By the time I finished the last chapter, which was focused on giving the readers a good introduction to our leading lady, I knew that I had more work to do along those same lines. Princess Chahrity isn’t an only child and her big brother also plays a big role–though not quite as significant, in the story. Plus, bringing him in lets me continue developing one of the key subplots, the Festival; which will bring with it some good ‘action’ scenes, but more importantly, a number of dilemmas that will provide character growth/development opportunities.
Since I’m going to be introducing a new main-ish character, this seems like a good time to explain how I go about building my characters. It starts with a need. I don’t just sit around trying to dream up interesting characters and then find a place to plug them into the story–not usually. No, they come on the scene when the story calls for them; meaning either the plot or another character needs them to continue on. Usually that vacuum isn’t just calling for just any old character either. In this case, Chahrity needs a brother because I don’t want her to have to be caught up in the whole “heir apparent” situation–she’s got more important things to do. And we need him to be a suitable heir himself or we won’t really have sidestepped that same issue at all. So, he had to be someone we would all happily place on the throne. That gives me the starting point–I know what his key ‘character traits’ need to be. Then comes the fun part, building his personality. Again, the plot and the other characters set up the main demands–it would be harder to build around the prince if he was an airhead or a drunkard than if he’s bright and respectable. Still, in my opinion, the worst thing you can have in your story is a bland character. So, from there, I took an inventory of the very best ‘good’ people I’ve known and ‘borrowed’ some of their most interesting/quirky personality traits. The biggest one being the double edged sword most of us pack around; the being that our biggest strength usually also our greatest weakness. And with that, Prince Juhstice was born. I hope you like him…and please let me know if you think even at this early stag of his development that he needs tweaking.
And my thoughts after reading the chapter are…
Ouch, that hurt. Last chapter I was pleasantly surprised by what I read. This chapter…not so much! The writing, sentence by sentence, is a sloppy mess. Okay, so it needs a rewrite, and that is disappointing. On the good side, I think Juhstice’s character is what I was after, and the continuation of the plot element involving Chahrity–and now Juhstice, with both of them wanting to truly lead their people instead of being royal figureheads–or worse, went pretty well too. I guess this is just one of the those times when I have to tell myself, “It’s a good chapter…all you have to do is make it readable.
As always, best wishes,
Mike
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