Writing Fiction? Easy Ways to Create Talismanic Props That Bring Plot and Character to Life
By: Paula Sue Bryant
Tags: Fiction, Fiction Writing, Creativity, Writing Tips, Art

Writing Fiction? Easy Ways to Create Talismanic Props That Bring Plot and Character to Life

Fiction Writers Who Give Their Characters Props as Talismans of Meaning Can Turbocharge Their Plots’ Magic

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

When you’re writing fiction, does your main character have a prop, some physical object they carry like a talisman and return to in times of stress or happiness? A prop that’s unique to them?

Here’s an easy way to empower your characters with props that can turbocharge meaning in your fiction writing.

What Is a Fictional Prop?

A fictional prop is a physical object a character finds meaningful. A Sherlock Holmes clay pipe. A Jay Gatsby silk shirt. A Winnie the Pooh honey jar. A Tinky Winky red purse.

Fictional Prop Example 1

My character Lily Paige, a young woman rising from the ashes of a poor upbringing, sports an old camel coat, a caramel wool trench with deep pockets and a buckled sash. To her mind, it’s sophisticated, a movie star coat.

This special coat originally belonged to her mother, who couldn’t afford to get Lily a more more expensive gift. So instead she gave Lily what she herself valued most.

Lily slings that camel coat jauntily across chair backs. She saunters down city streets in it, hem swinging, collar popped. It isn’t just a coat, it’s a credo. It’s a touchable, practical symbol of what Lily values—style, grace under pressure, optimism, joy.

The Camel Coat Becomes Her Saving Grace

Lily’s camel coat becomes her saving grace one frantic night when her friend suffers a near-fatal assault. Lily spreads the coat tenderly across the shoulders of her bleeding and broken friend.

Lily’s camel coat is her talisman, her magic object. And if I write it right, forever after, when my readers see a camel coat they’ll think of Lily Paige.

A fictional prop is that powerful.

How Do You Choose a Fictional Prop?

At the planning stages, when you develop your characters, assign them props. Make the prop as uniquely powerful as a wand handed out at Hogwarts.

Does every character need a prop? No, but your main character should have one, for sure.

What makes a good prop? The short answer: something that’s common enough to be used frequently, or at least stashed away in a drawer. Something that stands the test of time.

How about something with a little history? Think of a prop that speaks to a character’s past, makes readers wonder why a person would need to hang on to an old spelling-bee medal, say, or a tattered yellow tutu.

Test Your Prop’s Power with This Simple Formula

Try this easy Q and A formula to test your prop’s power. Just use the 5 Ws:

Q and A for Creating a Prop

Main character’s Name: James Ruffin

Prop: An old family Bible inscribed with relative’s names

Who is associated with this prop? The main characters’ family, killed during the Tulsa Massacre fire bombings.

What happened that makes the prop meaningful? His family was killed when the house burned down, but James and his grandmother, returning to the scene, were able to save the family Bible.

When does the character use this prop? He opens it when he wants to feel comforted and see the names of his lost loved ones.

Where in the story does the prop become important? At a turning point in the story, James shows the family Bible to his girlfriend as a gesture of trust and desire for connection.

Why is the prop important? It says, without words, what the character would like to express about the importance of remembering tragic events, keeping the people we love alive in memory, and sharing life experiences in a powerful way.

So when you think of characters, think of props for them and what those props signal.

Lily’s camel coat and James’s family Bible say a lot about them in microcosm. That concentrated energy makes props powerful tools for character development.

Props as Tools for Plotting

Props are also stellar tools for plotting.

Fictional Prop Example 2

Think of a toy music box carried across the ocean by Irina, a ballerina who escaped Russia. Once, long ago, it carried the meaning of innocence and promise. She stashes it away in a closet, loses track of it.

One day, Irina takes the music box from the shelf and raises the rusty lid. The beloved object has definitely been through some changes.

It’s battered now; its clasp is crooked; its crank is broken. The little music box dancer inside won’t pirouette. The tinkling music won’t play.

Still, the aging dancer hangs on to her precious music box, values it more than ever. What does this fictional prop mean to your character? What does it mean to your plot?

Ask yourself:

Has Irina herself changed, become broken too?

Or has she stayed true to her dreams while the prop itself decayed?

Are the hope and promise the music box once held for her now lost forever?

Or has Irina kept the essence of its meaning, that hope and promise, alive?

Contrasting Props with Characters Yields Insights About Story

Contrasting a prop with a character as they evolve over time yields insights about story.

After all, think about it. What made Lily throw her precious camel coat over her bleeding friend? Wasn’t she afraid of getting it dirty?

Something’s changed in Lily that makes her think of that coat, and herself, in a different way.

Fictional Prop Example 3

A young man clutches a book of poetry everywhere he wanders—not only because he loves the verse inside but also because he loves the person who gave it to him.

Perhaps he loses his love, but later finds her again in spirit, when he takes that poetry book off the shelf again.

Inspired, he decides to create a play, a novel, a painting, or a dance based on what her legacy means to him now that she’s gone.

The simple prop has become a generator of deeper meaning.

(In description, the shining detail has a similar power.)

Go Deeper Than Movie Motifs

Props are commonplace in film—Charles Foster Kane has his childhood sled Rosebud. Marlene Dietrich flaunts her slinky cigarette holder. Jack Sparrow has his pirate hat.

In fiction writing, props can go deeper. You can layer an object with meaning that can extend through the life of your story. Even beyond, into the memories of your readers.

You can create a symbol that lasts.

How to Create Talismans That Work Magic in Your Fiction

Assign your characters props. Let them give those objects personal, talismanic meanings. Let the characters and props evolve together.

In doing so, you’ll guarantee your own characters will never be cardboard “props” on a stage set. They’ll be flesh-and-blood people who live in the real world and reach out to touch its power and hold it in their hands. Try it!