I received a note from someone writing a romance novel. She asked how she could portray a man with slovenly habits positively. I had to ask what she meant by “slovenly?” It could mean anything from dressing sloppily to bad personal hygiene habits. She replied that he never seemed to care about his dress. She went on to say he wouldn’t even dress up for a date. As we chatted back and forth via email, I discovered that she didn’t have a whole image of the man.
What was his job was the first question I asked. Did he have a job where dressing up was not necessary? Something like a mechanic or carpenter and so on. She didn’t know. This man was going to be important to the female protagonist. She had failed to clearly define the man.
I might write a sentence or two for a minor character, so I have a firm idea they relate to the story and who they are. For major characters, such as the man she asked about, I would probably read at least two pages about him. Simple things like physical description and more complex things such as what influenced his life as he grew up. What might his dreams be? What are his likes and dislikes? For this man, how would he react to the female protagonist?
All was quiet for almost two weeks, then she sent me a detailed character sketch of the man. It was clear that the man might never have considered his dress important. His job didn’t demand it. When he went to church, he wore clean clothes, but they might not be pressed because he lived alone. She had solved her problem. In fact, I rather liked the man that appeared in her character sketch. She even wrote why the woman would be attracted to the man you been with his slovenly dressing.
