Inventory
Character Study — The poetry of possessions.
Full Details
Are you working on a short story, novel, or memoir? Want to get to know your characters better?
Create an inventory of what your character keeps in his bag. Or her backpack or medicine cabinet. Or his glove compartment. Or on the walls of her room.
Make a list of only 5-10 items. Choose carefully, and with the intent of revealing a specific person. A glucose monitor, for example, will tell us more about your character than a wallet (almost everyone carries a wallet in their purse, while only diabetics carry around a glucose monitor). Similarly, an English-Portuguese dictionary stored in a glove compartment will reveal much more about a character than a car owner’s manual. At the top of your list, write down your character’s name, age, and the town/city, and country where they live.
Need an example? Check out these revealing inventories from your fellow writers.
Create an inventory of what your character keeps in his bag. Or her backpack or medicine cabinet. Or his glove compartment. Or on the walls of her room.
Make a list of only 5-10 items. Choose carefully, and with the intent of revealing a specific person. A glucose monitor, for example, will tell us more about your character than a wallet (almost everyone carries a wallet in their purse, while only diabetics carry around a glucose monitor). Similarly, an English-Portuguese dictionary stored in a glove compartment will reveal much more about a character than a car owner’s manual. At the top of your list, write down your character’s name, age, and the town/city, and country where they live.
Need an example? Check out these revealing inventories from your fellow writers.