Think about these scenarios:
Your main character walks into a room they have never been in before.
What’s the first thing your character notices? The family photos or the antique vase on the mantlepiece? If invited to take a seat, does your character sit on the comfy armchair or perch on a hard-backed seat? Hopefully you’re not about to bore the reader with a long paragraph describing everything in the room. What your character notices or does can show the reader a lot more about that character than your long paragraph describing everything in the room. Noticing the family photos suggests a family orientated character or someone who plans to have their own family one day. Someone who notices the antique vase may be status-driven or image conscious. The character who chooses the comfy armchair is at ease, even in a strange room. The character who chooses the hard-backed seat is not at ease. Perhaps they have some news they don’t want to impart, perhaps they are wary of the person whose house this is.
Your main character walks into a room in a friend’s house.
They have been here before, it’s a familiar room. They may already have their favourite chair. This is trickier for the writer because, if you’re in your main character’s viewpoint, they aren’t going to notice what they already know. Although the reader’s not seen this room before, it wouldn’t be in the character’s viewpoint if you suddenly stop and describe it. That makes it harder to convey the main character’s frame of mind or mood. How your character moves around the room: making a beeline for their favourite chair, cautiously stepping around a child’s set of building blocks, might offer clues. Or there could be something different in the room, a new couch, a new acquisition if the friend is a collector. Your main character’s attitude to the new thing can show their character or mood.
Your main character invites someone into their own home.
There are two potential scenarios here:
- The invitee may be a friend your main character is relaxed with and doesn’t care about the state of the place.
- The invitee may be a stranger and your main character has cleaned their home and/or put certain objects away in cupboards or a locked room because they don’t want certain things on display because it may create the wrong impression or they may not want to be questioned about those particular items.
Either way, a decision needs to be made as to whether your main character is the best viewpoint character or whether it makes more sense to change to the visitor’s viewpoint. Your main character is not going to describe or talk about objects they are already familiar with even if this is the first time the reader is seeing them at home. In the friend scenario, it may not be important to describe the room because the conversation between the two friends is the focus. In the stranger scenario, your main character may be thinking about the hidden items or be ill at ease by not sitting in their usual chair, checking the mugs they are about to serve up coffee in have no chips or failing to offer refreshments.
Your main character’s favourite objects.
Do you know what they are? Do you know how they acquired them? Were they gifted by a best friend so contain memories of that friendship bond as well as being treasured? Were they inherited from a favoured grandparent? Or is it a brand-new item that the main character chose for themselves? Perhaps the choosing was significant because your main character is starting a new life away from domineering parent(s), or has left a controlling relationship.
Objects may seem like small, insignificant things, but what they can show us about someone’s character or their mood/frame of mind can be huge and give readers insights into your characters.
Contributed by Emma Lee
leicesterwritersclub.com 