Even though I have more pressing things to attend to when it comes to plotting out my book, I wanted to get this out of the way by getting other people's opinions on it Important details: there are two brothers, Richard [oldest] and William [youngest] who run a relatively large sugar plantation [they have a sister that's the middle child but she moved away after getting married and is not important] Richard is stern and more fact-minded but has trouble controlling his emotions, and can be very impulsive. He also has control issues for a number of reasons William is much more persuasive, impetuous, and greedy [partly due to being the baby of the family] and spends most of his time undermining anything Richard does to do it slightly better and pestering his brother into letting him spend more of their money on suspicious ventures These guys are important to the story because Richard is the father of one of the main characters [Richard had an affair with one of his wife's maids that resulted in a pregnancy] Richard was trying to keep it on the down low for obvious reasons, but William figured it out, told Richard's wife to see what would happen, and sat back to watch it all burn down Small infodumping spiel aside, do the two brothers balance each other out well enough? And if not, what other attributes could make either of them more compelling? There's also more information I can give about these two and the other characters I mentioned if anyone has questions
It threw me off a bit to describe Richard as fact-minded but emotional and impulsive. These seem to contradict one another. A fact-minded person makes choices based on rational criteria. Psychological research has identified two categories of people when it comes to making choices: Maximizers - habitually try to evaluate all the options, seek out more information, and then make the best choice to maximize utility. Satisficers - more laid back about choice. Evaluate an array of options and find the one that is good enough, and then stop looking. Which one would you say Richard is? You can read more about maximizers and satisficers here: https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/maximizers-satisficers-decision-making The description of William - as the youngest child - seems to correspond well with psychology research into personality traits in relation to birth order: Key birth order traits of youngest children: Risk-taker Outgoing Dependent Persistent Fun-loving Charming Easy-going Free-spirited Spoiled https://www.medpsych.net/2021/08/19/what-your-sibling-birth-order-reveals-about-your-personality-traits-even-if-youre-an-only-child/
Didn't phrase that as well as I could have, and Richard likely falls into the latter category of satisficers Most likely was different in the past but Richard's given up on putting in an effort to seem like the 'smart' brother to other people and tries to compartmentalize William's nonsense and appear composed [rarely ends up working after William realizes what he's doing and actively attempts to push against that, though]
The likely traits of firstborn children might help you draw Richard's character: Key birth order traits of firstborn children: Go-getter Responsible Role model Determined Rule follower Hard worker Cautious Bossy Timely
I actually think this is the sort of paradox that makes characters more realistic. I think most people are a mess of contradictions, and for me it is easy to imagine someone who generally resorts to facts and logics, but has a hard time with their own impulse control. Think of someone who is adept at well-founded criticisms of other's failings, but struggles to do better.
