It's Alive! How to Write Character Descriptions

characters writing craft

I want to make the characters in my story come alive. How do I write character descriptions in a story? Consider 3 layers of character description:

SKIN - the “surface” level, the externals
FLESH & BONES - “below surface”, things you could research about a character
SOUL - the “deep core” that you could only know if the character reveals this to you (or you steal their private journal)

Let’s look closer at the 3 Layers of Character Description as well as 7 DOs and 3 DON'Ts in Character Description, then use 5 Tools for Character Description to put it into practice and bring your characters to life.

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The 3 Layers of Character Description

DEEP CHARACTER-WORK

As a writer, you should have the same attitude when describing you character as an actor uses to bring that character to life on stage or screen, considering not just the surface (“skin”) characteristics, but digging below the surface (“flesh & bones”) into the deep core (“soul”) of your characters.

In “classical” acting, the actor works through their characters from the outside-in, starting with the external aspects then moving inward into the emotions and motivations.
In “method” acting, the actor does their character-work from the inside-out, starting with the emotions and motivations (and drawing parallel to their own life and memories of their own emotions and motivations), then working outward into how these interior qualities will express externally to the audience.

In this article we will use the “classical” (outside-in) order, from skin (surface) to flesh & bones (below surface) to soul (deep core). But there is absolutely nothing wrong with the “method” approach. So if you want to start from the soul of your character and work outwards, that is completely fine. In fact, why not experiment with both ways for different characters and different stories?

Two notes before we go on.

First, do you need to do this deep, layered character-work with every character in your story? Of course not! This depth of character work is only important for your major characters. Consider doing this level of character description for your protagonist, antagonist, and (maybe) one or two more characters in a short story — more in a longer work such as a novelette, novella, or novel, where there is more room for multiple fleshed-out characters. However, as you train yourself by doing this work for a few character in each story, you will find that it spills over and you will naturally think along these terms, even for your minor characters, and that will let your stories come alive with a cast of memorable characters.
Second, I want to acknowledge the character acting lessons from the MasterClass classes by Helen Mirren (“classical” approach) and Natalie Portman (“method” approach) as key sources and inspiration for this article. Watching Helen Mirren spending time picking out just the right cardigan to work on a character is a revelation in the attention to exterior detail of the “classical” acting approach. Similarly, Natalie Portman’s case-study of how she approached her Oscar-winning performance in “Black Swan” was inspirational in the depth of emotional delving she used to define the character and then work outward into how it was expressed in the character’s physicality.

As writers, shouldn’t we put just as much thought and care into making our character come alive on the page as an actor does for the stage or screen?

LAYER CAKE

As we think about describing our characters in layers, from the surface (“skin”) to below surface (“flesh & bones”) to the deep core (“soul”), let’s also think about a related concept: writing your character as a layer cake.

By this I mean that the characters have layers, things that are unexpected. And this is at every level: surface, below the surface, and deep core.

SKIN (Surface) Layer Cake - Think about an old lady, get that image of her (a surface image of an old lady) in your mind. Now, imagine that she is actually an assassin (perhaps a ninja with poison-tipped knitting needles).
FLESH & BONES (Below Surface) Layer Cake - Now think about a scientist, who at the surface level is all about the numbers and facts in all he does and says. But then you “do some research” (i.e. character-work), and you find that in college, he majored in English Literature, and he has published books of poetry (perhaps under a pen name).
SOUL (Deep Core) Layer Cake - I want you to visualize a vicious killer, perhaps someone who works for the mob. If you could be with him in private, inside his mind, you’ll find that he is deeply spiritual, devout. How does he square this inner spirituality with his hurtful actions?

So, think about the “Layer Cake” at every level as we dig deeper into the Skin, Flesh & Bones, and Soul of character description.

SKIN

By “skin” we mean the surface, everything that is on the outside, that you can see, hear, feel, smell, taste (if you lick their skin, I suppose) or observe directly in any way.

As you’re introduced to the character, what is you first impression of what is tangible and visible?

