collectibles Archives - Nancy J. Cohen

Book collections take up a lot of space, especially when they’re print books. If you have a large number of books, you may stack them haphazardly or sort them into alphabetical order by author or perhaps by genre. I prefer the latter method.

If you’ve been hearing from me more sparsely these days, it’s because I’m busy polishing Styled for Murder before sending it to my editor. I’m also preparing the next box set prior to formatting. And I’ve been busy with household projects. One of these was getting our book collection into some semblance of order.

We had a long wait for our family room bookcase. Once it arrived, the top piece was cracked, and we had to wait a month for a resolution. Now it’s been fixed, mounted onto the bottom, and filled with our treasured volumes. It’s a beautiful piece of furniture.

The arrival of these shelves prompted a disgorgement of the five remaining unpacked cartons in our garage. These contained nonfiction reference books and classic literature. After placing these books on the shelves, a bit of space remained for my overflow of hardcover genre editions. And yes, I dedicated one shelf to books by my favorite author…Moi.

My mystery collection fit onto these shelves in the master bedroom. I had to double layer the paperbacks to get them all in.

Romance novels have a bookcase of their own in the guest bedroom. These also necessitated double layers. Now anyone who stays here will have some racy reads if they can’t sleep.

Outside in the hall, there’s an alcove where we fit this little piece. It holds my young adult fiction including Harry Potter and Alex Rider series. You’ll also find a few Nancy Drew books in there along with some classics and some more modern reads.

Lest you think we’d forgotten the young children, we have a bookcase filled with kids’ books upstairs in the single guest bedroom and more downstairs on a shelf accessible to our grandson. Hopefully he’ll enjoy storytelling hour when he can sit still long enough to listen.

I also was lucky to fit this bookcase into our kitchen for my cookbooks. It’s a lot handier to look up a recipe this way than when these books were mashed in with the rest of our collection.

I love being surrounded by books. They’re my comfort zone, and while I read on the Kindle as well, I’m always afraid somehow those files will vanish. Not so the books on my shelves. They are here to gather dust and to feed my soul until they become part of our legacy.

How do you arrange the books in your place?

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You can learn a lot about your story characters from the knickknacks in their house. Consider this topic when enhancing characterization in fiction writing.

As we are attempting to declutter our shelves, I’m wondering why I collected so many souvenir drinking glasses, paperweights, candles and rocks. Yes, rocks. There’s also my wonky pen collection, a box full of troll dolls that I am loathe to give away, and letter openers. What do these things say about my personality? You tell me.

What can they say about your main character? Perhaps your heroine presents a tough exterior but has a collection of hair ornaments. Or your bookish hero hides a fascination with antique hunting knives. Maybe a sidekick is a cat fan and has decorated her house with cat-themed throw pillows and handmade ceramics depicting cats. For inspiration, check out those unsolicited catalogs you get in the mail.

Be specific about what type of reading material your character keeps around. Does the heroine read steamy romances but pretends to disdain romance? Does your hero stick to instructional manuals because fiction isn’t real? What if the woman he’s interested in collects unicorn figurines? Will there be a clash in their interests? How about the pages of the magazines or books? Are the corners folded in, the spines bent, or is there a bookmark inside?

What secret longing do these objects represent? How about art? What does your heroine hang on her walls? Does your hero prefer sports memorabilia or does he have an interest in wall clocks? Maybe he hasn’t an eye for design and mismatches colors, while your heroine reads interior design magazines and believes everything should be coordinated.

It’s fascinating to view the items inside another person’s house. You can see what they enjoy collecting and learn more about them. It also gives you an idea what to get them for a gift. So next time you visit a friend or relative, take a stroll around and see what’s inside their curio cabinet, adorning their walls, or standing poised on a bookshelf.

Even owning nothing of a personal nature makes a statement in itself. Have fun delving into the intricacies of your protagonists’ hobbies so you can describe the collection through their eyes. It will give an added dimension to your story.

Knickknacks Reveal Character #amwriting #writetip Share on X

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