It's the time of year when many of us are packing our suitcases and heading off on holiday. So I thought it would be fun to think about what our characters will be putting in their suitcases.
The contents of a character's suitcase can reveal a lot about their personality, both to your readers and to you yourself. An interesting exercise you can do if you've got a character that hasn't quite come to life is to describe their suitcase or handbag and its contents.
The first thing that will tell us something about them is what sort of bag they have in the first place. Is it an expensive Louis Vuitton piece of luggage? A backpack? A poacher's bag? A battered leather briefcase? A shocking pink vanity case?
Then the actual contents will give you even more clues as to their personality, their situation, their likes and dislikes, their preoccupations. If you list them, you'll be surprised at what you discover about them.
I did an exercise like this about a character from a play I was writing, after I realised the character didn't quite work. It yielded all sorts of information about her background - as a result of that exercise, she even acquired a new nationality, a perilous situation, and an entire family!
So if you have a character that isn't quite fully-formed, try the suitcase exercise and let your character surprise you.
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