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

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

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

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.

Isn't it a turn on to have sex with a girl in a skirt or in a tight spandex?

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

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

“Exactly.”

How long would you let a homeless friend stay at your house?

“Perv.”

“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.”

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.

Do foreign workers face discrimination in Canada?

“But they’re cold!”

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

“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.

Why is Donald Trump criticized by so many people?

“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—”

“Claire! Why are you still up?”

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?”

Why are US customs agents so talkative? I cringed hard when a US customs agent asked me if I was on vacation. He doesn’t need to know why I went to another country as long as I am a U.S. citizen.

“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.”

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

Why do men like to suck another man’s dick?

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

“Claire, I—”

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

What do you think of the 2 female 18 and 19 year-old German tourists, detained in Honolulu, strip-searched, put in green jumpsuits, placed in a holding cell and the next day deported, for the terrible crime of not pre-booking a hotel for their trip?

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?”

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?”

“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.”

Why is North Korea a jail?

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

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

“Tart!”

What are the ten cars that make me no longer feel inferior?

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

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

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

Why is (n-1)(n+1)=n^2-1?

“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.”

Do that and you can ground your characters quite quickly.

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

When British people write X after everything, are they being serious or trying not to be awkward?

“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?”

“Cute girls?”

“I need to do laundry.”

Why do some women alter their faces by so-called cosmetic surgeries (on their eyes, cheeks, lips, chin, jaw) that making them look like Donald Duck or puffy aliens, while for most men these unnatural facial changes are ridiculous or even disgusting?

Essentially, what you do is show the character:

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

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

What are the best ways to treat seasonal allergies?

“You need some tea!”

“Nary a cute boy in sight.”

“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…”

How did it feel when experiencing gay sex for the first?

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

“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.”

“No way.”

What are you wearing under your clothes today?

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“Exactly.”

“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?”

“It’s not looking at you.”

Create a context between this character and other characters.

“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—”

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

“I’ll put the kettle on.”