People Watching for Characters

One of my favorite past times is sitting at the coffee shop watching people.  I am not sure why this is, but I think every writer I know enjoys people watching.  I don't particularly want to interact with these people, merely sit and watch them.  I find the best places are smaller coffee shops.

A lot of my characters are based on people I know, meet in coffee shops, or just stories I make up about their histories while watching them try to cross the street against the light.  I try to keep people I know generic but if you knew them well enough you could probably guess.  I plan to fully play innocent if they ever ask me.  :)

Every day there are new people who walk in and out of the doors of millions of businesses around the world.  They are all different.  They look different, they dress different, they order different things.  The most amazing thing is that sometimes you can get a really great character idea from one of those people.

Take for example a current character I am writing, Anya.  Anya is of Mongolian decent and the reasoning behind that was a conversation I overheard at a local coffee shop one day.  I was sitting there, doing paid writing, and I heard a little girl call another little girl a "mongoloid".  Little girl B's mother was rightfully appalled, namely because little girl B had Down Syndrome.  It was pretty obvious that little girl A was mimicking behavior she had heard elsewhere, but it was still gasp worthy.

So little Girl B's mother approached the situation and asked little girl A (where her mother or father were I have no clue!) if she knew what the word meant.  Little girl A just shrugged her shoulders.  So little girl B's mom began to explain why people with downs were called "Mongoloids".  She explained it so genuinely and patiently and I couldn't help but listen in.  The reality is I think the entire row of patrons on my side were listening.  Would we have that much grace if our child was called an offensive name?  I think we were all asking ourselves that at that moment.

So the story goes on and listening to little girl B's mom explain it, and explain in detail the facial features, the skin tone, the language, I knew I had to write a story which included a girl who matched that description.  Never would I be able to describe something so poignantly as the mother did, but she created my character Anya.

Had I not been people watching, this wouldn't have happened and my character would never have been born.  So if you are stuck on a character or a setting, just go and listen.  You may hear something to help you create your own Anya.

(And to end the story nicely, little girl A apologized.  Little girl B got a coloring page from the bin and I still have no clue where A's parents were.  I left before she did.)

Until next time.