Lately I’ve really paid attention when I’ve had an “aha!” moment when talking to people. You know the kind of moment: one minute you’re having a boring conversation with a mom about the snack schedule for soccer practice—and then you happen to notice she has a Grateful Dead tattoo.
Maybe there is something about an acquaintance that really gets under your skin. They’re chronically late, but always blame it on a litany of unlikely occurrences. Or your friend frequently gets annoying songs stuck in his head and keeps singing the tunes so they’re now stuck in your head. Or your plumber has an odd take on news events that’s very different from everyone else: “Well, the reason General Motors is in so much trouble is because our military is spread all over the world trying to fix other people’s problems.” Uh…right.
How about the people who have a completely different side of them? The “Clark Kent” syndrome. One minute she’s a mild-mannered banker, then she gets off work and joins her friends to see Rocky Horror Picture Show for the 4,000th time.
When I’m with someone and they’re either really fascinating me by throwing me a complete curveball (I didn’t know they lived at a commune before they became church-going choir members!) or they’re doing something I find really annoying (you’re chewing gum? At a funeral? And blowing bubbles?) I pay attention. I write it down. Maybe I can use it to flesh out a character. Maybe I can use it to create a bit character. But these types of encounters really spotlight how different we all are from each other…and that’s worth writing about.
This is totally true! And isn’t it great, when someone’s annoying you for one reason or another, to be able to tell yourself: There’s a reason I’m still having this conversation — They’re going to become a character!
As you know, I think memorable characters are just THE central key to any story. In my view, you’re absolutely on target here. The best characters can be found in everyday life…if you can remember ‘em. Usually, I find they’re even more compelling if you combine traits from different people…so long as that doesn’t’ make them too far out there. Yeah, characters rule, at least for me.
Best Regards, Galen.
GalenKindley.com
Of course, you know what to do to those characters inspired by annoying people, right?
Kill them early and often! And make them suffer. (The fictional characters, not the real people!)
Isn’t that the whole reason we write fiction? For revenge?
People watching is a great way to find these interesting tics and traits that can make a very generic character become memorable. I must confess to going to community events quite often not out of interest for the event, but for the opportunity to watch people in their interactions and pick up a few more attributes that I can file away for future use.
You have a character notebook too?!?! LOL. Must be a writer thing! Keep track of those memorable characters it’ll come in handy one day.
Nancy, from Just a Thought…