There are many ways of creating characters in fiction. What they wear says a lot about a person, colorful clothes, drab clothes, formal, casual, rich, poor. Character quirks also work. Maybe they walk funny, maybe they limp, walk quickly, or just amble. Describing their apartment or house furnishings can also indicate what type of person they might be; orderly to the point of being a neat freak, or messy to the point of a hoarder. Or sparse with no personality.

But another way is through dialogue. In my e-mystery in progress a 1927 flapper named Clancy reveals a lot about herself in the following scene.

Grover looked at Clancy like a thirsty man in a dessert who just found a well of water in an oasis. He was actually drooling a bit. “Are you married? I’m not. Do you want to go on a picnic with me?”

Clancy said, “Well Grover, November is not a good month for a picnic. Way too cold for this California flapper. But I must tell you dear Grover I am not the marrying kind. Nothing personal, mind you.  I have heard people say you are selfish if you do not marry, but that makes no sense. It is selfish to spend your entire life making one man happy and far more generous to share yourself with as many men as possible, or in your case, women, of course. Why make one man happy when you can make dozens of men happy? So you see marrying one person to spend your life with is just selfish. And I am nothing if not generous.”

“But that is not nice, having lots of men and all. Women in the bible are called harlots. We have whores in this town, not many; at least I don’t think so. I don’t want to know them.”

“Well Mr. Grover I am neither of those types of women. I have some integrity after all. But there is another reason. Marriage is a contract, therefore you are obligated to love your husband, but being single I am free to love the man-forever if I want to-because I have the freedom to do so, not under an obligation you see. Don’t you think that makes sense to you Mr. Grover; that a person should love out of freedom, not out of obligation?”

We learn more than Clancy’s feelings on marriage. We see she is insouciant, a free thinker, not shy, a bit flippant, probably living in the moment and a bit of a challenge for any male suitor. Good luck winning her heart.

In “Loonies in Hollywood” in which she made her first appearance I wrote a scene to describe how she affected men. The scene follows:

Clancy swiftly glided past police desks with me as her tail, detectives and uniformed men stopping what they were doing, staring at her like a silver screen goddess who came down off the screen to mingle with the normal folk. She was accustomed to this type of reaction, not pausing in her sashaying glide through the station, looking neither left nor right to offer a brief heart melting smile.

From the reaction of men we learn she is attractive. Doesn’t matter about hair color, tall or short, nothing descriptive, all reaction from others. She is unattainable to the common man.

You can say a lot about character though dialogue and other’s observations.