The Bag Test- A Fun Way To Flesh Out a Character

Those of you who have read Gail Carson Levin's book 'Writing Magic' will remember Gail's character questionnaire, and specifically, two unconventional questions on it.

1) Describe his/her room
2) Items in his/her pockets, backpack, or purse

Most questionnaires don't have questions like these, and that's what made them stand out to me as a young writer.

Why would one need to know either one of these things to understand the character, you may ask? Because they help us figure out what kind of person your character is, all based on what things they keep around them.

Why it's important

For example, the state of your character's room says something about their personality. If their room is messy, that tells us that their state of mind might be messy, or that they're currently too busy or distracted to clean, or that they're bad with responsibilities such as cleaning. And we could take it a step further from there. The room is messy, but messy how? What do they have all over their floor? Is it Lego? Spare pieces from craft kits? The scattered sequin tops and frilly skirts from last week's fashion show? All of that will tell you something about your character.

The contents of the pockets are very similar. What are they carrying? A knife? Pepper spray? Why am I thinking all weapons? Maybe they have a pocket watch, or they never carry any change(After all, it's inappropriate for royalty to jingle, as the queen of Genovia would say).

The Bag Test

Now, getting around to the bag test. A few years ago, I was writing your standard running-from-the-people-who-want-to-imprison-us-unjustly type of novel, and thusly all my characters had to run from the people who wanted to unjustly imprison them. So, to flesh out their characters, I got out a sheet of paper and wrote a paragraph for each individual character, listing what they would pack if they had to leave home in a rush. Obviously, they would need some essentials, but what else? Do they pack a lot of practical items, or do they try to fit their life into that bag? Do they pack light, or do they try to carry as much as possible?

More importantly, why did they choose what they did? Why is each piece of that important to them? Why did they pack so much, or so little? Every piece of this will deepen your understanding of the character.

Now, this particular thing might not work for every novel, but it really helped with that novel in particular because in that novel, these were the things that my characters were actually going to carry. One of them brought a checkerboard to play on the road. Another one brought an envelope containing pictures of his life 'before'. A third just brought a bag full of basics with very few personal items. The bags really helped me flesh out their characters and figure out what made them tick.

So what is your character carrying? Go forth, make those characters pack their bags, and spill their secrets. Make me proud.


What's your character carrying? What's your favorite exercise to help you get to know your characters? Let's talk in the comments!