I was reading a few tweets from a friend and mentor of mine, and one of his writing tips reminded me of a acting technique I used to say to students. When they were having trouble “finding” the character, I would tell them to list the items in the top drawer of the character’s nightstand. Well, the truth is that tip really isn’t an acting one, but it helped them; it was a really a writing tip for character development. So, as I read his tweet, this thought came to mind.
Developing characters can be difficult. A well develped character provides more to the reader in subtle ways, and the only way to present these subtleties in your writing is take make sure that you know the character well, which is where the writing tip comes in. To know your character well, list the items in his/her top drawer of the night stand. It doesn’t matter whether or not those things make it into the story. The importance is that those items enter your knowledge of the character, and if they are in the back of your mind, the characters will develop easier for you.
My mentor’s advice, “Writing tip #25: Could you apply for loan/job as your characters? Then maybe you don’t know them well enough to tell their stories,” follows the same idea. A good character doesn’t fall onto the page. A good character takes labor.
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