Hi, everyone!

Dotsie, thanks so much for that great introduction. And my dear good friend Pam, I should hire you as my publicist. I'm always happy to help someone as wonderful as you are.

Dianne, what a great question to get this forum going! I have a number of "tricks of the trade". Sitting on my desk is a very worn copy of "Building Believable Characters" published by Writer's Digest Books. Every single time (without fail!) that I develop a new character, whether it's a main character or a secondary or temporary (one scene only) character, I reach for this book.

Let's say I start out with a nondescript male coworker in one of my scenes. Using the physical description portion of this book, which is divided by eye color, facial expressions, noses, hair, physical body type, etc., I come up with a description, interwoven throughout several paragraphs. The nondescript worker now becomes: a programmer with stooped shoulders, whose hours in front of the computer left him with the muscles of linguini, his fawn-colored eyes so bloodshot they remind me of a parched desert, the cracks deep and wanting, his face doughy from lack of sun...

There are personality traits in this book also, so this coworker becomes an anomie (a person with feelings of alienation and not belonging to society) whose only friends are the pet spider and turtle he keeps in glass containers set side by side... (a spider and a turtle, because they can not be hugged; they are cold blooded...)

I also love to go to a busy coffee shop or cafe, where I can sit and listen to snippets of conversation, observe clothing and mannerisms...

I could go on and on. I love developing memorable characters!