What makes your character get up in the morning?

Lucy feels as though she has to keep it together for her friends and family. She had to be there for her mother while they were grieving for her father and her friends rely on her to help sort out their lives.

What is their deepest desire, conscious or unconscious?

To live life on her own terms instead of living to please others.

What do they think they want? What do they really want?

Lucy is still in love with her childhood sweetheart, Rafe Turner, even though she’s still bitter about him leaving her. Out of spite, she vowed to marry as quickly and as advantageously as possible and introduce Rafe to her husband when he returns. A year and a half after Rafe leaves, Lucy’s father suddenly dies and Lucy and her mother have to leave their home. Lucy needs to marry well in order to save her family’s social status.

What tangible goals have they set to achieve their desires?

Three months after Lucy’s father’s death, Lucy and her mother went to Bath and Lucy entered society with the aim of finding a wealthy husband.

Is their goal possible?

In Bath, Lucy captured the attention of the wealthy and rakish Bellamy de Vere and they became engaged, though Lucy doesn’t love or respect him.

How can we relate to their goal?

Plenty of people can relate to having their heart broken by a first love and making rash decisions based on hurt and spite. These decisions can backfire.

Why do we want them to succeed?

Finding a husband is the career of any genteel young woman in the Georgian era and marrying well is her best path to success and security.

What are your protagonist’s flaws?

Lucy is a compulsive people pleaser with a habit of sacrificing herself for the benefit of others. She does what other people want her to do and hides her true feelings from them. She is also independent and doesn’t want to be emotionally dependent on another person. Despite all this, Lucy is loyal and has a hard time cutting off/giving up on people she loves.

Which of them will pose the biggest hindrance to them attaining their goal?

Lucy’s lingering attraction to Rafe could threaten her engagement to de Vere and her engagement to de Vere makes reconciling with Rafe difficult.

Where does their primary flaw come from?

When Lucy was a child, she was well-behaved and a good student and this gained her plenty of praise from her parents. Approval and praise from her parents was addictive to Lucy.

What are their wounds and backstory?

Lucy grew up with a rebellious and free-spirited boy named Rafe Turner, who was her best friend/childhood sweetheart. Rafe went into the navy at age twelve. When he was eighteen and Lucy was sixteen (three years before the start of the novel), Rafe returned home for the summer and he and Lucy had a romance. But Rafe was restless and eager to return to his life of action and adventure in the navy. Lucy felt hurt and told Rafe that when he returns, she will introduce him to her husband. She doesn’t want to be emotionally dependent on another person again. Eighteen months after Rafe leaves, Lucy’s father dies in an unexpected horse riding accident and her mother becomes ill out of grief. Lucy and her mother go to Bath, where Bellamy de Vere starts courting her. Her mother is greatly pleased, believing that Lucy’s marriage to de Vere will save the family.

How can we relate to this flaw?

Women (the novel’s target audience) are often expected to change and sacrifice themselves for the approval of others. They are also often expected to give up their own needs and wants to make other people (frequently men) happy.

Why do we want them to change?

Doing the expected thing that everyone wants and marrying Bellamy de Vere instead of Rafe Turner will make Lucy miserable in the long run.

What do they stand for?

Lucy is devoted to her family and friends and is willing to make sacrifices for them. She ended her romantic relationship with Rafe because she was afraid that she was stifling him and holding him back. Also, she enters into an engagement to someone she doesn’t love or respect because it’s what her family wants.

How can we relate to them?

Women (the novel’s target audience) are often expected to change and sacrifice themselves for the approval of others. They are also often expected to give up their own needs and wants to make other people (frequently men) happy.

Plenty of people can relate to having their heart broken by a first love and making rash decisions based on hurt and spite. These decisions can backfire.

What are their quirks, habits, and mannerisms?

Lucy likes to take walks to sort out her thoughts and feelings. She engages in the unladylike habit of swearing when she’s angry (she picked up this habit from her father). Also, she always likes to keep her hands busy and can often be found doing domestic tasks such as sewing.

What do they look and sound like?

Lucy is very beautiful with curling, golden-brown hair, blue-eyes, and fair skin with rosy cheeks and lips. She speaks in a soft, gentle voice.

What makes them unique?

Lucy is different from other period drama heroines who are “ahead of their time” and “not like other girls.” She is someone who operates within the standards and values of her time and is trying to do her best within those constraints.

Who matters to them most in the world?

Her parents and her childhood friend/love interest, Rafe.

What do they fear?

Lucy fears poverty and a drop in social status. She also fears opening up her heart again and having it broken.

How do they act in front of their greatest idol?

Lucy has always been in awe of Miss Dawes, an imperious old lady who is the wealthiest and most influential person in town. When Lucy was a child, she used to hide behind her mother’s skirts whenever Miss Dawes came into the room. She admires Miss Dawes for her strength and tenacity and how she was able to survive and thrive after a heartbreak fifty years earlier.

What makes them cry?

Lucy gets sad whenever she has to part from the familiar and beloved, like when Rafe went away, her father died, and she and her mother had to leave their home.

What makes them laugh?

Thanks to Rafe and her late father, Mr. Bishop, Lucy has a surprisingly crude and edgy sense of humor. She enjoys spotting foolishness and absurdity in the behavior of the people around her and poking fun at authority.

If their house was on fire, what’s the one thing they would save?

If the house was on fire, Lucy would probably save the family Bible and her box filled with letters and momentos.

Who cares about them most in the world?

Rafe, her childhood friend/love interest, and her mother, Mrs. Bishop.

What terrible thing will happen if they don’t get what they want?

Lucy and her mother will continue to live in reduced circumstances and dependent and looked down upon by their wealthier relatives.

What terrible thing will happen if they don't grow in the way they need to?

If Lucy goes through with the wedding to Bellamy de Vere, she will be trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who doesn’t truly love and won’t treat her well.

Who or What is standing in the way of your character and their goal? Rafe comes back at the beginning of the novel and wants to get back together with Lucy. He finds out that she is already engaged to someone else but continues to pursue her.

Who or what is standing in between them and change? Lucy still loves Rafe but cannot forgive him for abandoning her and not being there for her when she needed him. She still believes that she can’t open her heart again to him because he will hurt her again.

How can the obstacles between them and their goal act as a catalyst for change?

Lucy will learn to grow and forgive, open her heart to love again and go after what she wants instead of what society expects of her.

Rachel Lesch

--

1