I find difficulties arrive only when I haven't thought the character out enough so I come across problems more in short stories than novels.  The biggest advantage of the novel is the space in which you can flesh things out properly.  Starting with a dominant trait in a character's life has helped me overcome the problem.  I think the biggest dilemma is to stop any character becoming either a shadow of their formal selves or getting above themselves.   In Eileen's case I didn't want her to end up being a spoof so I haven't made her as bossy as I easily could've done.  I don't like characters who are "too much".  I definitely don't want to write any!

Getting inside Brankaresh's head to justify his sexist attitude that women can't rule alone was not in a way a pleasant task as I examined excuses used  by others in the past for justifying that attitude.  But I think I've portrayed him more accurately as a result of doing that.  Everything your character believes has to make sense to that character (can others see where you are coming from with regard to that character?   They should).  I also like to ensure my characters have their virtues and their vices.  In Brankaresh's case, it would have been far too easy to portray him as having no good side at all but I think it would make him less believable.

Having said all that, I'm pleased The Trouble With Mother has four strong female leads in Eileen, Jenny, the Queen and the Witch.  I like the way they spark off each other too.  I ask myself is this character believeable?  Their actions reasonable?  Any question like that to test whether the character is strong enough.

I love it when my characters take off.  (The great thing about writing magical characters is they can do that literally!).  Eileen's stubbornness led to her questioning her cousin, the Fairy Queen, when others would not dare.  That of course caused further trouble for Eileen, which in turn made her rebel further.  Jenny quickly realises her mother's revelations have enormous implications for her.  This kind of thing cheers me as it means I am following that old rule "show, don't tell".  I don't have to tell you Jenny's bright.  She works this out for herself and then confronts her mother with this.  Also adds to the tension between Eileen and Jenny, which is great for the novel itself.

I also love it when my characters surprise other characters.  I think the best example is the Fairy Queen allowing Eileen to defect which stuns Eileen herself, who had assumed she would just be kicked out.  It doesn't please Brankaresh, the Chief Wizard, either who also had assumed Eileen would be kicked out and though he would always prefer Eileen to die, horribly ideally, had accepted exile as the next best thing.  Surprise actions like that (but logically justified and the Queen's actions are sensible) propel other characters into doing/saying things they hadn't planned to do.

If you generally know how your characters will react, good, but they should be capable of going off on a limb (with justification) as we all do in life from time to time.

I love writing fairytales.  There are certain traditions to draw on, of course, but there's room for scary characters, heroic characters, fairy godmothers and witches and wizards.  There's room for rivalry between differing groups and, occasionally, friendships that aren't meant to happen because the realm disapproves.  There's room for humour.  You can tell a fairytale "straight".  You can twist the ending.  Fairytales can give moral guidance, can urge you to fight evil.  I tend to end up at the 2000 words mark.

I like Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince which shows generosity can be its own reward.  I also like the fact that with tales like The Little Match Girl were coming up with exposing civic issues well ahead of Charles Dickens.  I would like my novels to be enjoyed for what they are but if any of them encourages those reading them to appreciate their families more (on the grounds my underlying theme is to show how important families are), then I'd ge glad.

Generally the main policy is to keep the Fairy Kingdom stable so dissent is not welcome.  Eileen is well aware her awkward questions were never welcome and the reason she got away with them was because she was/is heir to the fairy throne.  Eileen saw this as being one of the few advantages of having royal blood.  After all the Queen was hardly to get rid of her awkward Heir Apparent given the one in line after Eileen was the Chief Witch.  And even the Queen couldn't fake or change the family history to disqualify the Witch from inheriting - everybody knew the Witch was related to the royals.  And for a long time when the Witch was quiet, it paid the Queen and her Council to do nothing to rock the boat.

The other main policy is to keep humans out of the magical realm given the late Queen Gwendolyn tried to import humans and it led to civil war.  All magical species support this policy, even the Witch who was not known for being much of a fan of the Queen and her Council.  With regard to other worlds threatening the Kingdom, the policy is to keep up strong vigorous defences but what has stopped have been pre-emptive strikes against such worlds.  The Kingdom didn't win enough of these strikes to justify them and also suffered from revenge based raids so took the attitude keeping them all at bay was probably best.