Really? I see most of my characters in rather shocking detail. I'm very visual, so I have to describe people at least a little bit.
In other people's books, what I picture often depends on how much diversity I can expect--in a Star Wars book, I'm pretty much free to diversify the humans at will, but in a book like the Prydain Chronicles, where you're in a smaller area with limited travel abilities, I'm going to assume everyone looks much more similar.
I rather liked Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series, where people's race actually had something to do with their identities. Of course, in the world she built it wasn't always a neutral thing, but that did add to a well-built world.
The story I'm writing is set in a country that's mostly homogeneous within itself, although there are enough immigrants that they're not very unusual. But I start by setting a "default" sort of look (reddish-brown, in this case) and then mentioning the people who differ from it.
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In other people's books, what I picture often depends on how much diversity I can expect--in a Star Wars book, I'm pretty much free to diversify the humans at will, but in a book like the Prydain Chronicles, where you're in a smaller area with limited travel abilities, I'm going to assume everyone looks much more similar.
I rather liked Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series, where people's race actually had something to do with their identities. Of course, in the world she built it wasn't always a neutral thing, but that did add to a well-built world.
The story I'm writing is set in a country that's mostly homogeneous within itself, although there are enough immigrants that they're not very unusual. But I start by setting a "default" sort of look (reddish-brown, in this case) and then mentioning the people who differ from it.