Drinking coffee is working on my writing, honest

I write in coffee shops, and there's no better place to collect ideas for characters.  With my cappuccino to hand, and notebook spread out in front of me, I look like I'm minding my own business.

But often the people who come into the coffee shop would make the basis for great characters.  There are the happy second marriages in their fifties who are over-affectionate and look a bit desperate. There is the tall elegant woman in her early sixties who comes in alone and gives the impression of being very wealthy.  And there is the group of sixties something women who go to a local slimming club every Wednesday, then meet at the cafe for coffee and tea cakes immediately after their weigh in.

Already I can see the potential for several stories.  Are the fifties couple really in a romantic relationship, or are they a brother and sister separated at birth who are reunited for the first time?  Is the tall elegant woman lonely, or relishing spending the money of the abusive husband she's finally rid of?  And the group of slimming club women suggest a funny story about women going to slimming clubs in their sixties when they've happily given up the relationship game.

When you see someone you think will make a good character try to record a few key details about that person in your notebook.  Perhaps they have a distinctive face, or piece of clothing, an unusual possession or gesture.  Or perhaps they speak in an unusual way.

Thinking back to Panthera : Death Spiral, Ren's intensity relating to wild animals was suggested by a friend I meet at the cafe who is totally besotted by dogs.  Nic is six foot two, always scanning the landscape for threats and talks in clipped phrases, and is partly modelled on some of the business people that drop into the cafe for breakfast.  Bryn is a geek with his head in a computer programme, and is a bit of a loner.  He has some of the features of a man who comes into the cafe alone and reads the whole time he is there.

There's lots of potential for both storylines and characters in casually observing people, so next time you're in your local coffee shop give this exercise a go.