The Secret Lives of Characters

While digging through a few boxes of family heirlooms and miscellany, I came across a few secret artifacts that surprised me. The first was a Little Black Book. Not just a little black book, but my father's Little Black Book containing the names, numbers, and pertinent information of various friends and contacts from his days right after leaving the Army. And, indeed, there were the names of at least a few girlfriends - including a listing under my mother's name (her maiden name). And amongst my mother's stuff, I found the class picture of her and her friends from second grade, including a friend she remained close to for the rest of her 86 years. I also discovered that my mother's nickname was "Giggles." Alas, why didn't I find this out sooner so I could hold that one over her head for a while?

All this is the introduction to a very simple point: in my life, my mother and father each held a very important role in my life: Parent. I knew them primarily through that lens - they were the couple that bore and raised me, taught me the things and stuff in life, and readied me to look down both barrels of being a grown-up. Most traits and aspects I attached to them were channeled through that conduit - something relating to being my parent. Therefore, sometimes it can feel a little odd to come to the cold, hard realization that my father dated women before even meeting my mother, and my mother was once a little girl that answered to Giggles. 

At the point when I made these discoveries, a strange thing happened. My parents transformed from these beings whose sole purpose in life was to raise me, and they became actual people. They became deep and real, Not just Mom and Dad but Carolyn and Jerry. I saw them outside of that pipeline of parents, and even conceived of how they lived lives very much like my own at one point. They horsed around, they had friends and got into trouble, they did odd jobs and had funny stories from them. They were full-fledged people.

When we write, we often know our characters through the filter of how they relate to the story. For our mystery, we might know our main lead is a detective who is a two-fisted drinker, good with a gun, great with the ladies, and short on temper. Or maybe for our horror story, the lead is a first-grade teacher with a dark secret that now threatens every child in the class. This is a great start, but out of respect for the story, we should ask more from our characters. We should explore who they are when they are not the protagonist. Do they have their own Little Black Books? Nicknames from second grade? 

Everyone who I have ever met has a favorite color, food, book, and song, and they can tell you exactly what it is and why they chose that one. If your characters are to be that real, at the very least you should know and understand their inner workings, their details, before you go too far with them. Play around with their thoughts, ideas, and motivations, and discover them as real people. Real people are so much more fun to write about.

But hopefully you will never see your mother's name in your father's Little Black Book.