Sticking to a resolution made on January 1st quite often requires you to do things that are counter to your nature; to swim upstream against your native instincts. That's the problem with resolutions: they generally demand that you to do less of what you love, or more of what you loathe.
One critical element in a well-written novel is that the characters seldom do anything “out of character.”
Accomplished novelists take care to give their characters believable behaviors by crafting credible backstories. My favorite novels are those where normal people react to abnormal situations in ways that are outside my own experience, but totally acceptable […]