I just got to writing the story, but having trouble describing Sophie's family and all I got about her old childhood home is that it's bigger than their apartment
I guess describing other are fine but I don't know why she would break into a flowery paragraph describing her mom and brother
I'm really not very good at this, but I'll give it a try!
Focus partially on memories that surface, like a stain on the carpet from where someone spilled juice as a kid, or the scar above their eyebrow from when they tripped and fell playing at the park. Familiar scents are good, too!
Anything that tells the reader that the character remembers this place/person well.
It goes for bad memories, too!
yep, that's a really good strategy!! like @Sash-has-a-One-Piece-Problem said, descriptions work best when they're sprinkled in along with other things, like characterisation or relationship building. it kind of mimics real life when things stick out to us depending on what's on our mind.
one fun way of describing family members that I've seen is to compare their appearance to the main character or to each other? it means you can accomplish quite a lot at the same time. for example, saying things like "my brother and I both got my mom's height, but none of her inherent elegance to go with it" or "I will forever resent my brother for inheriting my mom's straight teeth when I've been stuck in braces for three years now" works to give a few physical traits of the family members, of the mc, the way she perceives them and the way she perceives herself.