An Exercise in Character Development

By Joanna Campbell Slan @joannaslan 

A curious thing happened in the midst of banging out the words. I found a new way to learn more about my characters and to make them more individualistic. While writing Tuesday Trash and Trouble: Book #3 in the Friday Night Mystery Club Series, I described a scene where four female characters go to a birthday party. As I considered what each woman wore, I had to stop, think, and fine-tune the differences among them. I’ve written about these women’s clothes before, but I’d never put four of the characters together in one scene where they were involved in such a specific activity. It was that juxtaposition—shared purpose and activity, versus individual personalities—that forced me to work through their clothing choices.

Here’s a snippet of the scene where the characters are in a car together, on their way to the event:

All three of us must have been tuned to the same cosmic vibes. Zee wore neatly pressed jeans with a crease down each leg. My jeans were not pressed, and a little faded, but still my nicest pair. As for tops, Zee wore a creamy blouse with a Victorian high collar. Rosie’s peasant blouse was white and sprinkled with colorful embroidered flowers. I had on a white button-collar blouse that I often wore to work. The fact that we’d all chosen variations on a theme made me feel confident we’d fit in. At least, we matched each other!

When a fourth friend (Winnie) joins them, she’s wearing jeans and a white St. Louis Cardinals jersey.

Thinking through this scene was a good exercise for me. The clothing choices offered me a way to reflect the women’s personalities. As you might guess, Zee is a bit prudish and tightly wound. The narrator, Cragan Collins, is forever short of money and time. Rosie is a proud Latina, and the last person to join the group (Winnie) is a keen women’s softball player.

In the future, I plan to write more ensemble scenes, showing characters and their unique choices as a way to underscore their differences. Even if those scenes don’t make it into the final draft of my book, the exercise will sharpen my insights. In turn, my readers will surely find the people in my books more realistic. I hope you’ll find this exercise useful, too.

Joanna Campbell Slan is the author of six mystery series. She’s taught writing to corporate executives and at Illinois State University. Her newest series is the Friday Night Mystery Club. Set in the 1980s, it explores the lives of young career women, living in a failing town in the Midwest. Contact her at jcslan@joannaslan.com or go to http://www.JoannaSlan.com.