Charlie Hicks – Author

I have been pondering how I find the characters for my books. and I have concluded that it isn’t by sheer chance that most of my characters appear to me.

I am; and I have to admit this shamefully, a people watcher. I find the thrill of street theatre to be compelling. I love watching the world go by, and observe how people interact with one and another. But the most fascinating aspect of observation is relating those behaviours into my characters.

I love working into my stories those characters who have made me laugh, cringe, or felt some form of empathy for them. And non of this is by accident. I purposefully sitting in a café and watch the world play out a myriad of different stories in front of me. Even though I can’t hear the conversations, I read the body language and imagine the kind of discussion people are having inside my head. Sometimes those conversation are hilarious.

But lately I find myself watching how animals interact with each other. My particular favourite is my little Murder Kitten and Pigeons who have the lack of sense to land in my back garden. I watch her little bottom wiggle, the tail go dead still, and her crouch as close a possible to the ground without getting her belly wet (she really hates getting her belly wet BTW). The pigeons for their part stand there as if nothing is wrong, and tease her by walking slowly towards her and then backing off slightly to a distance they instinctively know, she has no chance of reaching before they take flight.

But even though this little tale is unfolding in front of me, I also watch my dog, trying desperately to copy the cat. each little wiggle of the cats bottom is exactly mirrored by the dog. occasionally the cat will look back and give a look of utter contempt to the dog. But the dog nevertheless remains focused and fully committed to copying the cat. eventually the dog will get bored and charge past the cat towards the pigeons; who for their sakes take flight in a hurried flurry of feathers, because they didn’t expect the dog to come charging at them from behind the cat. The dog for her part will continue onwards oblivious to the washing line post, which she will hit head first and then spend the next 30 seconds wondering where the hell the post had come from, and more importantly where had the bloody pigeons gone to!

So do I have a point to these mad ambling other than to share a quaint little story from my life. Yes as writers every interaction between people and animals is a source of material we should take for granted. These little nuggets have a habit of growing into larger tale, and even possibly a novel.

Keep on writing and the answer is always 42.