The great thing about setting questions like the one above is in answering them you find out more about your own characters' tastes.   Whatever you find out about your characters will help you portray them better (they'll have more depth because you know them better than you once did).  I'll start this question off by asking it for Eileen.

Eileen

Any gardening book - so she can share Derek's interest in gardening and develop a better interest in it for herself.

A good wildlife book on creatures native to the UK - again this is to develop Eileen's knowledge.

The Lord of the Rings - partly because Eileen feels she should give this a try but mainly to see what an epic quest that doesn't involve her looks like.

Joy In the Morning - Eileen is also keen to develop a sense of humour (it will make her seem more human) so has rightly assumed reading the works of P.G. Wodehouse will help here.

Whilst the Kingdom despises humanity for polluting its own planet, it doesn’t take much care of its own realm.  Not only were there magical wars which left many areas barren (nothing can take too much magic hitting it), those like Fresdian (later Rose) who go studying the flora and fauna in all weathers and seasons are considered at best eccentric and at worst mad. 

Whilst the schools do teach the basics about magical creatures and plant life, the teaching ends there.  There’s no thought given as to how best to care for the landscape.  As for the wars, they are considered unfortunate, embarrassing historical events, not to be discussed yet alone rectified. 

It would be possible for the Queen and her senior magical staff to rectify some of the damage done to the Kingdom, but the thought hasn’t occurred to them to do it.   Even if it did occur to them, they’d reject the idea as wasting their magical energy.  The Fairy Kingdom fails to recognize its own selfishness here.  They’ve got more in common with humanity than they care to admit.

Whether you're based on Earth or are a magical being living in another dimension, making yourself heard can depend on how well connected and loud you are.  (Nobody said it was fair).

Eileen, as forthright as she is courageous, has no problem making herself heard though, when she still lived in the Fairy Kingdom, was well aware her royal status made it much easier for her to be able to share her message.  She nearly always did so when carrying out engagements for the Queen (often annoying the latter given these visits were never meant to be political but having your heir moan about magical power abuses and with the Fairy News Network covering and broadcasting every word, this  was embarrassing.  This was made more embarrassing as the Queen realised she could hardly silence that heir.  People would ask questions).

Hanastrew has learned to use her good looks to help her get interviews with FNN when she wants them.  Okay she has to put up with Roherum's toadying towards her (he does this with everyone bar the Queen and Eileen) but if it means she can get her message across and it can help the fairy squad in any way, Hanastrew has no trouble doing this.  Her colleagues are not so comfortable with it though they appreciate their boss's attempts to boost their morale and public standing. 

So do your characters want to make themselves heard?  Why?  How do they do it?  What happens when they get it wrong?  (And they will, we all do!).

As with life on Earth, there are many ways to feed the mind in the Fairy Kingdom.  There are books, magazines, re-enactments of the classic fairy tales and so on.  All magical beings are encouraged to take part in these things.

The Fairy News Network sometimes goes around the magical realm and films and broadcasts what, say, Village X is up to do to commemorate the telling of Fairy Tale B.  There is great rivalry between villages to get FNN's attention here.

Hanastrew, despite being the all action and blasting to smithereens anything in the way fairy godmother (like her mentor Eileen), loves to read when not on call.  She likes to read not only for its own sake but because it is so different from her day job.

Generally what I write is what I write but I do find my moods in writing vary from light to dark and back again.  One example of my darker short stories, Pressing the Flesh, is now up on Cafelit.

The mood of the story does not necessarily reflect the mood I'm in when I write the stories!  Indeed I often like to write light as literally a kind of light relief when life is on the difficult side.  But I also find I can't write light all the time.  Sometimes I need what Terry Pratchett once referred to as tragic relief (in my case it tends to border on the criminal/horrific relief - I dread to think what Freud would make of that!).

This, I think, is a good reflection on fairytale writing.  Many are grim (especially the original versions).  Many have humorous moments (especially when sending up people's vanity, The Emperor's New Clothes is a great example of this).

