How Stalking People Can Help Make Your Characters More Real - a guest post by Hannah White

   Morning, readers! Guess who's guest posting today? The epic Hannah White from Ink Blots And Coffee Stains is here to give y'all a few tips for how stalking people can make your characters more realistic (because, come on now, what kind of author doesn't watch people?).

   [quick aside: y'all only have four more days to enter the writing contest! If you're planning to, you better act fast]
 
   Alrighty, I'll go ahead and step aside now so that you guys can read Hannah's wonderful words.

   *exit Savannah*

I want to quickly give a huge thank you to Savannah for letting me guest post on her absolutely lovely blog! I’ve followed Scattered Scribblings for quite a while now, and it’s such a privilege to get to come visit and write to the rest of the awesome people that hang out here.

Now, on with the post!

Let’s face it: we all stalk people.

We might not do it to the caliber that criminals and creepy guys in TV shows do, but we do watch people. We tend to be a bit nosy, dropping ease on the particularly loud couple in the aisle next to you, or the family of five in line in front of you.

It’s part of being observant. But have you ever thought about just how beneficial stalking people could be?

Allow me to shed some light on the subject.

I’m not really sure how it started, but when I was around twelve or so and realized just how awesome keeping a journal could be, I started to make notes of people I saw. Little quirks about them that drew my notice, enough so that I wanted to make a note of them.

What kind of things, you ask? I took a little trip down memory lane to find these special notes, just for you.

*Blue hair with white highlights.

*Hunches shoulders and purses lips and squinting – normal driving posture

*Thick chin

*Silky smooth hair

*Mouse-ish face—small and beady

*High, tittering laugh

Do you get the picture?

They’re little things that are, well, little, but somehow can make the difference between a cardboard cutout and a living, breathing being. Sometimes just one physical detail to ground us in the character is more helpful than hair/eye color and a description of the person’s shirt or height.

The real value is in the little things. Phrases people say that are distinct, different gaits, a person’s “relaxed” expression. (Do they naturally look angry? Sad? Happy?) If you watch people, you’ll notice all these little questions have answers. Because real people have these. Real people have little quirks.

Look around at people. Notice them. Notice what they wear. Do they wear bright colors or are they always dressed in dark? If they wear bright colors, why do you think that is? Don’t let yourself be confined to what you see. Feel free to use your imagination. (If you see someone with a mohawk that makes you think of a bald person with red tattoos, write down a bald person with red tattoos.) If you have a character that wears bright colors, you might consider how that reflects his/her personality.

What about phrases? Is there a certain word your character likes? Where did they pick it up? At home, work, school? A favorite book or TV show? Have you heard the phrase before? How do you think that person has been raised differently than you, given the way they speak? Is their grammar poor?

What about specific words to replace others? For example, I made a note when someone called my feet “clod-hoppers”. (I think he had a history in farming? It’s been a few years :P ) Some people might call a bag a purse, or a sack, or a satchel. Some people might call a phone a cell, a tablet, or a telephone. Having characters call things by certain names shines a light into their past. And if your main character meets someone new and they both have different words for the same thing, that grounds you in the reality that these characters are different, and you begin to forget they were created, not born.

What about a person’s voice? Is there anything noticeable about your main character’s voice? Is it high or low? Is it higher for a man’s voice, or low for a girl’s voice? Is it soft or loud? Whiney or musical? Are they insecure about it, or can they not get enough of their own words?

What about a person’s hair? Is it long or short? Do they use gel, or do they let it go wild and free? Do they wear it up or down? Do they use headbands? Do they wear hats? What kinds of hats? Do they like to spike it up in the front? Do they curl it frequently? Is it always different, or always the same? How does that reflect character?

What are their tells? Do they blink really hard when they’re lying? Do they swallow, or fiddle with their hands, or maintain eye contact and hold perfectly still? What about when they’re happy? Does their nose crinkle up? Do their eye brows scrunch up in their forehead? Do they purse their lips, or do they smile wide and huge?

In a world full of stories, we want our books—and our characters—to stand out. We want them to draw attention. And little details like these are so easy to overlook. Who cares if your main character likes to wear their hair in a messy bun and looks like a completely different person when she takes it down? Who would notice if that one guy walks leaning slightly to his right?

We might not even notice details like this when we’re reading (if they’re given). But somehow, little things like these bring life and blood to your story. It makes those characters breathe. It makes them stand out in the world of black and white.

Why?

Because we can connect to them. We see them everywhere we go, even if we don’t stop to consciously pay attention to them. We can imagine a girl who never takes off her sweater, no matter the temperature. That’s a marker we can remember her by. We can remember the boy who showers so much because he doesn’t want to smell, that his hands always smell like pineapples from the lotion he steals from his mom’s bathroom.

These are the things that stick out.

These are the things we remember.

So pay attention. Take notes. Figure out what it is about a person that makes them significant in your mind, and infuse it into your writing. It just might be that missing piece to your character that you’ve been looking for.

do you get character ideas from watching people?

where have you found some of your coolest character ideas?

feel free to chat with Hannah in the comments!