The other day came across this quirky blog, Shopping Losts, that turns people’s shopping lists into a little gem of design.

As I admired these small pieces of work, I couldn’t help wondering who had owned each shopping list. Did it belong to a man or a woman? What kind of person likes pizza, frozen meals and uses hairspray?

I started to create little pictures of characters in my head eg. Kevin: the wanabee triathlete with obsessive compulsive tendancies and a strict approach to training. His pantry is crammed with boxes of lucozade and powerade and he hates non-crunchy peanut butter (he has to make sure he checks the jar three times for the word crunchy before he puts it in his shopping basket.) That day he noticed he still had a jar hiding behind a bottle of pasta sauce. So he crossed it off his list…

I’ve often wondered how novelists come up with ideas for their characters. I think a shopping list could be one way to go… Try it, it’s quite fun.

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity Manager