Turning the Pockets Inside-Out
What do the items we carry around in our pockets and purses say about the men and women who we are?
What would we think of a woman who carries mace in her purse? How about a pistol? Or a man who wouldn't be caught dead without a tube chapstick in his pocket? Or a condom in his wallet?
The items your characters carry around and how they use them says a lot about who your characters are. What would you think of a nun who carried paperback copies of Stephen King novels in her handbag right next to her bible? Or what if she has a box of condoms in her purse? What does she do with them? Is she a nun who is contemplating her vows of chastity? Did she confiscate them from a prepubescent schoolboy who was showing them off to his friends in the schoolyard? Is she handing them out in an effort to prevent the spread AIDS?
THE EXERCISE
1. Construct an itemized list of the contents of your character's pockets, wallet and/or handbag.
2. Pick an item from the list. Write a scene in which your character must explain why he or she is in possession of that item and what he/she plans to do with it. Be creative.
3. As with the condom example above, there is more than one way to view why a character may have a particular item. Make a listing of all the different possibilities and rewrite the scene
