“Here’s a mom that can make a Monday chicken work all week long.”
I love metaphors. They can explain things that often cannot be described literally. The way I see it, if you want to leave the reader with a solid idea of a character, you can either use a one or two sentence metaphor, or write a paragraph of literal description. It’s just way more fun to read a metaphor than lug your way through a paragraph of “ordinary-ness.”
Context: Show, don’t just tell. Find ways to communicate characteristics that describe actions (“show”) rather than just piling on a series of adjectives (“tell”). For instance, you can describe a character as “a strong single mom who knows how to stretch a dollar.” Or you could describe her as “a woman who plans out four full dinner meals every week for herself and her two kids that she stretches to seven meals.” Or use a metaphor: “Here’s a mom that can make a Monday chicken work all week long.” -page 348
“She drives like her 80-year-old grandmother but sprints through stores.”
Human beings are curious creatures full of contradictions and I love the way this sentence exemplifies that. The sentence gives details that add meaning, yet allows “wiggle room” for the reader to incorporate their own experiences in order to visualize a well developed character that they can relate to. The author is using this sentence as an example of a hook used for foreshadowing and I think it’s a great example because it immediately gives the reader a sense of the character’s personality. Not to mention, the sentence is fun and intriguing. Who doesn’t want to read about a woman who “drives like her 80-year-old grandmother but sprints through stores?”
Context: Foreshadow. Set up “hooks” that you can use later in the story. For example, if a character is a cancer survivor, that fact might be used later to speak to that person’s patience, experience, perseverance, and drive. You could say that a character is “both overly cautious and impatient,” or you can suggest this by describing the way she drives or shops: “She drives like her 80-year-old grandmother, but sprints through stores.” -page 349
“Their pets and how they relate to them (daily runs with their golden retriever, or the many toys underfoot for their pampered cat).”
We call them companions, roommates, best friends. We come up with lovey-dovey nicknames for them. We talk to them, snuggle, laugh, cry, negotiate, and even argue with them. They are our pets. I love the idea of using a character's relationship with their pet to construct personas. In the past I’ve found it difficult to develop constructive personas. I was taught to take random details from user interviews and ethnographies and incorporate them into a couple of personas. Yes, I ended up with personas, but how effective were they in contributing to the design process? Let’s just say they were more of a “one and done” type thing which always felt disappointing to me. By observing five users and their pets I’d end up with five unique traits that all share an underlying theme leading to constructive personas that can be referenced throughout the design process. Useful personas! As my tennis coach used to say, “How can you hate it when you love it?!?!?”
Context: Personas can be your characters. If you are constructing a set of personas, one trick is to have a few characteristics that you give to each of them. The differences in the details can help you distinguish aspects of their character. Some ideas include:
• Their pets and how they relate to them (daily runs with their golden retriever, or the many toys underfoot for their pampered cat)
• Their weekend activities (sports, gardening, volunteering…)
• How they dress for rain (newspaper held over their head, sensible raincoat, raincoat with an impressionist painting)
• The kind of car they drive (or the condition of the inside of the car) -page 353