BB has a cigarette and
Nina stops trying to figure out Substack
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what I am doing on here instead of just writing and letting you see me make faux pas after faux pas (what’s the plural of faux pas? fauxes pauses? haha. whatever.) My last one was publishing a note instead of a post.
post. note. draft. They’re all synonyms. Throw me a bone. The confusion comes from the fact you can only post a note from a phone—you cannot post a post, or post a draft as a note, a draft can only turn into a post. Phones are for notes, the end. I really should take the tutorial.
BB has some bad habits
Let’s get back to world building and the cigarettes, tho, shall we? In this story, BB smokes, and by the time I was done making her pack of smokes, I almost wanted one too. They were so tiny. I got the print out from Easy DIY Miniatures on Youtube. While I wouldn’t call it “easy” if you need a new glasses prescription like me, the process itself was cognitively simple. Cut on the dotted lines, fold on the solid lines, and then glue.
Once I decided that BB was a part time smoker, I realized how this defined many of her actions and motivations inside of her world. She smokes as a reward, a stress reliever, and part of her aesthetic. Also, she and her smokes are attached. Characters who are addicts always have what they need close by. They become permanent accessories and characters return to them like boomerangs.
Looking at BB and her cigarette I thought, I have to make her an ashtray, but then I realized she might be the type of person to ash into the plant next to her desk. One tap over the side of her desk and the ash falls. She thinks it’s probably good for the plant. Then she hides the cigarette butt in the trash and sprays perfume; she’s a closet smoker and everyone knows.
I like to imagine my characters in their most private moments, even if these moments never appear in one of my stories. They might pick their noses, or ash into a planter, or spend a lot of time scratching their bums. These types of actions are representations of who these characters are at their core. Knowing these motivations and weaknesses creates real character depth which can make me like them in spite of their humanity or despise them for it.