Love Gods & Chocolate Sauce

What's in his pockets?

Any evening that involves a good book, great friends and chocolate sauce is pretty perfect. Book Club night is a bright beacon in a diary crammed with work, school runs and all the things you 'have' to do for all of us. It's a brilliant excuse for a girl's night out with the improving element of discovering books you wouldn't have come across yourself - last night was Stefan Zweig's 'Beware of Pity'. He is a 'forgotten' author - staggeringly popular at the time (doorstepped by fans), but virtually unknown now. How does that happen? His tale is tragic - persecuted as a Jew, his library burnt by the Nazis, he fled to south America. This cultural cosmopolitan and true humanist was so dismayed by the world around him he committed suicide with his wife. Thanks to Pushkin Press, his work is now 'back', and for anyone who enjoys beautiful writing and tense psychoanalytical dramas 'Beware of Pity' is a great recommendation.

Zweig excelled at characterisation. It was interesting to find out from our hostess last night that he was a friend of Freud. As ever it's in the subtle details, the movement and change in a character. I read the other day that at any point a person is either getting better or worse. If you start to think of your characters in this way - as fluid rather than fixed, they automatically become more dynamic. Take today's clip - dear John from 'Ali McBeal' was a fabulous character, brilliant, eccentric and above all human. David Kelly's use of Barry White to show John getting his groove back is a stroke of genius. Every character, or person for that matter, has an internal soundtrack - what's yours? The way things are going I might just try channelling Barry ...

Change is the single most important element in any story - who wants to read about a character unaffected by what's happening to them? Change is dynamic, it propels the story forward. Goethe said 'It's not so important where we stand, but the direction in which we are moving'. Which way are you moving? Which path are your characters on?

TODAY'S PROMPT: The key to great characterisation is getting inside your character's head, to inhabit their skin, their life, the world around them. Why not try this - what have you got in your pockets at the moment? (Me: Zippo, several pennies, Thai Buddha talisman, fortune from fortune cookie: 'Passionate new romance appears in your life when you least expect it'). What would you make of that character? Ans: Lapsed smoker, needs pennies for Jelly Belly machine for kids, hoping for good luck, had dim sum for lunch yesterday. Why not take a character you are working on and get them to 'empty their pockets' for you. You may be surprised ...