Having Fun with Character Development Using Coffee Chats

By Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D.

Photo by Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 

Have you ever found yourself stuck when trying to develop your characters?

You’ll find guidance in this week’s podcast episode, #38: Having Fun With Character Development Using Coffee Chats.  

Stephanie shares her experience approaching character development from the perspective of calling the process “coffee chats”. Whether you enjoy spending time in a coffee shop, or not, you’re familiar with the experience of meeting someone for coffee. 

You know a conversation you have over coffee is never linear and can ping pong between being surface level and full of depth. 

It’s what makes this approach so much fun. You imagine you’re sitting down to have coffee with one of your characters and you start asking questions. There’s no formula for what questions you ask first or last, and you don’t need to ask all of your questions at the same time. In fact, it’s recommended you space out your coffee chats over the span of time it takes to write your book. 

A coffee chat takes away the pressure of needing to feel like the process needs to be so formal. It eases the stress of thinking it needs to be done in a special way. There’s your way and that’s what matters. This is simply a way to frame it for having more fun. 

Your characters evolve over time. They encounter things you don’t plan for as a writer, and sitting down for a coffee chat can help you go deeper. You won’t know all of the answers at the beginning. 

Character development doesn’t happen in one sitting. It’s a process. 

If you’re like Stephanie and enjoy going to coffee shops, it can be fun to do your coffee chats with your characters in that setting. You might find inspiration from conversations around you, or from watching people. 

Coffee chats are not just for fiction writers. If you’re writing a memoir, you can use this approach to capture the characterization of people in your life who’ve influenced your thinking or were important to you. You can use it to answer the questions for yourself.  

You can bring depth to the voice of your character by using coffee chats. If you’re sitting there wondering why it matters for you to write your book, it’s because it’s your unique voice. No one else has your experiences. No one else has your world view. All of that comes through your coffee chats with your characters. 

Give it a try and let us know what you discover! 

You can also download a FREE PDF of 50 questions to ask your characters during a coffee chat here.