Today I saw another blog post on character development.  There are whole books on how to make realistic characters out of thin air.  As authors we spend hours, days, even months on building character histories, physical descriptions, motivations, and value systems, just to make the people jump from the page and seem more “real.”

But, sometimes, a little gem of a character pops onto the page, fully formed and becomes someone fun to write about and play with.  This is how I feel about several of my “minor” characters.  Take, for example, Milo Grinnel.

Milo came about because I needed a second reason for Daisy to go to her writing group leader’s home in Faith on the Rocks.  If you haven’t read Faith, this is a little bit of a spoiler alert, but doesn’t mess up any major plot lines.

Daisy thinks she’s going to Sandra’s to be asked to leave the writing group.  There’s plenty of reason for her to buy into that thought, and she comes with trepidation.  When she arrives, however, there’s another surprise for her–a date!  And, because I have a silly sense of humor, I wanted this date to be completely inappropriate.

That’s when Milo popped into my head.  I can see him so clearly that sometimes I think I’ve seen an actor who reminds me of him.  Here’s what I said in the book:

“A man as tall as Phillip (an ex-football player), but a quarter of his weight stepped forward.  He was about my age with grey hair receding past his ears and a smile no horse would own.  Teeth splayed themselves in all directions, the only commonality between the chompers being their exceeding length and yellowness.”

Now, I’m not quite sure exactly how Milo came about beyond that he was a delightfully fun solution to my problem of a reason for Daisy to go to Sandra’s.  But here’s a little more about Milo.

I had Milo new from Texas because I wanted him to have the politeness yet assertion of that area of the country.  I lived in Dallas for a while, and Milo was someone who would have fit right in there.  I made him an accountant because I like accountants, and the stereotypical occupation clashes with Daisy’s growing life as an amateur sleuth.

Milo’s teeth came from me.  I had horrid teeth while growing up and throughout my young adulthood (who knew that giving up soda pop would help so much?).   I had no idea how bad my situation was until I became the first in my family to experience braces. I also had a daughter with large, protruding teeth.  To this day, I love a huge smile–on other people.

Then the devil in me took over.  Of course Milo’s nickname would be “Grins.”  What else could it be? I recall spending some time trying to figure out a name where I could play off Milo’s smile. Milo Fang?  Milo Chompers? Milo Grinninbearit? Hmm. Grins. Grinninbearit. Grinnel. Easy enough to create a nickname from that last one.

And of course, Milo would be unaware of the reason people called him that, other than the shortened last name.

And Milo’s skinniness?  Can you remember Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show? I’ve watched some of those reruns on Netflix this summer. I’ve also met a few skinny guys in my life, and suffered the nickname Scrawny-Brawny in high school. Skinny’s not so bad.

I love Milo.  Wouldn’t want him for a boyfriend, mind you.  But he’s wonderful, with a lovely sense of irony about him.  A lot of his personality emerged unbidden in writing the chapter that he plays a significant role in.  The clues he drops about the real killer really endeared him to me more–some of which were truly unexpected until I was jotting things down in the text.  Plus, I giggled right through every passage with Milo in it.

I hope I can bring Milo back into another Daisy Arthur story sometime.  Am grinning thinking of this already.

What minor characters light up your life or writing?  I hope you have a playful week with them.