Now, I will admit that I'm a people pleaser. I try to make EVERYONE happy, but I ended up putting my foot down here. Jade is exactly how I want her to be...and that's that. Not everyone will "get" her, I suppose, but those that do I think will enjoy her personality.
Another thing that came up regarding Jade was her being categorized as the "stereotypical rebellious princess." That bothered me. So, I'm amping up her uniqueness. To organize my thoughts, here are some things I'll be trying to convey:
- Yes, Jade is rebellious, but she doesn't hate/resent her life. She just would like a little more freedom.
- Her parents disapprove of her interest in dragons, which is why she often sneaks off to the dragon rock and reads books about them in secret.
- She is pretty, but she doesn't really think about that. She thinks of herself as awkward and a bit lacking compared to her beautiful sisters. Mainly, it's because of how her mother (Queen Gemera) treats her compared to her other siblings.
- She is more at home under the stars than in a gilded bedchamber.
- She does not have any intentions of "running away" from an arranged marriage. She's known all her life that her husband would be chosen for her, she just doesn't necessarily like the idea. The thing she flips out about is that her intended husband is a DRAGONSLAYER.
- She is considered odd and an outsider by the people of Thorndarl, but she's not hated or shunned or ridiculed. She just bemuses people.
I'll try to convey this better in the first chapter, but, I'm have to shake my head a little at the people who want all this character building shoved in the first chapter. It's a novel, people. That means it has room to breathe and room to grow. I don't want my character to come across as stereotypical, but I'm not going to change her to make everyone happy.