Name - The first thing you may hear is the character’s name. He or she may introduce themself, or be introduced by another. Names are important, especially for the written page where it becomes an important “tag” that will bring the character back to the reader’s mind every time we encounter them. What does the name say about the person? How is the name part of the description? The name could even have a meaning to it, right? Or the name maybe evoke a certain feeling about them, just in the way it sounds. Here’s a link to an article about how to name your characters.
Gender - Is the gender important for this character? It may be if the character plays a role where gender is important to the story (ex. love interest). Or it may be that you just felt a certain gender-vibe as you imagined the character. But how if you flipped the gender? Would the character be different? How? Would that be an interesting take for the story?
Ethnicity - Is the ethnicity (racial-, cultural-, and/or national origin, or perhaps alien species) important? If so, why? How does the character manifest because of their ethnicity? Is their ethnicity important to them, either positively or negatively? Is their ethnicity meaningful in the story and in relation to other characters?
Age - How old is this character? Is it a child, teenager, young adult, in their middle years, old age? How does their age affect their interaction with other characters? How may it affect their outlook on the world? How may it affect word choices: for example, does an older person sprinkle in dated slang words from 50 years in the past? Does it affect how they dress, their posture and movement? Or is there a “layer cake” opportunity in their age — that “old lady assassin” example.
Hair - Hair can be an important tag. Hair color, style, or lack of hair (or lack of style) can be a vivid way to make the character come to life.
Eyes - One of the first things we notice about others is their eyes. So what do you notice about your character’s eyes?
Features - Now think about the other facial features: nose (right next to the eyes, so kind of hard to avoid when you start with their eyes, so how does the nose look?), cheekbones, lips, teeth, chin, jaw, ears, forehead, hairline. What about their neck, their throat? Do they have any habitual facial expressions?
Body (Height, Weight, Shape) - Is their frame large and imposing or small and frail, or something totally different? Are there any specific aspects (“tags”) about their body that you’d notice either immediately, or something that you notice only later (another “layer cake” possibility, perhaps, of something unexpected — ex. small, dainty hands and fingers on a large, imposing man.)
Voice - Do they have a deep, booming voice, or do they speak in a tinny creak? What does the voice say about them? How do others react to their voice?
Clothes - How are they dressed? How does the way they’re dressed match (or mismatch) with their Body (Height, Weight, Shape)? What’s the quality and style of their clothes? Does that tell you anything about their social status, maybe even about their personality, and about how they want to be seen by others?
Occupation - This is not always something that is apparent, but sometimes it is, especially if they wear a “uniform” of any kind: police, firefighter, medical professional, sure, but other professions may have their own “uniform” that you can describe. Does their occupation influence their word choices? Is there an opportunity for a “layer cake” associated with their occupation — that assassin again, the one who is an old lady, remember?
Social Role - This could be related to their occupation, their age, and other outward markers. It could be related to mental powers (or lack of). Are they intelligent, sharp witted, clear thinking. Or not (a “dumb ox”, bumbling, muddy-headed)? How does that play out in their social interactions? Their social role could also be indicative of their relationships to other characters (ex. the son or daughter of a powerful politician). Or it could be a result of education level, wealth (or lack of wealth), etc. Are there different social roles encountering and interacting with each other in the story? Think about Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and how his social role (blue collar worker) in relation to Blanche DuBois (refined gentility) is important to both Stanley’s and Blanche’s character description, their relationship, and even the plot of the story.
Posture & Movement - Is it a person who slumps or one who stands ramrod straight, with a military bearing? How do they move? What are unique elements of their body language? How is this related to their social role, occupation, body shape and size, age, gender? Is the way they move a “tag” (they slink, like a cat), and if so, do you give them a name that subtly (or not so subtly) reflects and enhances that movement “tag” (Felix “The Cat” Gato)?

By the way, did you notice that as we’re thinking through the skin (surface) level in the examples above, it’s almost inevitable that we begin thinking deeper? If you go through the list above again, you’ll notice that many of the examples and questions were really starting to delve below the surface (“flesh & bones”), even into the deep core (“soul”) of the character.

FLESH & BONES

By “flesh & bones” we mean what’s below the surface. These are tangible things, but not immediately apparent when you see the character. At this level, you’re not inside the person yet (that’s the deep core “soul” that we’ll get to in the next section). Instead, think about something where you would have to do a little bit of research or interview some family members or friends to find it out.

