What makes a favorite character so...favorite-y?

Plus, some fun side facts for the Hidden Lands novels

Hello friends!

First, thank you all for an amazing launch week for the Potion Dealers. It’s sold over 100 copies, and that isn’t a ton, but for a book like this…it kind of is. In previous versions of this book I struggled to sell 200 copies TOTAL, while spending hundreds on advertising that wiped out all my profit.

So to see it sell 100 copies in less than a week without spending a dime, and to see a few glowing reviews trickle in? I cried a little.

I’ve been cleaning out some OLD unsent email, y’all, and I store a lot of old unposted blogs and things in there going back ages. I thought some of them would be fun to share. This was a post about why I enjoyed writing Alfred so much. And not much has changed, except as I have leaned more into cozy fantasy, Alfred doesn’t lie and connive as much. But he is still proud—and stubborn. (He’s a Taurus, ya know.) I also wouldn’t bring up Harry Potter this much nowadays…but overall, I think this is still some solid character advice.

1. He has a lot of problems, and his biggest problem is himself.

Every main character should have an obstacle. What is Alfred’s biggest obstacle? Well, for starters, he has been blind since he was a baby from a curse placed upon his family. That sounds like an obstacle. When I was a younger writer, I probably would’ve left that as his major obstacle. But, after all, Alfred grew up being blind and he’s used to it. A bigger obstacle comes in the form of the people around him who underestimate him because of his disability. That’s an obstacle too, but Alfred is pretty confident and good with people, and can usually manage to convince others that he’s capable. No, his biggest obstacle is that he is very proud, and he has a hard time backing away from a situation, even when he should. His pride stems logically from his position, and it leads him to lie, connive, and hurt others in order to maintain his power—which sometimes leads to him hurting even people he loves.

2. He could be a villain just as easily as he could be a hero.

That leads me to point #2. I could write a story from a different POV in which Alfred would seem like the bad guy. The balance between good and bad traits gives him constant inner conflict and keeps me interested in his story. You might think, well, not every story will lend itself to a character who could be a villain. But, there are all sorts of antagonists in the world, if you think about it. In Harry Potter, for example, do you think every kid at Hogwarts was thrilled to have Harry Potter there? Some of them probably got hurt or ignored because of all the crazy stuff that was happening and how Dumbledore paid so much attention to Harry. A question worth considering: How would your main character look from the point of view of someone who didn’t like them? Who might suffer because of your character’s actions?

3. He always wants at least two things that conflict with each other.

Some of the most common advice given in writing books is that a character must want something very badly, and that desire will drive the entire plot. Even better, I think, than writing one thing, is wanting two things that can’t be had at once. Like, “great power” and “a peaceful life”…which is, essentially, what Alfred wants. He wants Olivia, and he wants to give her a good, happy life. But he also wants to ultimately lead an organized crime operation. There is no way he can have both these things. In fact, every character in this story struggles with some variation of that same theme—power vs. happiness and peace. Writing workbooks will always ask you what your theme is. When I write the theme down, I often think, “Well, that’s SO basic, and it’s been done SO many times. How boring! Maybe I should think of a more original theme.” Resist the urge! There are endless variations. I feel that the theme of Harry Potter is, "the most powerful force of all is love.” Well, written out like that, it sounds cheesy and typical. But you can tell that story a gazillion ways. The human mind will never tire of a theme like “love conquers all” or “power vs. happiness” because we have to consider these themes throughout our own lives.

4. He can’t really be summed up in one sentence.

In writing, it’s important to be able to sum up elements in one sentence. And sure, I CAN sum Alfred up quickly. But I personally like a character who has more than one or two “things”. Most blind characters in other stories, for instance…well, that’s their “thing". I really didn’t want to write a character like that. My partner has psoriatic arthritis and most of his “dialogue” isn’t jokes about arthritis. That would just be WEIRD. Alfred feels more like a real person to me than some other characters I’ve written because he has more than one major character trait, more than one interest, more than one quirk. You don’t want to just pile on all these things randomly, but let them emerge organically from the character, and believe me, it will come more easily for some characters than others. There’s a reason I like Alfred so much—he told me about himself and I didn’t have to ask! But it’s worth spending a little time getting to know a character before you write their story, rather than just going “Cassie is snarky and she wants to be an artist” and leaving it at that. For me, creating music playlists for each major character often helps me get to know them better.

Now, click away if you hate spoilers, but I also thought I would add a list of all the little connections between the Hidden Lands books so far. If you want to try and spot these yourself, you can also click away now. Even though they all take place in different eras, I refer to this as a multigenerational saga, because there are many little connections.

—In the Broken Queen, Atorra’s best friend Lorsen is purchased by the cruel merchant Ankon Wode and endures abuse and trauma in his home before she is rescued. Ankon is the late grandfather of Alfred’s fiancee Thessia.

—Thessia’s mother Mevria is from a prominent Ven-Diri family, the Dorgas. She fell in love with an Atlantean merchant, deeply shocking and upsetting the Dorga family.

—Alfred makes an alliance with the Hohren boys, the two eldest sons of Grau’s sister Preya.

—He also makes an alliance with Lester Alamont, who is the adopted grandson of Dormongara and Kessily from the Cursed Soul trilogy.

—Alfred also mentions that he would love to make a deal with Flynn Fabulous, “the darling of the scene in New Sajinay”. Flynn appears in the Sorcerer’s Wife as the Peacock General’s party planner.

I think that’s it for now…but there will be more links when I finish the Una/Varrie book and Dormongara and Kessily’s story.

xo,

Lidiya