions, have been previously associated with creative writing and may serve to transport readers to alternative times and places. Additionally, we compare these measures to a previously collected sample of stories from younger adults.

Results indicate that the presence of perceptual details and semantic diversity were significant positive predictors of creativity ( p <.05). Moreover, we find that stories written by older adults contain fewer perceptual details compared with stories written by younger adults.

These results advance our understanding of age-related changes in creativity and highlight the potential role of episodic simulation in the writing of creative short stories.

Gerontological Society of America members

Personal account.

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Short-term Access

To purchase short-term access, please sign in to your personal account above.

Don't already have a personal account? Register

Email alerts

Citing articles via, looking for your next opportunity.

• Recommend to Your Librarian

Affiliations

• Online ISSN 1758-5368
• Copyright © 2024 The Gerontological Society of America
• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.