In honor of Towel Day (okay, it was yesterday), please try this simple exercise. If you know enough about a character to write him or her convincingly, you can answer the question posed by Douglas Adams: Does he know where his towel is?
Examples:
Peter does not know where his towel is.
Nikki tries to pretend she does not need a towel.
Siegfried wants Nikki’s towel.
Benedict keeps track of his towels, but never reveals their location.
Mr. X is going mad because he knows the location of every towel in the world.
Ms. Y knows where YOUR towel is.
Jun Dong (Peter’s birth mother) knows the location of every towel in her family, unto the third generation.
Lady Varian has people to keep track of her towel.