How I Came Up With Three of My Main Characters in Project Royalty (Pt. 1)
(featuring the Prince, the Cousin, and the Explorer)
Hello, friends, and welcome to another post by The Kindness Cafe! Today, I’m talking about three of my main characters: how they came about, why I chose them to represent my story, and some fun facts about them. (Stick around to see some pencil drawings of them too!)
There’s a lot to get into, so let’s get started!
1. The Prince
I first came up with Caiden* the night that Project Royalty popped in my head. Originally there were going to be three children — two sisters named Ariana and Cecilie, and the prince that would help save them from danger.
But despite trying to make headway in this story during my online writing class, something wasn’t working. Since this was my first big project, I wasn’t quite sure what to do.
Should I abandon the idea? I heavily considered it.
But the idea wouldn’t leave me alone, so I kept writing. Finally, I figured out that Ariana and Cecilie, the two characters who were supposed to be central to the plot, weren’t working. To make matters worse, I still hadn’t figured out anything about the prince character. He had nothing going for him.
Instead of scrapping the entire story, I shelved Ariana and Cecilie as characters for another project. As soon as I took them out of the story, the prince character jumped front and center. As you might have guessed at this point, the prince eventually morphed into who is now Caiden.
Caiden flourished under his new role, so much so that after a few months, I started writing the novel with him as the main character. Instead of being a side character, he demanded my attention. Now he was the one saving his family, and the rest of the characters slowly clicked into place.
Caiden’s journey — on and off the page — has been the most complicated out of the main characters I currently have. In fact, Caiden is the most complicated character I have ever written. He’s a risk taker, and yet, as a prince, he knows that all eyes are on him.
If I had to pick one character he reminds me most of, it would be Digory Kirke from The Magician’s Nephew, especially when it comes to Digory and Caiden’s desperation to save the people they love most.
Here’s a quick bio about Caiden:
Caiden is a young prince who will someday be one of the rulers of Sailim. He is quick-witted but often makes decisions before fully thinking them through. He loves food, and the most random thing he’s ever done is recite a five-minute presentation on iguanas. (It was to a group of his peers for a biology class, but still.)
You can find out more about Caiden here:
2. The Cousin
Leah appeared in my first draft as the whiny, rule-following cousin of Caiden, and if I’m being honest, I wasn’t very nice to her. When I finished the first draft, I realized that no one would actually like her if the book was published the way it was, which was not what I intended.
So…I rewrote her, and I also gave her her own point of view. In my second draft, Leah has become my second narrator and is more multi-faceted — and much less whiny.
Leah was always supposed to be the overprotective older cousin and the one who viewed rules as her friend, growing up in a system where things felt messy and imperfect outside of those strict boxes. She doesn’t have a lot of friends and struggles with confidence issues. When she slowly steps outside of her comfort zone, she finds opportunities she would never have dreamed of, and that’s where Leah’s deepest growth comes from.
If I had to pick one character Leah reminds me of, it would be Lilah from the Tuesdays at the Castle series. Lilah is a rule follower just like Leah, but both of them go through tremendous growth and would do anything for their families.
Here’s a quick bio about Leah:
Leah is a young princess who will someday be one of the rulers of Sailim. She is a perfectionist, but loves working in the garden with her parents. Her favorite flower is a violet, and she’s never done a random thing in her life (until she joins the quest!).
You can find out more about Leah here:
3. Aileen
Aileen, like Leah, just appeared in my draft. Her sister, Gracelyn, is in the beginning of the novel for *classified reasons*, and I was not expecting Aileen to show up after introducing Gracelyn. She quickly turned into one of my favorite characters to write, because she wants to make a difference in her world but isn’t quite sure where she fits.
Aileen’s the second child, so she’s often overlooked in her own country, Clovia. She is also a princess, but she’s less well-known than her sister and has to overcome a lot before and during my book series. Despite her problems, she is kind and a great listener.
If I had to choose a character that’s most like Aileen, it would absolutely be Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia. Both characters are overlooked in their families, but they make the strongest impact in the story.
Here’s a quick bio about Aileen:
Aileen is a young princess who will always be the second-born in her family. She’s kind and funny, but she tends to get into her head about her worth and strengths. She loves geography and going on field studies and wants to be the official ambassador from her country when she comes of age.
You can find more about Aileen here:
I hope you liked my post about three of my main characters and why they’re so important to my story! Which one of them do you connect with most? If you’re a writer, how do you come up with your characters?
*all names have been changed for character privacy*
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If you enjoyed this profile and would like to know more about these characters and my journey, click here! Thanks for reading, and keep on being kind! 💖
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