Without further ado, let’s move on to technique number 6.

Eavesdrop on Your Character

We’ve all done it in the real world; listened in on conversations that were nothing to do with us and, to be fair, it is one of the best ways of gathering ideas and dialog for a book. You can hear an awful lot if you just sit and listen, not just words but about how people speak. Twist this around and do it to your own characters. Stop working, start listening. Again, don’t control what you hear or see, just write. Then you can read back and see if there are any hidden gems that you can use. Does your character’s voice change when he or she is talking to their children? Are there things that aren’t being said? Think about the following locations for your character and eavesdrop for 6 minutes on each one. Again, just write without stopping:

The table behind your character as he takes his mom out for lunch

The stool next to him at the bar as he attempts to chat up a stranger

The bathroom as she touches up her makeup with a friend

The office cubicle next to her as she gets a second warning for being late

Bug Your Character

If your character uses the phone a lot, especially privately, you’ll want to know what he or she is talking about. You need to bug your character! Anywhere you can think of in the vicinity where the phone calls are made, put a bug and you can listen in on your character’s deepest, darkest secrets. Now, rather than having to scrabble around for a back-story, you can find one here. She may be talking to a psychologist about a deep, dark fear or childhood trauma; he may be talking to a secret lover or unloading some guilt on a priest. Set that timer for 6 minutes and go for it; write without stopping.

Read Her Journal

Okay, so most people’s journals are full of mundane, everyday musings but, every now and again, a real gem shines through. It’s finding it that is the problem and you don’t have time to go through the whole lot. So, for this purpose, you will open the journal and it will just happen to be on the page you want. Six minutes on the timer again and write down what that journal entry says.

If you are struggling to come up with something here, try one of these suggestions:

The hidden bucket list – not just the things that we all might have on ours; this is a list of hopes, of dreams, things that your character truly wants if only money didn’t enter into the equation or he or she had no responsibilities in life.

A fight – the intimate details of a fight he/she had with a lover, a colleague or a family member; an analysis of the process, what led to it, how it ended. He writes how it hurt him, what “blows” he got in and what he wishes had or hadn’t been said.

A scare – anything that might have scared him or her witless.

An embarrassing moment – let your imagination run riot here; we’ve all had them!