Writing about people—and other beings—in ethnographic texts involves ethical, analytical, and literary challenges. While fiction writers invent characters, ethnographers must portray real individuals whose lives intersect with their own, often unevenly. Drawing inspiration from literature, we reflect on how people can appear as ‘round’ or ‘angular,’ not easily pinned down, and shifting across time and circumstance. We examine how such portrayals can sharpen or complicate our analytical focus. We also consider how ethnographers write themselves into the text, as persona or presence, and how this affects what and whom we see. Whether writing about people or more-than-human lives, we argue for attentiveness and attunement—and for a willingness to let some things remain unresolved.