Scribbling Saturday: Real People

In my Kestrel novel, I have been searching for ways to improve the depth of the characters, and therefore the plot. I suddenly realised that I have seventeen people from different races, different backgrounds, cooped up in a space ship meant for twelve, on a long, dangerous mission - and they all get on like best buddies!

Oh well, I never said I was an experienced writer! So now I am doing a lot of rethinking on each character to work out how they would react to the others. I want to see who would upset who, rather than arbitrarily making up scenarios. Truth to tell, I don't know my characters well enough. Too many of them are just there to serve the plot, which won't do at all.

But it's HARD.