The Perfect Bean: Coffee, Character, and Storytelling

2 days ago

5 min read

How tiny rituals and personal preferences help create characters readers can recognize.

Happy International Coffee Day! Coffee has shaped far more than morning routines; it has influenced conversations, workplaces, restaurants, shopping habits, and even the way writers build characters. When you look at coffee through the lens of storytelling, that magnificent bean becomes more than a drink. It becomes a social cue, a character detail, and sometimes the small ritual that makes a scene feel real.

My team drinks coffee in every form imaginable, and that variety keeps reminding me how powerful coffee is as a social instrument. No wonder there is an entire day dedicated to the magnificent bean in its many brands, mixes, grinds, roasts, and rituals. Hot or iced, black or creamy, flavored or plain, caffeinated or decaffeinated, coffee shows up in literature, restaurants, office culture, shopping, fashion, short stories, and everyday conversation. It has a way of telling us something about people before they ever say a word.

As a writer and an author - and yes, I see those as different things - I look at the world through character, setting, and detail. I don’t see it the same way my technical director friend does when she writes FDA manuals, or the same way my list-making friend sees everything in careful order. I think about what shapes people, what reveals them, and how my characters reflect the world around them. I write adult literature, and I love being called a smut and murder author. I also write children’s books, early childhood readers, and a teen mystery series, with kid co-authors on the children’s books and teen series. That collaboration is one of my favorite parts of the work.

Writing across genres gives me a wider view of what people drink, what those choices say about them, and how those details can help a character grow on the page. Coffee can reveal routine, comfort, status, stress, preference, and personality. In my own work, it also reveals something about the team behind the books, because my team runs on coffee.

I’m a Colombian coffee drinker, preferably Maxwell House. I brew a pot every morning for my spouse and me, and it is rare for anything to be left by the time we are out the door. Steph, who runs operations for MGL Books, has her own favorite barista at Starbucks, and our morning conference calls often include us waiting lovingly and patiently for her favorite cup. Carole handles editing, and twice a week we meet early for coffee to go over edits, changes, and a mountain of business. The waitstaff at our favorite restaurant knows to start pouring hot, caffeinated coffee before we even reach the table. We would never have breakfast anywhere the coffee was not great and the service was not fabulous. The rest of our team has favorites too: iced, canned, flavored, hot, drive-through, homemade, creamer, cream, almond milk, and a whole parade of brands, types, and flavors.

Our team is also fairly reflective of the world in general, spanning five generations from oldest to youngest. Imagine how that magnificent bean continues to shape attitudes, routines, conversations, and writing itself. In the Dorchester Sisters novels, a new series from M. G. Lorraine now releasing, each main character has her own magic bean story. Each sister has a favorite brand of coffee and a preferred way to drink it, and the people around them do too. Even in fiction, coffee carries a social standard and makes a social statement.

When building a character’s backstory, the details matter. In my case, that includes their brand of coffee. I use a 12-page character summary for every character, and it covers social economics, favorite wine, preferred fabrics, clothing style, favorite car, socioeconomic status, home, family, backstory, and cross-connections to other books and stories. Coffee belongs in that same deep background. Do they like it? If not, what do they drink instead? Do they drink it in the morning, all day, in a large cup, as espresso, or iced and carried everywhere? Those small choices help create a person the reader can recognize.

For me, all those tiny details - the perfect imperfections, lifestyle habits, work patterns, and private preferences - are part of building a character who feels real, whether that character is likable, unlikable, a serial killer, or simply a horrible person in general. What matters is not only what I can see in my head, but whether I can translate it clearly enough for the reader to see it too. The proof that I have done my job is when the reader forms the same impression from the words and images I have chosen.

Before I start writing, the first thing I do is fill out my character sheet. I need to know my main characters well enough that they feel real in my head before they come fully to life on paper. That includes what they reach for when they want coffee. So when you get ready to craft your next work - whether it is a how-to manual, a kids’ book, a mystery series, a teen reader, or smut and murder - build the character first, all the way down to the smallest details. The prep work you do when choosing those details makes it easier for you, the author, to write the story and easier for the reader to see it in their head.

So, follow these steps the next time you get ready to build a new character:

Build a character sheet or project sheet that is appropriate for your project and make the list clear down to including their coffee, color, the eyes, socioeconomic information including their car, the clothes I they like to wear, their parents and grandparents, their siblings, their friends, their occupation, their education, their hair, color, allergies, and more.
Next you should give a general thought about how critical the opening is in your in your work. As you do that outline the steps that are going to define where the story begins what continent what area are they in it.
Is your coffee in hand and have you determined the perfect starting place. You can change it later if the story moves away from it and on to a new idea, you can go back and reedit it until it makes sense but even then, make sure you have access to other writing supplies that you stashed around.

4. Write bravely. Good luck, and enjoy the perfect bean.

Coffee may seem like a small detail, but small details are often what make characters unforgettable. A favorite mug, a preferred roast, a daily ritual, or even the choice to avoid coffee altogether can tell readers something before a character ever explains themselves. That is the real magic of the magnificent bean: it is familiar, personal, social, and revealing. Whether I am writing for adults, children, teens, or anyone in between, I want those details to help the reader step fully into the world of the story. So pour the cup, build the character, choose the details carefully, and let the reader taste the world you are creating.

Here is a glimpse at my 12 page Character Sheets: