Once again I've trolled the development pages for a little well-needed sought out advice. I've nailed down Lillian perfectly in my story; never once does she falter in my stories, character exercises, nothing. Dimitri took some time, but I've generated a careful facade for him after much debate over him. There's only two more mains I'm having a little difficulty with, and I'm hoping someone can lend a little insight or support or even advice on the matter. Ryan, a definite large portion of the initial part of the book, if not the whole thing, has already been mentioned in some of my excerpts from the novel I keep toying with. I initially drafted him in as a cling-on for Lillian, something that grounded her in humanity while she slowly found herself falling into the realm of the unknown with the vampires that seemed to be following into her life. He was supposed to be a local journalist with her, somewhat of a weak and easily dominated character who was very 2d in terms of what he wanted; Lillian and her love. But the more I keep thinking about it, the ending for him can't have him like that, and for the growth required for him to reach the spot he's supposed to at the end of the book, he can't start off so... small. So do I change him and tweak him to give a little more life into him so he can realistically progress to the end of the book at an appropriate level, or do I keep him the same and have him dramatically make this end jump? The second hurdle is Juliet. Juliet is Dimitri's biological sister, both in vampire terms and in real biological meanings prior to their turning. I had an initial view of her as an Alice castoff, minus the fashion and visions, and adding in a snarky attitude and over-curious behavior. Yet the more I keep writing, she grows quiet, almost blending into the background. My goal was to create her for several reasons. One was to overcome the standard books where you have the main female and main male and no real side ties. The second was to give Dimitri someone to talk/interact with while he wasn't with Lillian, since some of the novel is proposed to be written in his PoV, too. I honestly have no clue where to go with her. She seems like a lost cause to me, but she does play an important role. Juliet shares mental connections with Lillian, something that rarely happens between vampires and humans during their 'dead' state during daylight hours. Removing her would mean I'd have to re-write a LOT of plot parts, plot parts that can't be expanded without the book going limp and dead. So, what can be done?
I see the two characters findings a greater love between each other that allows their prominant characteristics to come out. Jillians interaction with the vampires enterists me. You say you have Lillians character nailed down, that sounds ravaging. What I saw is chararacters whose story and fate was determined by their goals. Thats what you should write about.
If you feel you ultimately have room in your opus for meaningful & hopefully compelling character &/or plot development, then yeah, improve/elaborate upon whatever you think needs it. Kinda goes for most stories, imo. What is the context of Ryan's love for Lillian? How long have they known ea/o, & how? As friends? As colleagues? How does she view him? What's his background? How was his childhood? What is his overall personality? ect, ect, ect... Try thinking about major aspects of his personality & his role in the story in relation to who you want him to be(?) by the end of the story & consider what you might want to keep, omit, improve/expand on or create altogether. Idk much at all about your story obviously, so this is pretty general, & possibly redundant, but a quasi-systematic approach to evaluating the defining qualities, attitudes, quircks, ect of a character can be useful sometimes. Especially when the character is relatively 2Dish.[/rushed ramble]