Places and Times - Where do they live currently? Where did they live in the past? At what times in the past were they at those places? What happened there? How did that affect them? What other times have they lived through in their life? What does that say about them as a character? One great perspective (credit goes to James Scott Bell), is to ask “what year was their 16th birthday?” In this world, what happened in that formative year? So if it’s in the “real” world, in the past, you can calculate based on the character’s age and the year the story takes place, the year of their 16th birthday. Look up what happened in the world in that year, and maybe even in the specific place where the character was at that time. Then think about in that formative year, how did the happening(s) in the world affect the person? If you’re writing about a fictional world (science fiction or fantasy world), you would have to then do some worldbuilding — was there a major event in your fictional world that would have affected the 16-year old version of your character? This could actually lead you into deeper worldbuilding.
Learning - What did they learn at those places and times? Do they have formal education, if so, what? Have they acquired certain skills, if so, how? This could tie back to their occupation and social status. Is there an opportunity for a “layer cake” here? Think about that layer cake example of the the scientist who appears to be all about numbers and facts but was educated in English Literature and publishes poetry.
Backstory - What other backstory elements are there. You may have already decided on this in the Places, Times, and Learning. But, what if you now get an image of the character being arrested, going to jail. Well, jail’s a “place” but maybe you hadn’t thought of until you challenge yourself to explore other backstory elements for this character. This is also yet another opportunity for a “layer cake.” Is there something unexpected in their backstory? How does that manifest itself today?
Family and Relationships - Who’s their father, mother, do they know both or either of their parent? Do they have siblings? Do they have aunts, uncles, cousins? Do they come from a large, multi-generational family, or in the formative childhood years was this an only child in a single-parent home? Are there other relationships that are important? These can be work relationships, personal friendships, rivalries, adversaries, enemies, allies, accomplices, romantic relationships. Are there hidden relationships? Is there someone who appears to be an enemy, but is actually an accomplice? Is there an enemy who becomes a romantic relationship?

Now, let’s dig even deeper, into the innermost being, the soul of your character. It can get dark down there, but let’s jump in.

SOUL

By “soul” we mean what’s deep inside the character, not tangible, not visible. In fact, in order to learn about this deep core of the character they would have to share it with you. You’d have to sit down (over several glasses of wine or whiskey) as your character opens up and unburden themselves. Or you’d have to be their therapist, or steal their private journal. Of course, as the all-knowing writer, you get to walk around inside your character, you get to learn about their deep core soul first hand.

Wants and Needs - What does your character want? Why? Is there something else that they really need, deeper down, that they may not realize? Perhaps a character transformation will happen where they realize that what they want is not what they need? Maybe that’s what the story is about?
Bliss and Fears - What’s their bliss — the thing(s) that make them truly happy? Do they have it or are they seeking it? Do they know that this is their “bliss” or is that something they will discover (or fail to discover) in the story, so that perhaps it is related to their wants and needs? What are their fears? Are their fears in some way related to their “bliss”? Get specific about both of these. Ask your character to tell you about a specific example of feeling bliss, and of feeling fear.
Worldview and Wrongviews - What’s their worldview? By that I mean, how do they see things and think about the world — are they cynical, hopeful, fearful, confident, spiritual, positive, negative? Are they judgmental of others or easygoing? Is their world a safe, happy place, or a living hell? And do they get things wrong — i.e. what’s their “wrongviews” — about the world and about their situation and the people in the story? This is another good opportunity for a layer cake — the killer who has a devoutly spiritual worldview and how that core incongruity may play out in the story.
Wounds and Power - What has happened to them in the past or will happen to them in this story that leaves mental wounds (and are there physical wounds that go along with the mental ones)? What’s their power, their strength at their mental and spiritual core that lets them get through problems and heal wounds? Are these powers evident or hidden or will they be developed through what happens to this character in the story? Consider writing a short backstory as an exercise, where the character receives their wound(s) and develops or demonstrate their power.

If you’ve been approaching this as the “classical” actor, working from the exterior to the interior, now take on the “method” actor attitude and work outwards from the deep core “soul” of the character.

Since you understand more about their motivations — their wants and needs, bliss and fear, worldview and wrongviews, wounds and power — does this change anything about the “flesh & bones”? For example, would they have gravitated to certain places, relationships, learnings? Is their family and relationship the source of some of the wounds, or do they draw power and get their bliss in these relationships?

At the “skin” exterior level, do you want to change (remove, tweak, embellish) some of the aspects, perhaps even including gender, ethnicity, body shape/size, their voice? Perhaps you even want to change the character’s name? How about their role in the story? Should the story be told from this character’s point of view?

