Character Souvenirs: Another Kind Of Research

I am happy to report I survived the insane Istanbul traffic and returned safely home.

I didn’t write much while I was away. In fact, I still haven’t finished writing up all we did and saw. So many story elements! A single day gave me about four separate elements, both big concepts and small details.

But this trip had a first (well, it had many, but one, in particular): for the first time I wondered what one of my characters would want as a souvenir from this sort of trip. Or not so much wondered as looked up and knew she would want that.

This isn’t even a story I’m currently working on!

That, in this case, is a Turkish fashion magazine. Funny how much such a little thing can tell you about a person. Or in this case, a fictional character.

It tells me that she’s fairly simple and straightforward, she doesn’t like to complicate her passions, and she inhabits the opposite end of the spectrum from high maintenance. Any friend going abroad knows to bring her back a magazine. Relatively cheap and portable, in the way of souvenirs (trust me on that), when instead she could request fabric or clothing, or other things that can become a quest all their own.

FYI: in her current incarnation, she’s an aspiring fashion designer.

Most of my characters, when asked what they want as a souvenir by a traveling friend, would answer with blank looks or shrugs, or maybe something highly detailed and nearly impossible to find. Which is why she is so far the only character of mine to ever get any sort of souvenir.

This sort of discovery has woken her up from wherever my characters nap when I’m working on other stories. Now, she’s being opinionated and distracting. But she has to wait.

Her skin will be that much easier to slip into when I finally do sit down to write her story.

One of the Medusa heads in the Basilica Cistern, Istanbul, Turkey.

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