Mannerisms and catchphrases

I'm a real sucker for mannerisms and catchphrases, because just about everyone has them and they can be so revealing - a great attribute to give to characters to help make them real. 

Here's a little example from my recent trip to Bournemouth.  I was having breakfast in a hotel and the butter was all runny.  I asked for some more, and the waitress promised to get some, saying "there's nothing worse than runny butter."

Well, thought I, you could contend there may be one or two things worse - coming home to find your house on fire and your family trapped inside, for one.  Or the end of the world as we know it, for another. Etc etc!

But, nonetheless, it's a lovely little verbal tic, and one I fully intend to donate to a character in one of the tvdetective books.

As for mannerisms, they too can be most entertaining, useful, and sometimes downright offputting. There's one chap I know who nigh continually picks and scoops at his ear, but not content with that, then minutely examines the delightful harvest.  Even over dinner...

One of the great things about writing is that you learn about yourself.  I now realise I found such traits fascinating even before I was aware of it.  In the first tvdetective books, you get Lizzie and her heels, and Dirty El and his rhymes.  I didn't think hard about putting them in, I just did it.  I know I've always been a people watcher, but it was interesting to discover just how much.

Excuse me now, I must be away. It's time to prepare for the Southern Writers' Conference at the weekend where I'm doing one of my rambles of a talk.  And it's time for breakfast too, and definitely no runny butter - there's nothing worse!

One final thing to mention here.  I've had quite a few good questions about the books and my writing coming in from the website in recent weeks.  I'll get round to answering them soon, I promise!  But if you have got something you want to ask, do get in touch, I love hearing from you.  You can do so via the contact page of the site - www.thetvdetective.com/contact.html