7 DOs and 3 DON'Ts in Character Description

Let’s take a look at 10 DOs and DON'Ts in character descriptions, starting with 7 DOs: context, image, focus, weave, action, words, and freewrite.

CONTEXT

Who is the character in context of the story and in relationship with other characters?

The character has a role in the story. Are they the protagonist (hero), antagonist (villain), love interest, foil, mentor, tempter? How does this influence how they look, the way they act?

What is the mood (tone or vibe, narrative voice) of your story. How is the character described consistently with this mood? For example, if your mood is hard-boiled with short, punchy sentences, then describe your character in the same way.

The character does not stand alone against a white screen. What is their environment at home or in their place of business, and how does that environment reflect on them, essentially an extended part of their description?

What is the context between this character and other characters in the story, in specific key scenes? Do you want to draw contrasts, perhaps physical (one large imposing character, another small and submissive) or in their conflicting motivation (they both want the same thing, but only one of them can have it).

DO: Describe your character in context.

IMAGE

Can you see your character? Do you have a clear image?

If not, do you want to draw a sketch (even if you can’t draw) or go to your favorite source of images online (Google search, Instagram, Pinterest) and find a “reference image”. Perhaps you’re imagining the character as the actor or actress that could be cast in the role?

Is there a similar character that has been described in a book you love? If so, you can draw inspiration (but don’t copy, don’t plagiarize!) by reading how your favorite writer described a character that is similar to yours.

Is there a real live person that you know or that you can read a biography or watch a documentary about that can serve as a reference? For example, if you’re writing about a 1930s mobster, can you get an image of them by reading about it or watching documentaries about the topic or read fiction or watch movies or TV shows set in the time period and gangster scene?

DO: Get a clear image of your character.

FOCUS

With the long lists of things that you could include in the character’s description at the “skin”, “flesh & bones”, and “soul” level, you could fall into the trap of over-describing.

Instead, let the most important elements emerge as you do your character-work, and focus on these.

Give the reader one main “tag” that lets the character stand out and come into focus, and which makes it easy to bring the character back to mind as they re-enter the story at various points.

Almost always this focus “tag” is something at the exterior “skin” level, but it’s ideal if the exterior tag also represents something about their deeper characterization.

For example, in “A Christmas Carol”, Dickens gives Scrooge the verbal “tag” of saying “Bah, humbug!” This phrase is unique to Scrooge, no other character says this. It’s also an outward expression of his deep core worldview (and wrongview) that all human feelings are just “humbug” which is the key character transformation he needs to make in the story.

For a relatively minor character, this “tag” may be the entire description. The term for this is “synecdoche” (sounds like suh-NEK-duh-kee) where one part represents the whole. So for example, if a character has a bright, red mohawk, then that may be the whole description, and he may even be referred to only by that that “tag”, as in: “Red Mohawk made a strange gulping noise, and it took me a while to realize that he was laughing.” Of course, in that example, we also gave “Red Mohawk” a “quirk”, the “strange gulping noise” laugh. So even your minor characters can have one main tag but many quirks.

DO: Focus — let one (or a few) traits stand out, so that the reader gets a sharp, clear picture of the character.

WEAVE

We have a tendency — especially after doing deep character-work so that we know a ton about our characters — to dump all the information about this character at one time.

Instead, weave in the character description, sprinkling it, scattering the information seeds over time as the character takes part in the story.

One way to think about it: If you have a long list of character traits and backstory and deep core motivation, go back to the “FOCUS” point we just discussed. What’s the ONE most important thing the reader needs to see right away.

For example, if the character is a giant with blue skin, then in most cases, you don’t want to wait and weave that vital piece of information in later. That will make the reader surprised, and likely not in a good way, because they will have already made a mental image and it was not a blue-skinned giant, twelve feet tall.

But once you have that “must see” trait, you can reveal bits and pieces of your character description naturally by weaving them in as you go along.

DO: Weave in character description, spreading them out across the story, instead of a big information dump upfront.

ACTION

Instead of just having a passive description of somebody, put the description into action.

For example, if one of the things you want to describe is that your character is big, imposing, muscular, and powerful, then put it into action. Let us see the character swinging an ax, chopping wood, or a sledgehammer, breaking into a building, or a broadsword, in a battle, and in that action describe their big, imposing muscular appearance and their powerful physicality.

