Young Writers Society

This is a writing activity half stolen from Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.

Characters can come alive in the minutiae of their day to day belongings, making them three dimensional. An ordinary trinket can convey depth. It doesn't matter if the things in the bag never make it into your story, they can help you lend specificity to your character's idiosyncrasies.

Think about who your character is, what they do, and what that means might be in their bag (and when I say bag, it can be a purse, wallet, knapsack, suitcase, or whatever fits your genre!)

The key here is to be specific, and not general.

Examples:

Gun = bad, Colt 1873 single action revolver, 3" barrel, gold, loaded = good

Pen = bad, Crimson fountain pen with the engraved monogram, AA = good

Bus ticket = bad, The bottom of the bag is awash with orange day return train tickets from London to Brighton = good

So what is in your character's bag?

I'll kick off.

Character: A former Royal Engineer officer and Member of Parliament, now on the run after being found guilty of treason.

His bag:

- Two small stainless steel discs, attached to a 38" green nylon cord. Engraved text on 6 lines has been defaced, leaving only the top line readable: O Neg.
- Two passports, one red, one dark blue. The red is a Norwegian passport for Boyd Isenberger; the dark blue is an American passport for Aaron Archer. The pictures are similar, although Boyd wears golden-rimmed glasses and sports a ginger beard.
- Glock 17 handgun, loaded, and two spare magazines. Black waistband concealed carry holster.
- Brown envelope with $500 in $100 notes, €1000 in various notes, and £500 in £20 notes.
- Two 2L plastic water bottles. One filled to the brim, the other empty.
- A tiny crinkled black and white photo of a baby in a woman's arms.
- Four pairs of black boxer briefs, four pairs of white sports socks, two white t-shits, two black t-shirts, one pair of dark blue jeans, all freshly washed.
- A curved claw hammer with a black rubber grip. The head smells foul and close inspection finds tiny indents on the otherwise pristine steel.

Character: A United Space Federation science officer, a commander of an agriculture unit on a distant experimental planet.

Her bag:
- A small [stolen] Marine comm box, with two pairs of headsets, a clip on microphone, a bag of placeable bugs and a set of recording disks.
- A set of dog tags with a Saint Michael charm, a manatee charm and a tomato charm.
- Security credentials in a beat up leather shell, scorch marks on the corner from a grill plate.
- Standard commission phase gun, permanently jammed on stun, in a non regulation leather thigh holster.
- A set of antique (appearing) pearl handled revolvers from an unknown planetary origin, including a cartridge lined belt.
- Small, dented silver locket with a picture of a dog and a boy.
- Borrowed standard Navy issue binoculars, obtained through trade of important materials with pilots.
- A khaki set uniform with science officer pins in the collar, in need of polishing to bring back the red color.
- A standard Federation Science fatigues set, repaired knife cut mark in the upper left thigh, and permanently stained around the bottom cuffs.
- Random collection of underwear pieces, whatever is attainable through trade with other bases and the local peoples.
- Lock pick set, slightly bent and stained, found in an abandoned house.
- Pack of vegetable and fruit seeds, alternating earth and foreign alien plant species, all ready to plant.

By the power of wormies, i revive this thread

Character: Mutant superhuman clown boy who, by accident and by his own stupidity, has to save the entire universe from collapsing in on itself.

He might store some things in small bags, but ultimately, everything gets stored in his magical hair, which contains an infinite amount of space nifty, huh?

Inside of his hair:

—his keys, with many acrylic keychains (most are from fandoms or are commissioned)
—kandi bracelets that he forgot about
—a half-eaten orange, not from Earth
—mini sketchbook full of low-effort doodles
—mini notebook, in case he randomly gets a good idea that he doesn’t want to forget about
—small makeup palette, mascara, and face stickers. He never really uses these, since he has bigger and better ones at home, but he has them “just in case”
—a pen he stole from his brother 2 years ago, which is still working somehow
—wireless earbuds that he bought from a shady chinese company on amazon. They work just fine, but the instruction manual was full of typos and mistranslations
—his phone, which has a sparkly case and a flower popsocket

Character: A 19 year old apart of a train crew ( conductor's assistant to be exact ) living in the 1920's. He has depression, and consistently tries to make an effort to fit in with society because ( total shocker!!!! ) he's a normal human being.
BUT ENOUGH OF THIS DUDE'S SOB STORY AND LETS SEE WHAT HE HAS INSIDE HIS BAG!!!

1st item: A yellow-mahogany colored Collegiate notebook he'd gotten from his friend when he went overseas to America, has a ton of scratches on the cover as well as some pages torn out of the notebook. The contents inside are literally just bottled up emotions and To-do lists.
2nd item: A miniature brown colored sack of marbles that consist of red, gold, green, blue, white colored marbles he likes to play with his co-workers when he's on his lunch break.
3rd item: A maki-e fountain pen with a pretty green and gold cloud pattern, main color of the pen is black. ( more than half of the ink had already been used )
4th item: The keys to his home combined with the key for the main office of the train station, both keys are slightly rusty and hang off of a small keychain ring.
5th item: A miniature plaided kinchaku ( traditional drawstring bag from Japan ), that he uses to keep his money and spare change in, which also has a small note written by his bf reminding him to eat lunch.
6th and last item: Literally just a wooden comb, it has chips and scratches on it despite barely being used.