Writer Fuel: Filling Characters with Detail, and a Pie Crust with Quiche

This August, we’re focusing on the writing life, with real talk from published authors, student writers, and, of course, the intersection of our great loves: writing and food. We asked Ashleigh, producer of the NaNoWriMo Cookbook to share her writing and revision thoughts alongside her favorite recipes:

Today, I’m going to break into more of my revision rituals. Sometimes after NaNoWriMo, our characters just feel flat. So on that note, here are a couple of my favorite ways to pump up the character volume, and depth of my novel.

Your characters can’t go homeless. Find them an abode.

When you can’t visualize the specifics of your character’s homes and settings, you can use sites like Zillow. Enter a city name, or just browse. You’ll get great ideas for addresses or street names, and avoid those thrown-together sentences like “He entered some room.” 

Need a better visualization of your characters? Dress them up.

To get a better idea of your character’s wardrobe, you can use Polyvore to design outfits for them, get ideas for style and how it reflects personality, and the like. I also like to use Your Fashion Inspiration for those moments I’m uninspired.

Now, for today’s dish. After a day’s worth of revision and making your novel fancy with setting and character details, let’s make ourselves a fancy dish. I do love me some quiche, and I feel quiche is very fancy. It’s also very easy to make, actually!

Ham and Cheese Quiche

You will need:

One pizza pan
A spatula
A skillet

Ingredients:

Pie crust, thawed
Margarine
6 eggs
Chopped ham (deli, or pre-packaged luncheon meat)
Extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 onion
A splash of milk

Note: The ham, cheese and onion are to taste; however much you want is how much you add.

Preheat oven to 375F. Meanwhile, coat the skillet with margarine and put it on medium-high heat. When all the margarine has melted, place the onions on it and stir around, cooking until translucent.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs, then mix the ham and milk in. When the onions are done, place them into the mixture. Pour into pie crust and place shredded cheddar cheese on top.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until cheese is golden brown. Pull out and let cool for 5 minutes, then serve.

My personal favorite side dish for quiche is broccoli, but whatever you feel goes well; go for it!

To the NaNoWriMo public, Ashleigh is known as DM. She has been a Wrimo since 2005 and won from 2007-2010. She produces the NaNoWriMo Cookbook which collects a large amount of quick and easy recipes from participants. Email her or follow her on Tumblr!