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

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

“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.”

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

Why are white men so obsessed with Asian women? I'm friends with people from all different backgrounds but I never see my other non-white male friends obsess over or talk about Asian women like I've seen the white ones do.

“Nary a cute boy in sight.”

“Claire, I—”

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

Change Your Gmail Password Now, Google Tells 2 Billion Users - Forbes

“Exactly.”

“Cute girls?”

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

What happens to adults with Down syndrome when their parents can't look after them any more?

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

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

“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.”

Is TikTok becoming a platform for soft porn?

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

“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—”

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

What can melt your heart?

“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.”

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

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?”

If everyone in Russia dropped into holes in the ground only never to return, would that be good for NATO and international peacekeepers? Can we convince Russians to be less diabolical, so they coexist? Does Putin stink like doo doo in the commode?

“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—”

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

“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?”

Have you ever been physically attacked by a demon?

“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…”

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

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

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

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

“It’s not looking at you.”

Stanford Doctors Invent Device That Appears to Be Able to Save Tons of Stroke Patients Before They Die - futurism.com

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?”

“Exactly.”

“You need some tea!”

Can you turn 150 pages into a 5 minute presentation before a meeting?

“Claire! Why are you still up?”

“I’ll put the kettle 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.”

Japanese culture: Is it true adult adoption is common in Japan?

Create a context between this character and other characters.

Essentially, what you do is show the character:

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

If everyone hates censorship so much, why do those “censorship-free” alternative social media sites always fail?

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.

“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.”

“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 have cell phones, the internet, and reality TV turned the world into a toilet, as this has not advanced us in any way?

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

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

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

I gave him everything. He said he loved me. Why?

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

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

“Tart!”

Were Dalits prohibited from drinking water from wells in ancient times? Is there any evidence to support this claim?

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.

“Perv.”

“I need to do laundry.”

“But they’re cold!”

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

“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.”

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

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?”

Do that and you can ground your characters quite quickly.

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

“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?”

“No way.”