DO: Describe your character in action.

WORDS

What’s the overall mood and tone of your story? Match the character description to word-choices to this overall mood and tone.

For example, if you’re writing a historical novel, set in the 19th century, and your narrative mimics the verbose, circuitous, complex 19th century prose, then describe the person using the flowery flourishes that matches this mood.

If, on the other hand, you’re writing hardboiled crime fiction, you would describe your character in short sentences, using direct and concrete words.

DO: Describe your character in words that match the mood and tone of your story.

FREEWRITE

If the character isn’t really coming into view for you yet, or in order to have them come into view more clearly, consider freewriting a section about this character.

You can do this freewriting within the context of your story or entirely separate from your story.

Freewriting within the context of the story means that you write the character interacting with other story characters or introducing themselves to you (and the reader) in the middle of a story scene. But you don’t worry about the story. You let the character take over and digress and ramble, knowing that you will cut all of this out of the story later. It’s just a way to let the character improvise on the stage of your story.

Freewriting separate from your story means that you go outside the story, perhaps to some element of the character’s backstory that you want to explore, and freewrite on that, letting the character tell that unrelated (but important to them) story, just so you can get to know them better.

DO: Freewrite to let your character speak to you.

Those were the 7 DOs. Now let’s take a look at the 3 DON'Ts: all-points bulletin, purple prose, and adjectives, adverbs & clichés.

ALL-POINTS BULLETIN

An All-Points Bulletin (APB) is a police broadcast that can include a description of a person (a fugitive, a missing person).

The all-points bulletin style of character description is just a list of facts about the person. Don’t do this.

If you’ve done your character-work, you know so much about the skin (surface), flesh & bones (below surface), and soul (deep core) of your character. You have a clear IMAGE of your character. You can see and feel and understand your character. So, show that to your reader. Put all of that into your description with FOCUS, in CONTEXT, and in ACTION, as you WEAVE in the details as you go along.

Credit to Janet Burroway for the concept of avoiding the all-points bulletin.

DON’T write an all-points bulletin bland list of facts about your character.

PURPLE PROSE

Since you know your character so well, there’s a danger of “overwriting” the description of the character with overly ornate prose that stands out and also disrupts the narrative flow. This is known as purple prose.

If you find yourself doing this, step back and look first at the overall mood or tone of your story. Does this character description stand out (a “purple patch”) in an otherwise tightly written story? Then work on matching the character description to the rest of the story’s narrative style.

If instead this makes you realize that your entire story is full of purple patches, it’s time for a full rewrite, I’m afraid. Start with this character description. Make it sing. Then make the rest of the story match your wonderful character description.

DON’T overdo the character description with overly ornate “purple” prose.

ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS & CLICHÉS

Adjectives and adverbs are convenient shorthands in everyday speech. But in writing, we must be very careful with these two sneaky sloths. They are sneaky because they sneak into your mind and are easy to throw down on the page. They are sloths because they can lead to lazy writing.

I love the example of Emily Dickinson describing her own eyes not as “hazel” (an adjective), but as “the color of the sherry the guests leave in the glasses”. What a wonderful way of taking the overly-familiar (“hazel” color) and making it fresh, visual, and even given it some implied subtext meaning, perhaps.

Similarly, if you find that third trickster, the cliché, has snuck in the backdoor so that your character feels like a stereotype, think about how to flip the expected on its head or on its side, give it a twist. Un-cliché your character.

DON’T let adjectives, adverbs & clichés sneak in and make your character descriptions lazy and predictable

5 Tools for Character Description

You’ve been introduced to the 3 Layers of Character Description and the 7 DOs and 3 DON'Ts in Character Description. How do we apply this framework? Let's use 5 Tools for Character Description to put it into practice and bring your characters to life.

We want our characters to be living, breathing people. We want to let our characters emerge and grow organically — yes, even if your character is an android, it should feel like it has skin, flesh & bones, and a soul, at least conceptually.

So, in line with the “organic” imagery, we’re going to use the acronym mnemonic CROPS: Capturing, Reading, Observation, Prompts, and Sourcebooks.

CAPTURING

Capturing means that you should have a place and a process to capture inspiration and ideas and any thoughts that come to mind related to your characters.

