Peopling your stories

[cymbidia]

Originally posted by KillerMuffin (another thread, obviously)
Wallyhell.

I was in there yesterday, thought of you, KM, and took a good hard look around. Targeting the aisles that contained Power Rangers, air fresheners, sun block, stationary items (i didn't need anything there, just like cruising the aisle), apple juice, and house plant fertilizer, i shamelessly eavesdropped on everyone i passed and checked them out with an eye toward their potential as people in a story.

First off... KM, you must get some awesome characters for your stories just from going to work and keeping your eyes open! What an assemblage of interesting and decidedly odd people that place holds!

Secondly, i heard the most amazing things, just from a little eavesdropping. For instance, while snatching some kind of launcher for balls from the hands of a (loudly) disappointed boy child, a woman told her 5th grade-looking daughter, "He can't have that, Anna! Grandma will throw us out on our butts if he breaks another window!"

In the air freshener’s aisle:
To a chagrined-looking woman, a man said angrily (i imagined), "No! I told you that one makes me feel like throwing up!"

In the apple juice aisle a woman stood chatting with another woman. As she moved her cart full 'o screaming children to let me pass, Woman #1 smiled at me a little apologetically and said, "I just let 'em scream. They'll take better naps that way."

Finally, in the fertilizer aisle, a man slid his hand onto his woman's ass while i browsed the nearby shelves. He saw me looking and smiled at me while he did the hand-on-ass thing. His companion got really still and flicked a look over at me. She then whispered in a sort of begging way, "Please don't. Please. Not here." THAT caught my attention, as you might imagine so i sidled a little closer and heard him reply, also in a whisper but his a little louder (for my benefit?), "It's good for you, baby. You gotta losen up a little." And then they walked off, his hand still plastered to her ass. It left me with some vague ideas for a non-consent (or exhibitionism) story percolating through my brain, to be honest.

My point?

I haven't considered cruising places like Wal-Mart for characters and color and snippets of real life conversation. I should have. KM must feel like the place is gold mine.

Where do you go for eavesdropping and to gather real-life people to rework into your stories? And, while we’re on the subject, what's the best thing you ever heard one person say to another in public situation while you were eavesdropping?

 

[KillerMuffin]

Oh yes, cym, you can see the oddest people at Wallyhell. They generally have benches scattered in the main aisles (they call them action alleys) for the comfort of costumers. If you can find one near shoes, electronics, sporting goods, HBA/pharmacy, and any part of the food aisles, well sit down with a notebook and write in shorthand.

People watching is one of the most fascinating things because no one is ever on their best behavior at Wal-Mart. They let it all hang out there.

 

[Ray Dario]

Very cool idea. I think I'll smoke some payote' and head over for the 2am crowd.

Ray

 

[JUDO]

Where? How about when?

So far, I have been peopling my stories from my high school yearbook!

I know these people very well. Their wants. Their dreams.

It's a yummy place to find characters.

- Judo

~~Makes a note to see if there's a Walmart around here~~

 

[Cockatoo]

I fear the carrot peeler

I spend a lot of time worrying that the people I populate my stories with will find this site, recognize themselves, band together, and come over to my house and skin me alive.

Well, okay, not a lot of time. But it's a concern. And I really do composite characters together from all over the place. Really.

 

[SpectreT]

Heh.

About the only nice thing about working in retail is you've got hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people around, and seeing the items they buy, overhearing the conversations they have, and just watching their behaivior can be an amazing source of material for stories. And working in a bookstore gives you a lot of information about a person's interests quite quickly, especially if they've been perusing the 'erotica' section. I've also had to special order quite a few books for people, including several copies of "Screw the Roses, Send Me the Throns", among others. That, combined with the chance to talk to these people, gives you great character ideas. A bloody gold mine.

 

[Samuari]

And don't forget

The desidely odd bunch of us that work there, we are all on our way to doing something else. I just went to a retirement party for a store manager that after 25 years is going to have to find something else to fill his days with. His wife said, "But Dear, you allways said you were going to have to find a real job."

 

[Guest]

People sources

It's hardly even fair. Finding characters has always been too easy for me.

1) I'm from a very small town. We know more intimate shit about our neighbors than anyone ought to know about their own family. There are composite characters here just begging to be put into print.

2) I tended bar and waited tables for years. A) Some people consider the bartender their confessor. B) Others consider service staff to be invisible and simply carry on whatever they are going to do right in front of you. You see people as they really are.

3) I have had some very interesting revelations come out in parent/teacher conferences. I have a reputation as being a good hand with "challenging" children. Many parents share intimate ("intimate" in the personal sense, not in the explicit sense) details of their lives with a child's school teacher so that the teacher can understand the behavior of their "challenging" child. It was through this experience that I realized how many different types of "typical" families there are, and how differently "typical" people can view the world.
I strive to never recreate specific events I've learned of in this manner, but many of the attitudes and experiences I have heard at these conferences reappear in subtle ways. Every good character has a background. Often in short stories these backgrounds are never discussed in print, but they definitely influence the behavior of the characters. Much of the "off the screen" background of my characters comes from this source.

4) I worked as an actor. I can always steal from Shakespeare when I want to create a character. Read King Lear once and you'll never have to look for dysfunctional family characters again!