Best clothes
I'm meeting a friend today for our monthly 'ladies who lunch' lunch. It's a chance to dress up and show off my best clothes.
Characters need best clothes too, but the occasions on which they choose to wear them might be less pleasant. How about the old man who gets his exclusive Saville Row suit out only to wear at funerals of his friends? If he's the one everybody thinks of as fragile, but he's outliving all his friends, you add extra poignancy to his story.
In my days in HR I interviewed many women for administrative jobs, and I never ceased to be amazed at be inappropriate clothes some candidates wore. There were plunging necklines that would have given the office manager an instant heart attack, skirts so short they didn't really deserve the name, and then there were the candidates who turned up in old jeans for quite senior roles.
What your characters choose for their best clothes gives the reader an insight into their character. Someone dressing above their present position could be a pompous wannabe or a focused person determined to get to the top. And we've all seen the sad sight of a woman in her sixties dressing sexily to attract a new man.
Best clothes reflect our characters' innermost beings, but not necessarily their financial position. I buy lots of charity shop clothes, but they're designer labels and some are brand new when I buy them. A clever character can dress like a lord or lady but have little money. Holding the vision of a person who looks wealthy can take surprisingly little money.
Next time you're planning out your characters, take a moment to think about how their best clothes could reveal their essential beings.
Characters need best clothes too, but the occasions on which they choose to wear them might be less pleasant. How about the old man who gets his exclusive Saville Row suit out only to wear at funerals of his friends? If he's the one everybody thinks of as fragile, but he's outliving all his friends, you add extra poignancy to his story.
In my days in HR I interviewed many women for administrative jobs, and I never ceased to be amazed at be inappropriate clothes some candidates wore. There were plunging necklines that would have given the office manager an instant heart attack, skirts so short they didn't really deserve the name, and then there were the candidates who turned up in old jeans for quite senior roles.
What your characters choose for their best clothes gives the reader an insight into their character. Someone dressing above their present position could be a pompous wannabe or a focused person determined to get to the top. And we've all seen the sad sight of a woman in her sixties dressing sexily to attract a new man.
Best clothes reflect our characters' innermost beings, but not necessarily their financial position. I buy lots of charity shop clothes, but they're designer labels and some are brand new when I buy them. A clever character can dress like a lord or lady but have little money. Holding the vision of a person who looks wealthy can take surprisingly little money.
Next time you're planning out your characters, take a moment to think about how their best clothes could reveal their essential beings.
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