I never said I was normal.
I don’t know why, but all the stuff I used to do as a kid seems to make an appearance lately.
Like writing letters.
Like keeping a diary. (ish. I don’t journal every day.)
Like cutting stuff out of newspapers. (Scrapbooking? Is that what it’s called?)
And now… I seem to enjoy lobbing the head off a flower to squish it flat between a stack of books.
Granted, this does add a nice touch to a handwritten letter, if you stick one of those poor, mutilated flowerheads on the letter with a bit of glue.
A bit of British Spring, heading to wherever the letter is going.

Why am I even talking about this?
Because it’s a dimension. It’s one of those little things that makes me different from you, just like you enjoy hobbies I might not even think about, which in turn makes you different from me.
Your characters need those dimensions. The odd little quirk that can be supremely irritating, or endearing. (Trust me, collecting your toe nail clippings in a jar is not endearing. It’s just weird. )

Look around you. Notice the things you like about a person, and also the habits that irritate the hell out of you. Use them.

Imagine a heroine who likes to keep her toothpaste in the cup on the sink. Now have the hero move in, who doesn’t realize and who keeps putting the toothpaste (leaving it open, no less) beside the cup, every day. Eventually your heroine will flip. She may not even know what irritates her about the hero, and the blowup may have nothing to do with the toothpaste, but it’s a contributing factor.
Now, eventually, in such a fight, have her throw the toothpaste at his head and demand he put it in the cup in future. 
Picture our hero, who is completely flummoxed that the entire fight was apparently about toothpaste…

It’s all about dimensions.
 

Tags: Characters, WIP