You can carry a small notebook or journal or index cards with a small pen in your pocket (or purse). You can use an app on your phone. You can dictate (my favorite dictation/transcription app is Otter.ai), speaking your thoughts about the character into the app which automatically transcribes it.

In the end, whether you capture on index cards, scraps of paper, a phone app, or dictation, all these character notes should end up in a single place. My favorite all-purpose note-container these days is Obsidian (but you may prefer Evernote, Day One, Notion, One Note, Apple Notes or any of the many note capture tools, including hand-written journals, whatever works for you). What matters is: make sure you have that “container” and the process to capture character notes from multiple sources and get them all into that one place.

READING

You should be reading fiction, highlighting great character descriptions in different genres and writing styles.

You should also be reading non-fiction, such as histories, biographies, longform articles, and any other non-fiction where the writer describes real people.

If you read books on Kindle, highlight inspiring passages and use Readwise to share the highlights into your note app.

OBSERVATION

Go people-watching and listen to real people interact. Challenge yourself to describe people around you. Take notes in your character note-taking process — that is capture your notes on index cards or scraps of paper or cocktail napkins, but then transfer them to your all-purpose note-container, so they are available when you need them for inspiration during your character-work.

Watch TV, movies, and theater, and note the choices the actors, directors, and writers make to let the characters come to life on stage or screen.

Watch documentaries, news, game shows, reality shows, anywhere you can observe real (more or less) people. How would you describe them?

Use YouTube as a source of (more or less) unvarnished real-life people in all sorts of situations. How can they inspire your character description.

Interview and observe real people in the profession of — or otherwise similar to — your character. For example, If your character is a cop, do ride-alongs with police and interview them about their real life as a police officer.

PROMPTS

Use character generators, name generators, and other prompts. In the resources we include links to several sources of character prompts.

SOURCEBOOKS

There are sourcebooks (both actual books and websites) that will help with inspiration on the character descriptions at each level:

SKIN (“surface”) - you can use sourcebooks of exterior elements such as hair, eyes, facial features, body shapes and sizes
FLESH & BONES (“below surface”) - you can use occupational reference about the character’s job, educational reference, my favorite MasterClass for more exotic occupations (magician, ballet dancer, chef, hostage negotiator), and to delve into a character's learnings related to specific topics
SOUL (“deep core”) - there are “emotional thesaurus” sourcebooks, psychological assessment tools, the enneagram, and, of course, sourcebooks that will let you immerse yourself in any kind of worldview (and “wrongview”).

We’ve included a list of sourcebooks in the resources, but they only scratch the surface. Google (and Amazon) is your friend. Just ask yourself: what would this character know a lot about, and how can I learn about that?

Resources

MY FAVORITE ALL-PURPOSE RESOURCE

The Writer's Treasure Chest - everything in one place, curated, organized

CHARACTER GENERATORS

Remember My Name: How to Name Your Characters - my blog article on character names includes a lot of ideas as well as links to resources such as random name generators
Reedsy: Character Name Generator - my favorite name generator
RanGen: Random Character Generator
Character Generator
Character Detailed Profile Generator
Character Personality Generator

REFERENCE SOURCES

Wikipedia - when you want to research places, times, events, this is your go-to source, of course
MasterClass - for more exotic occupations (magician, ballet dancer, chef, hostage negotiator), and to delve into a characters learnings related to specific topics
One Stop for Writers - online versions of multiple character thesauruses (physical descriptions, motivations, emotions, emotional wounds, traits, occupations)
Writers Helping Writers - by the same team that brought you "One Stop for Writers" - these are the book form versions of the same tools, if you prefer a physical book (or e-book) instead of a website. I personally have and use both, since sometimes I want to just sit down in a recliner and leaf through a book, mulling, while other times, I just want to point, click, search and explore on a website.
101 Character Writing Prompts
The Gigantic List of Character Descriptions (70+ Examples)

LONGFORM NON-FICTION

Use these to read for descriptions of real life people as inspiration for your characters

TOOLS

Otter.ai - dictation and transcription
Readwise - share highlights from Kindle and other sources
Obsidian - all-purpose character-notes-container app
Lemome journal - for your hand-written notes capture
Levenger "pocket briefcase" - carry index card for quick notes capture
Kaweko LILIPUT mini fountain pen - tuck a mini fountain pen in your "pocket briefcase"

Your characters live within your story. So, as you write the story, here are some articles that will be helpful:

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