But what is important is that I write regardless of mood... as should you.

Not every fairytale has a happy ending (see The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl etc) but the majority do.  I think it is better for any author, regardless of genre, to  focus on making sure their story ending is appropriate for the story itself.  Sometimes the plot and characters will call for a sad ending, others a happy one, but you need to make your readers feel as if there couldn't possibly be any other ending to the tale except the one you've written.

Besides in fairytales there's often a lot that can be read into they "all lived happily ever after".  Many a fine tale has come out of the premise, well actually they didn't.  So what could come out of your stories that have officially ended happily?  Could you look at what happened if that "ever after" was nowhere near as long as the characters anticipated?

So happy ever afters can be what you make them to be.  And then leave your characters to get on with them...

Everyone from the lowest sprite to the Queen has access to literature in the Fairy Kingdom, especially the traditional fairy tales.  But certain types of literature are restricted to those of  the right background.  The spell books with the more powerful charms in it are restricted to fairy godmothers, witches and wizards.  Nobody wants a sprite let loose with these things.

Reading is encouraged at home and at school.  Writing is encouraged by those who wish to add to the fairy tale tradition but that tends to mean it is the elves, with a long background in singing and saga sharing, who do most of the writing.  They also tend to form what we would think of as a Civil Service.

Sadly sprites tend to get out of the habit of reading once they've left full time education (where one two hour period a week is given over to reading).  There has been some talk about running a campaign to encourage a return to reading but this has floundered because most on the Council feel sprites are simply too lazy to read and are best left to their own devices.

History is something everyone in the Kingdom takes a huge interest in.  Not only does it have direct relevance to relationships between the different groups (the dwarves and elves being the obvious example), all in the realm are aware of their world being attacked and who by and when their world is responsible for the attacking, thus provoking a violent response back again. 

There are history programmes on FNN (in favour of the fairy royals to nobody’s surprise).  Everybody responsible for history programming takes the official line.  Eileen is the nearest to a revisionist and even she takes most things as gospel. 

The Witch always disputed the truth of anything broadcast on FNN as she feels her family was unfairly portrayed and treated.  She has a point but sadly her family were mass murderers and rebels so the fairy royals were right to defend t heir people against them. 

What Eileen queries is whether the royals could’ve intervened sooner, acted more fairly, preventing the need for a forceful defence. Eileen’s queries are not welcome.

FNN would like to do a series of  history programmes on the fairy royals but neither Eileen nor the Queen are keen and without their co-operation the programmes won’t be made.  This is due to the fact FNN would need access to the royal files/Library and only these two can grant that. FNN know the Council are not very keen on them, they owe their existence to the fairy royals so won’t bite the hand that feeds them. 

FNN sometimes try to persuade the Queen to allow them access here, knowing it’s a waste of time trying to get Eileen to change her mind, but to date have failed.  The Queen doesn’t trust them to stick to those royals with a reasonable record.  She thinks they want to dig up all the gossip and scandal concerning Queen Gwendolyn, great-grandmother to Roxannadrell and Eileen.  The one comfort the Queen has on all this is that it’s one of the few areas where she and Eileen are united.

Thinking time is vital for a writer to work out (a) their writing schedules, (b) plots and (c) how their characters develop.  I find swimming is wonderful for giving me thinking time. My link is to my latest Chandler's Ford Today post takes a look at this. 

And I do find when swimming all my daily cares vanish.  My mind relaxes and that can be a wonderful time for ideas to be generated.  I find as long as I write those ideas down on getting home I don't forget them again.

Thinking time is important for your characters too.  Someone like my Eileen has to think ahead given her role as a fairy godmother fighting evil all the time.  She needs to work out the best way of using her magical powers so she gains the most advantages from them.  It's not just a question of pointing her wand and going "zap"! 

Conflict fuels stories but that can include inner conflict as a character works out how best to solve a problem.  It's even better when that character gets it wrong (and realistic too given nobody gets it right all the time so your characters shouldn't either).

