Right now, and possibly for what feels like forever, I’m in the stage of trying to figure out as much as I can about my characters. One thing in particular that is always fun to play around with is deciding things about a character’s childhood. And one aspect can be incredibly insightful: Did they own any pets previously? Do they own any pets currently?
If your simple answer is ‘yes, they had a cat/dog,’ you may want to do some digging into the character’s personality. Maybe they really did own a dog. That’s fine, but what if you played around with the idea of a snake, a hedgehog, a gecko, a tortoise, or even a blue-tongued skink?
Photo credit: indianajones.wikia.com
The point of this exercise is to see how your character reacts. You may just learn some surprising things about them. Are they like Indiana Jones and are completely petrified of snakes? Or will you find they are completely in love with the idea of owning reptiles or something else as equally exotic?
This can easily unveil some hidden character traits or even a subplot. And the great thing is that fiction has no limits. Try going through a list of animals and just seeing where the ideas take you. You may have some breakthroughs or, in the very least, you’ll add some depth to your character by answering one more thing you didn’t know before.
The Cozy Quill 