A few weeks ago my dad and I sat down to talk about what our characters look like. When deciding on a look for our male lead, we got excited about him having a mustache. (I don’t know why we got so excited, but we did.) I usually write much younger characters in their early twenties, while this character is a more mature fifty, and I’d never written a character with a mustache before. My dad has a great mustache that has defined his appearance for as long as I can remember. We were excited about branding our hero in such a way—and then we did a little research. Our hero is in the military, and my dad did a little research on the rules for a serviceman’s appearance. The limitations for a mustache did NOT fit with the gorgeous mustache we had envisioned for our hero (maybe one as glorious as Tom Selleck’s) … so now, he is clean shaven. It was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to that fabulous mustache we dreamed of, but we’ll find other ways to make him dashing!
Writing a Book with My Dad: The Mustache
