Dress Your Characters to Reveal Their Secrets

Most writers dress their characters like they’re flipping through a department store catalog. Jeans and a t-shirt, or maybe a dark suit.

It’s a missed opportunity. What a character wears shouldn’t just keep them warm; it should reveal their class, their anxieties, or their lies.

Think of Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels. Kellerman is a master of the wardrobe cue. He doesn’t just list clothes; he notices the frayed cuffs on a wealthy suspect’s designer jacket, or the brand-new, too-white sneakers of someone trying to look like they belong in a Malibu estate.

These details do double duty. They tell us about social class and psychological state at the same time. The character is trying to perform an identity, but the wardrobe reveals the friction.

Find the last character entrance in your latest chapter. Look at what they’re wearing. If you’ve just cataloged their clothes—or worse, left them in a generic outfit—strip it out. Replace it with a single garment or accessory revealing a secret. Give them a watch ten years out of style, or a collar too tight. Let the fabric tell the reader who they are before they even open their mouth.

I wrote a whole book on character development and story structure.

Check out How to Fix Your Novel: https://themeperks.com/books-by-steve-alcorn/how-to-fix-your-novel/