Seeing is Believing: Developing Characters in Unlikely Places

Character gathering has always been a hobby of mine, either by conversation technique, observation, or a combination of both. There is a certain skill attached to observing human behaviour and, I have found, being the cat-curious person I am, the perfect breeding grounds for observing everyday life and the creation of character fodder I use in my writings.

I use the plural ‘grounds’ because my sources are wide-ranging and differ greatly. Albeit they have one thing in common, and that is where potential subjects are usually so deep in thought as they go about their business, they haven’t a clue they are being observed, or for that matter overheard when they engage in occasional animated conversation.

By now you have probably guessed my sources of character inspiration. And yes, they are the mundane superstores where the world and its brother appear to drop their inhibitions and concentrate on the job in hand, totally oblivious of yours truly and others around them. Each is a vast coalface of quirky human mannerisms, ranging from the hilarious to verging on the pan-faced-robotic. And each a bottomless pit, deeper than an Abyssinian watering hole, of intrigue and curiosity. So whether it is the lowly ‘Pound Shop’ or Harrods, and everything in between, each has its own strata of humanity waiting to be mined and put to good use.

Time consuming you may say, but the weekly results meticulously filed away for future character formulation can lead to both imaginative and arresting storylines. Dickens had the knack of creating masterpieces involving characters with quirky, memorable names. Let’s face it; do you know anyone who has been sued by by Messrs Bumble or Fagin? So to negate libel action and still create a vivid image for your reader, avoid naming the person with a wooden leg, one eye and a propensity to spit a lot, Mister Smith. Because should a Mister Smith exist and display all these unfortunate attributes, your bank balance could take on a lighter shade of anthracite.

Humanity in abundance will always conceal a misfit displaying mannerisms before gone unnoticed, whether it be dress, behaviour, insobriety, deportment or the absurd.

Click on image to go to Rags’ Amazon Author page.

Meet Rags

Rags Daniels was Born into a working class family, the second of four children,  Salford 1944.  He migrated South 1956. Wild and curious, he ran off to London, where he met the majority of the characters he writes about.

The swinging sixties and early seventies played a major roll in his insatiable thirst for adventure, and against a backdrop of mini-skirts, mod’s, rockers and Muhammad Ali, bore witness to an era of crazy fads, culminating in  Britain’s first ever woman Prime Minister in 1979. And of whom Lord Acton said, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely, ’ and by the end of her era, Thatcher was case in point. And while the Nation paddled through rubbish, bodies unburied, strikes, power cuts, spiralling inflation, limited working weeks, abysmal production, etc, etc, the real money was going into the pockets of fraudulent corporate boards and City Yuppies. (Groomed to Kill), his first book was written against a backdrop of inner city poverty and tells of lad who  became a government assassin.

Rags worked in Norway on timber frame construction, where he met John Millen, a naval architect who designed Pearl Harbour after the war. He became a ‘minder’ for his mother-in-law, both on and off his motor yacht in which he and his wife toured the world. Returning home,  he then attended Brunel University and passed I.O.C.W.(GB)inc,  exams. Rags started working with Borough Architects Dept.; resigned; got married and built his own house in South Devon while running several companies. He has also constructed a steel mill in India  and a tiger compound in Nepal for the World Wildlife Trust.

When widowed, he returned to writing and investigative journalism… It is from his diaries of the 60’s and 70’s he wrote ‘Foxy Lady’, creating a fictional account of one such tale of political intrigue, and one for which he was interviewed by MI6. His latest book ‘Salford Sunrise’, is ready for publishing. And ‘Lallapaloosa’ is currently being scripted for the silver screen. He resides with his son, an A level English teacher, and Roxzan, his 13 year old adopted Granddaughter.

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Copyright Rags Daniels 2013. All rights are reserved Internationally. You may not reproduce it in any form, in part of whole, without prior written permission. That includes usage in forms such as print, audio and digital imaging including pdf, jpg, png etc. A fee may be requested for re-using this work if it is for a commercial venture. Link sharing and Pinterest pins are most welcome as long as Rags Daniels is the attributed Author.

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