Character Means Everything

This woman doesn’t seem to have a care in the world, which is fine. But her luck is about to change, badly. Does she have the character to deal with it? That worried me – alot.

At the point in my novel illustrated here, my main character, Louise, is rich, adored by her father, and newly married to a handsome soldier. However, it’s the 1740s. The British are preparing to invade her city, Montreal. Her husband will go to war to fight them. Her French-Canadian father must flee the city for his own safety. Worst of all, Louise’s five-year-old son vanishes in the fighting. He may not be dead, but he is gone. Vanished.

This illustration shows a rich and pampered young woman who has always stood safely behind the men in her life. Well behind them. Suddenly she stands alone. Can she do it? Does she has the courage and resourcefulness to venture out into a violent and uncaring wilderness to find the family she has lost?

It was my job to worry about this. I created Louise for my novel, A FALSE DAWN. But even the most compelling plot line won’t pull readers into the world I was trying to create unless they cared about Louise and what happens to her. More than brains or grit, I decided, Louise needed character.