I’m starting to think about characters…..people, for my A-Z Challenge which starts tomorrow *gulp*
Everyday most of us come into contact with other people. We live with them, work with them and think about them when they’re not there. Some we like, others we cant bare the sight of!. Meeting new people can be fun, but for a writer, it can be a facinating 🙂
In real life, when you meet a new person you learn a lot about them in the first few seconds. That’s the crucial moment when you form opinions and judgements. You base those on the way they walk, how they sit, if they’re smiling or what they’re wearing. You try to figure out what they’re thinking by their facial expressions. Even small details like the smell of tobacco or a stain on their tie will influence your opinion.
Then there are their gestures. The way they look over their glasses, the way they throw back their hair or constantly play with a ring on their finger.
Characters need to be real, as real as you and I 😉 They’ll have faults, bad habits, talents and tastes. They will have complex personalities, and all of it needs to come across in our stories, if we want our characters to delight our readers.
F Scott Fitzgerald said “Plot is character and character is plot.” I rest my case 😉
So people watching is a great idea when you need inspiration for characters. A cafe, park, restaurant, even a waiting room can have me scribbling away in my note book 😉
Do you people watch? Do you use what youve seen in your stories?
Try describing a friend or family member (they never need to see it). Its great fun and you can use certain aspects to create a fictious character 😉
The photo above is The Bookcrossers meeting the Hen Night Bunnies….. dont ask lol 😉
Yesterdays prompt about the backseat turned into a story about a young woman who arrives home to find that the birthday cake she had just bought is gone and in its place is a bag of money and a gun…..not sure where thats going yet lol. Todays prompt is the antidote to pain. That sounds very interesting 😉