Also given Eileen's tendency to drop herself right in it with her cousin, the Fairy Queen, and her Council, it also pays Eileen to think ahead about how she is going to handle the latest fall out from her actions. And she needs as much thinking time as possible for that!

 The world of the fairytale is based on reality.  Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince is a great example of this.  Fairytales often comment on our world, especially on things like poverty.  Fairytales can be grim are often violent.  Sadly a reflection of life on Earth for so many.

Ironically I think people focus on the happy ever after bit of fairytales rather than the grimness that leads to someone getting and accepting magical help to overcome this.  Of course in our world it isn't magic that helps people (other than perhaps what could be called the magic of human kindness).

I always picture fairytale worlds as being colourful and noisy.  (It wouldn't have been that quiet in Cinderella's household with the stepmother and ugly sistes complaining at her all day long).  Would I want to live in a fairytale world?  No.  Just as power can be abused by us, there's nothing to stop magic being abused and I certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that.

Annoying Eileen deliberately is something you do when you are tired of life or are magically powerful enough in your own right to be able to put up a good fight.   After her defection to Earth, Eileen is no less of a threat, if anything she is probably more of one as she will defend the new life she has carved out for herself.  But if you decide you could do with what could be the last thing you ever do, great ways to annoy Eileen include:-

1. Support the Queen's criticism of Eileen, especially in loudly condemning the defection.
   
2. Be Brankaresh and magically cheat in your pursuit of power.
   
3. Be the Queen and ignore Eileen's warnings about Brankaresh.
   
4. Be Roherum and ask Eileen vapid, irrelevant questions.
   
5. Be a sprite hauled up before her for fighting.  Eileen was used, prior to her defection, to instill fear into sprites - she was very good at it.
   
6. Be Jenny and wind your mother up, knowing you are only one of two beings Eileen would never zap, the other being your father, Derek.
   
7. You try to outdo Eileen magically.
   
8. Be all style and no substance (she still hates this on Earth so has no time for most talent shows).
   
9. Be a corrupt politician (brings back bad memories of Brankaresh).
   
10. Tarring everyone with the same brush and not being prepared to offer olive branches (Eileen remains convinced it had been possible to achieve reconciliation with the Witch had the Queen and her Council been less forthright.  Also the Queen should've accepted the fairy royals had not treated the Witch's family well - but Roxannadrell was not prepared to do this and that really annoyed Eileen as it guaranteed the Witch causing trouble).
    

This is the inevitable follow up to my previous post about what characters do care about but the opposite can also reveal a great deal about them.

For example, Brankaresh doesn't care about justice, women's rights etc given all he is focussed on is becoming the most powerful wizard ever and won't let anything get in his way,  Eileen doesn't care about getting rid of Brankaresh given she feels he has this coming for his attitudes and the fact she has proven time and again he cheats magically and anyone else would have been punished for it by the Fairy Queen.

Your characters still have to have good reasons for not caring.  Is is a question they did once care about an issue/other character etc but what happens to them turns that the other way round?  Life does hit people hard at times.  It should hit your characters hard too and not all will react well. 

Changes, political and otherwise, can bring out the best and worst in people/characters so that could be a good avenue to explore for (a) story ideas and (b) strengthening your creations.  Are your characters afraid of change and, if so, why?  Is change being brought about for good reasons or bad?  Who is behind the changes and what are they hoping to gain from them?  Who will suffer as a result (changes will inevitably cause problems for some)?

All things to think about then in developing characters and stories.

How to tell if your characters come to life well enough to grip potential readers?  Give said characters a driving passion in life, it will affect everything they say and do and is bound to generate conflict.  No conflict = no story. 

Eileen's main characteristic is stubborness which is great for giving her the necessary drive and determination to defeat monsters as she simply won't give up.  That same trait makes relationships unnecessarily complicated for Eileen as she upsets people when she doesn't have to (but that's what makes her a fun character to write for.  I like dropping my characters in it!  Or better still using their traits to get them to drop themselves in it and Eileen does this wonderfully well!).

