When writing a novel, how can a character be developed well, but QUICKLY?

“Claire, I—”

“About wearing more clothes? How am I supposed to catch any fish if I don’t show off the bait?”

“It’s a cat. All cats are weird.” May sipped from her mug, inhaling the warmth. She closed her eyes. The room spun. She opened them again. “Ugh. I think I drank too much.”

I see lots of pictures of women who have huge clits are they real or what?

“They are! He broke the rules of the boarding house by petting this character while she was in cat form, so they invoke the ancient rules of single combat via ping-pong, and—”

Do that and you can ground your characters quite quickly.

May studied the black and white comic panels. “Oh, my. She looks…anatomically implausible. What is she doing to that poor man? Wait, are those cat ears?”

What steps have you taken to stop being a targeted individual by gang stalkers? What has worked, what would you have done differently?

Engaging in conversation that also shows something about their intelligence, personality, wit (or lack thereof); and

“You don’t need a cat. You can’t take care of a cat. You can’t take care of a ficus.” Claire flopped on the other side of the sofa and wriggled her feet beneath May.

Create a context between this character and other characters.

The Labour Party wants to put the Winter fuel allowance and the £800,000 of gifts received by ministers behind us. Is this a real option for the people who will suffer as our new masters unapologeticly feast on freebies?

Doing something they enjoy, that expresses their personality, and that is in some way unusual or noteworthy;

“Tart!”

“I know! That’s why I’m putting them under you!”

Why are the Chinese so sensitive to Western criticism?

“Well, maybe if you didn’t spend all day reading—” May prodded the book with its garishly-coloured cover with her foot. “Bizarre comic book porn…”

“Perv.”

“Number one, it’s not porn, it’s ecchi, and number two, why would I waste a perfectly good Saturday doing anything else?” Claire pulled at her tea and sighed. “The only thing that could make this day better is if you'd come home with some cute boy, so that after you kicked him out tomorrow I could live vicariously through you.”

My husband asked me why do I keep on complaining about him cheating. Why don't I just leave?

“Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs!” Claire turned the book around.

“I’m glad my sex life is so entertaining.”

“You need some tea!”

Why do women stubbornly refuse to let men lead, even though they are attracted to the man, and the man both loves and desires them? Why do they get angry and blame the man when he gets fed up and walks away, when it's entirely their own fault?

“Exactly.”

“Nope, I mean a cat followed me home. A black cat, to be exact. All the way from the club. Probably still out there, for all I know.”

“Thanks. You’re looking pretty ratty yourself. Have you been in that bathrobe all day?”

Can bosses get fired for being too hard on employees?

“No, about the cat. You don’t need a cat. You remember what happened to your spider plant, right?”

“Hang on, are they playing ping-pong?”

“Exactly.”

My stepmother has banned me from the family. Can she legally keep me from going to my father's funeral?

The agent had only one bad thing to say (the synopsis was crap; writing synopses is hard!), but praised the characterization and particularly how well we introduced a character’s personality quickly.

Claire sat back down, legs tucked elegantly beneath her. “You are looking a bit sloppy,” she said, inspecting May through narrowed eyes.

“No way.”

Is it okay if I am not interested to talk to any of my relatives as I saw the real faces in my brother's marriage as none of them helped us rather were a kind of disappointment and were talking bad?

May yelped. “Hey! Your feet are cold!”

“I’m serious!” Claire said. “It’s staring straight at me.” She let the curtain fall. “Weird.”

“I need to do laundry.”

Are you happy that soon we will never hear from Kamala Jones again?

“Well, maybe if you’d wear more clothes, they wouldn’t feel so cold. Hussy!”

May pushed Claire’s feet away. Claire rose to peer out the window. “Huh. It’s still there.”

“I don’t know. Partying. Going to a pub. Anything besides sitting on the couch reading…” She squinted. “What the hell are you reading?”

Is the Shia claim true that Imam Ali was born inside the Kaaba?

“It’s not looking at you.”

After Eunice and I finished London Under Veil, I entered the first chapter in a contest at a convention where you could submit something and have it critiqued by a professional book agent.

“May! You’re home late! Early, I mean. Well, I mean, it’s early in the morning, but you’re home before I expected. Er, after. Before?”

The people who are 'allergic' to humans - BBC

“Yes way. It’s washing itself under the street light. Uh-oh, I think it spotted me. It knows I’m watching it. I swear it’s looking at me.”

“From the look of you, if you try to sleep now, you’ll spend the next three hours hanging onto your bed trying to stop the world spinning. Since you’re not going to sleep anyway, you might as well keep me company.”

In the kitchen, Claire set out a battered pair of mugs: May’s black, with “PEBKAC: Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair” in white letters; Claire’s white, with “This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays” in dark blue. She carried both mugs into the living room. “A moggie followed you home? Is this some weird Internet slang I’m not current on?”

Is Matt Gaetz qualified to be Attorney General of the United States?

“Fine.” May collapsed into the warm spot Claire had just vacated.

They both burst out laughing. “I’m right, though,” Claire went on.

Claire, one of May’s three flatmates, former university roommate, and best friend in all the world, shrugged expansively. “It’s a Saturday night. What else would I be doing?”

What is an easy way to get your driver's license?

“Yep!” Claire chirped. “There’s this schoolboy, see, and he’s homeless, so he lives in this boarding house that used to be a hot springs bathhouse, which is cheap because it’s haunted, so he decides—”

“So you didn’t meet any cute boys at the club tonight?” Claire called as she bustled about the small kitchen.

“None of those either. Look upon the wasteland that is my sex life, and see that it is barren. Naught but a moggie followed me home.”

What do you think of Hegseth calling The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, "a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes” after team Trump texted him their top-secret war plans on Yemen?

“Cute girls?”

“Nary a cute boy in sight.”

“Damn straight. So get to it! This time next week, I want to hear some moans coming through that wall.”

“Claire! Why are you still up?”

“Why is that always your first suggestion? I do not need some tea. It’s three o’clock in the morning! If I have tea, I’ll never get to sleep.”

Essentially, what you do is show the character:

“I’m just a fan of your catch and release program.”

Here’s how we presented the character Claire when she was introduced, which the agent particularly singled out:

“You know what? Never mind,” May said. “I am way, way too drunk to be having this conversation.”

“I’ll put the kettle on.”

“But they’re cold!”

“I try not to, but thank you for reminding me. I know I don’t need a cat. I don’t want a cat. What would I do with a cat?”