We are all Creatures of Ritual

I don't mean religious ritual either. We all have our set routines and things we like to do in a certain way. Everyone has a 'morning' routine - no matter what time you arise - I usually get up, go to the bathroom, feed the cats, get dressed, eat something and then leave the house to go to work.

On a night out I usually follow the same set pattern for getting ready and while in the house before we leave. I'll eat, pour myself something nice to drink, shower, lounge about in a towel for a while, then make myself suitable presentable for the evening, get dressed, return to the living room of the house where the others are then continue drinking. I only put shoes on just before we leave - I tend to wear stupid shoes so want to wear them for as little as possible.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I always try to use the same toilet when I am out and about, say at work or in a pub...

It may make me seem a little crazy but these little quirks are also what makes me who I am.

And here's the point: For a character to seem real, they are also going to need rituals and quirks.

Take Valentine, for example, the character central to the novel I am working on at the moment. He's an assassin from the Order of the White Rose. I'm not going to say too much about that because I want people to read about it in the novel, however, while pondering the thought of ritual today I became aware that they would probably have something they do before they go slaughter people. A little bit like the Saints in Boon Dock Saints or Jules in Pulp Fiction.

I was thinking about making the Order teach their initiates how to respect the dead, and that the death they are dealing out is the work of their God of Death. Whether it is or not is beside the point, they believe it is and therefore have to go through this ritual before they take life.

This is a more serious ritual, rather than habit, which is what I described from myself earlier. I know Valentine always locks the door before leaving his room - probably born from a paranoia of being discovered.

Either way, the prompt I read which sparked me to consider Ritual has caused me to think about aspects of my character I had not thought about before.