A Literary Halloween Character Idea Guide

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Requiem for a Tower by Clint Mansell.




One of my favorite favorite things to do for Halloween is to dress up as book characters. One year, I plan on dressing up as Sabriel (of the Garth Nix affiliation) but I have to figure out how to make chainmail first. Luckily there are internet guides out there (I love the internet). There are about 1.4 trillion and a half books out there*, and I know there is a perfect character for you.

So to help you, I've scoured the internet and the deepest recesses of my mind (a scary place mind you), to help kick-start the idea engine and help you find the perfect literary figment of your imagination that is dying to break out.


There are the classics: Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Bennett (and Mr. Darcy for your lucky boyfriend), Edgar Allen Poe, complete with a raven on your shoulder. For Miss Havisham all you need is a trashed wedding/prom dress and a crazy look in your eye and viola! Ariel/Prospero of The Tempest, Titania/Oberon/Puck of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Shakespeare character's could go on and on, or dress up as the bard himself!

An inflatable globe makes you an instant Atlas (or if you carry it lower you can be Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged) ;)

Want to be tricky? Dress up as one of the seven deadly sins (a fabulous visualization of them can be found on blackeri's Deviant art page).

Pregnant? No worries! Pin an "A" to your dress front, and you are a perfect Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter. (Shannon Hale did this one year and it was fantastic to see pictures of her in it).

Already have a costume planned out, have kids or are on a tight/non-existent budget? Got that covered too. :)

-Baby mouse costume = Hickory Dickory Dock/If You Give a Mouse a Cookie/Tale of Despereux
-Any barnyard costume = Animal Farm
-Roman centurion = Antony and Cleopatra
-Baby bunny/rabbit costume = Peter Rabbit.
-Witch costume = Wicked Witch of the West/Wicked (a scarecrow and tinman costume could be easy to "scare" up). :)
-Indian = Indian in the Cupboard/Last of the Mohicans/take your pick.
-Tons of layered shirts = Mrs. Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time (this one could easily cost you nothing).
-White pajamas, ears and a tail = Max from Where the Wild Things are (also cool with the movie coming out next month).
-Striped red and white shirt and hat - Where's Waldo (awesome!).
-Shirt with a green ham painted on - Sam I am.

Costume I seriously want to do someday - Scout's ham costume from To Kill a Mockingbird.

You can go as a famous character, like Twilight or Harry Potter, but do your own imagining. Who says you have to follow the movie? From Danielle Dreger-Babbit of The Examiner, here are her ideas for creating your own Twilight characters:

For the character of Edward, the only items you'll need are vampire teeth and some powder to make yourself pale. For Bella, cover your body in band-aids and ace bandages and carry around a copy of a Jane Austen novel. Jacob is a slightly harder look to achieve. My advice is to wear some super tight clothes with tears in them and give your best "werewolf" face."

She totally forgot the rub-on glitter though. And what about Wuthering Heights? This can equally be applied to any popular series/books.


Let your imagination fly and your inner literary figure break free and bust a move. :D

And if you let me know you are participating, I will put in a link to your blog so we can see all of the costumes we have out there and the creative geniuses behind them.



*that is a totally accurate number by the way.