Eileen also cares passionately about justice which of course generates an immediate conflict with the criminally minded.   Also it can cause conflicts with the Queen and her Council given definitions of what makes up justice can vary.

Brankaresh cares only about power and wants to be the most powerful wizard the Fairy Kingdom has ever seen.  This is not an ambition that is going to go down well (especially with Eileen) so he has to  disguise this.  So something a character cares about can be suppressed or disguised and you generate the immediate conflict as to how well can that character do this?  Will it all go horribly wrong so the disguise falls apart and how would other characters react to that?  Equally will that character keep the disguise up brilliantly and fool everybody?  What will the consequences be?

So to give your stories and characters bite, make them care about something.  Really care.  The be prepared to make sacrifices for type of caring.

Another way of working out how well you know your characters is to work out what would annoy them.

Annoying Roxannadrell is generally not considered to be helpful for promoting long life and good health but for those determined to go ahead anyway, some useful pointers are below.

1. Be Eileen/aka be as awkward as they come, whether it's justified or not.
   
2. Try to force the Queen off her throne and/or to marry.
   
3. Inundate her with paperwork (a favourite ploy of L'Evallier's when trying to keep his monarch so busy she can't do anything that could be considered disastrous - like trying to force Eileen to do anything.  Eileen will always fight back and the consequences would generally be unwelcome.  L'Evallier came to the conclusion a long time ago that Eileen was best left to her own devices.  He quite likes the proverb about giving someone enough rope...).
   
4. If you're Roherum, coming up with and presenting This Week's Royal Gossip Show.  Roxannadrell hates this show.  This is widely known and almost certainly contributes to its high ratings in the fairy realm.
   
5. Trying to stop the Queen from literally getting her hands dirty when she gardens.  Part of the appeal of gardening for her is it is so different from her usual role and it is her main way of communing with nature.
   

Naturally it depends on the fairy godmother but Eileen's favourite forms of relaxation are:-

1. Target Practice with her wand.  And if this is witnessed by others, so much the better.  Eileen sees this as useful training for herself and a warning to those who do watch.  She still does this, despite now living on Earth, but waits until her beloved Derek is out and ensures the force field around her property is enhanced so no other magical being can intervene and attack her.
   
2. Reading.  Eileen loves to read a wide range of fiction but is heavily into non-fiction, especially history.  Now based on Earth, she deems it her duty to know as much about the planet as possible.  And she thinks a good place to start is with the past.
   
3. Gardening.  Eileen loves planting bulbs (she likes plants that take good care of themselves).  She's not so keen on weeding (Derek does most of that).  She also likes pruning and often recalls those magical villains she cut down to size, sometimes literally, when working in her back garden on lopping back dead wood and so on.  Only a fool or someone incredibly heroic would get in her way when she prunes either magical beings or dead wood.  
   
4. Enjoying a Good Drink or several.  Depending on her mood, this can range from tea to wine.
   
5. Enjoying a long, hot bath with plenty of bath foam.  Eileen, both when living in the Fairy Kingdom and now on Earth, considers this one of life's simplest but greatest luxuries, especially after obliterating enemies or gardening.
   

The Fairy Kingdom in my stories and novels is in no doubt about the importance of stories.  Story tellers are held in high regard and the classic fairy tales, as we know them, are almost akin to holy writ.  What importance does your fictional world place on stories?  Is imaginative writing encouraged or restricted?

In my magical realm, libraries are in every town and village (though sizes vary.  Village ones are obviously smaller meaning people will go to the larger town ones for a greater range of books).  (There is no question of library closures and cut backs either - one way of telling I definitely write fantasy!).

The biggest library is the one in the Queen's Palace and all, bar the obviously evil, are welcome there.

As for my own work, I am glad to say my stories (and the odd limerick) have appeared in 5 anthologies now.