Sandra Neily here:

I collect details that I migrate to my characters, plots and pages. (My pockets and car corners are full of errant slips of paper.)

Today I thought I’d share some of the list that’s taped next to me. Right in front of my face as I work so it’s hard to avoid. Yes, it’s typed but as the pages accumulate, there’s lots of scrawled notes too: snatches of conversations I might hear or how someone’s dressed. (On the coldest day recently, I stood in line at the post office with a woman in a down parka and flip flops. Bare feet).

I add signs found in windows, bumper stickers, intriguing or bad behavior. (Like an “Ass at Own Risk” sign missing its opening P.)

In Quebec last summer at small, public park, a Cadillac convertible showed up with a couple who looked to be in their thirties. They sat two picnic tables away and let their dog roam. Near our tables, the dog took a huge dump next to the bathroom walkway. The couple ate their lunch. They called the dog. They left his steaming pile.

The scene was too good to waste. I will use it as a way to quickly define (or degrade) a character.

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Maybe something from my list will jog a memory that should not be wasted or a sharp detail that will bring even more life to your stories.

One strand of hair is placed on a table and someone says, “It’s barely this side of legal.”

“septic” “prehistoric” One word uttered as complete conversation.

camp: “safest place on earth”

Gate torn off and dragged to bar in town (ATV’s go anywhere; can’t stop them w barriers)

Hair spray’s weird uses

Hates rap: just more men in your face

Shreds an Evan (ex) picture; one remaining eye stares from waste basket.

Contact lenses: dried up like cornflakes, swallowed when sucked for cleaning, whipped out by wind.

Consignment store rejects her clothes (suits) as too “dated” for resale.

Arthritis anger: packaging as the enemy. Uses hammer to smash lid off

New car smell fights w beef bones odor (free bones for dog; she uses for cheap soup)

Irony: outdoors make us more human

“People who can be very good can be very bad too.”

trail camera on tree

Pees without seeing cameras on trees

Subaru is her undercover mailbox; anonymous tough stuff left there

Trapped, iced-in loon. Spring that isn’t spring. Young warden w a tub rescue

Always P’s outlaw choices. “If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness …. God bless America. Let’s save some of it.” Edward Abbey

Leash dragging, dog leaps into the car at a run

“Grief dares us to love once more…”   Terry Tempest Williams

Pock sniffs out salamanders

Moving through the woods is “healing” activity.

The pain of bad things rubbing together

Moz: “bright shining wet stones from a river eyes”

Sally’s coywolf: intense hungry look. Not normal coyote. Swimming nude, literally naked prey.

Dig daffodils from snow. Fragility.

The Big Nothing (endless woods): developers’ narrow perspective.

Pock; tug of war always at wrong times

Patton: fearful after chemo; cries out over small hurts (almost a keening)

Road names: developers use what’s displaced: Fox Run, Otter Slide

Millie: glitter green glasses; Françoise, purple anything esp. tights

Owl calling; spring mating

Pishing sounds: Patton calls in birds

If land is not posted, in Maine, you can go there. We are so lucky.

Permissive Trespass (a go anywhere in ME thing)

Patton’s still gray skin in selfie, compared w Kate

Cold weather fishing: back cast freezes in air

Chicken skin pulled off with teeth

restuff and sew

Sewing up wrecked dog toys

Hot tea bag for washing face

“I will not be silenced by intimidation or grief.” TT Williams (The struggle to be heard)

Ex husband. Revenge. Poke tiny holes w pin in his raft; gets limp slowly.

Fast food late-night gluttony. Fries, McDonalds sundae.

The Moose Eye (big white fear orb; ducks roof rack)

AARP article: how to hide age on resume

flip flops and down coat in icy parking lot

Scrabble: hatching caddis flies fall on board

“mature bosom”

Salt builds up in outhouses. Porcupines think that’s delish.

Porcupine eating salt in outhouse

Access is a Privilege Not a Right (sign deep in woods)

Chemo hair floats around her in tub

Chocolate: smell is instant seduction

“As life goes on it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself every day.” Agatha Christie.

Sandy’s debut novel, “Deadly Trespass, A Mystery in Maine” won a national Mystery Writers of America award, was a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” contest, and was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. The second Mystery in Maine, “Deadly Turn,” was published in 2021. Her third “Deadly Assault” is due out in 2024. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.