In a post on Writer Unboxed, Therese Walsh suggests an interesting path into your characters’ psyches: Ask what they would save in a fire? “Moments of crisis can become a powerful lens that reveals character in a way few other situations can,” Walsh says. “That’s because the pressure to choose has a way of calling everyone’s bluff—revealing core values and hidden attachments beyond the easier-to-explore surface of character. It calls the author’s bluff too, as pushing a character into the fire can illuminate for you what’s important to them.”
Imagine your hero is faced with a literal fire and has only minutes to choose what – if anything – to save. Ask:
- What’s the most revealing item your protagonist could choose to save? How does this represent their values?
- Is there an object that contributes to their sense of self? Rather than something of monetary value, consider what would be sentimentally or emotionally valuable. What is the one object that represents your character as a person?
- Can a character’s attachment to certain items become a subtle way to hint at deeper, hidden layers of their story?
- What do they leave behind? This can be as revealing as what they save. This might be something they forgot about, something they didn’t have time to choose, or something they left behind intentionally.
- Does the object represent unresolved conflict, either with someone else or internally?
- How might your character’s choices in a crisis highlight their arc over the course of your novel? Do they save an object they later realize they don’t need or abandon something they later wished they’d saved?
- What happens when they lose the item they’d save? Sometimes, what a character would save is exactly what the story needs to strip from them. How do they react to this second-layer loss?
- Does the loss create ripples or lead to another loss? Does the loss upset them emotionally and distract them?
