Your character should have an opinion about an issue (or multiple issues) in their world, even if it isn't the main conflict of the story. It can be a good topic for other characters to discuss and build relationships upon. It can also be a platform for the reader to develop their own opinions regarding the issue(s), and even connect it/them to real-world circumstances, and the deeper the reader can identify with the ideas being discussed by characters, the more likely they will be to keep on reading!
Example:
New Year's
CJ, Norman, and I made our way down to the lake to watch the New Year's fireworks. We’d had to park a couple of blocks away because all parking lots surrounding the water (including the library’s) were packed.
“Are we there yet? My legs are tired.”
CJ shook his head. “Still got a little ways to go yet, but I can fix your legs.”
He knelt down, and Norman climbed onto his shoulders, giggling with excitement and adopting this empowered air about him as if he was on top of the world. He smiled at me when we resumed walking.
“Hey Andy! How’s the weather down there?”
“Cold.”
“That’s a question I ask her all the time.” CJ chimed mischievously.
I pretended to be dramatically offended. “I’m not that short.”
“Sorry, I can’t hear you from up here. What was that?”
Norman burst into laughter, patting CJ’s head praisingly. In no time we arrived. There were people in their winter coats, sitting on fuzzy blankets on the frozen “beach”. I was careful to layer my clothing-- three shirts beneath my thick coat. I laid out our towel, giving CJ and Norman their flasks of hot chocolate before opening my own; the warmth soothed my fingers and every other part of my body the cold managed to penetrate. After a few minutes, the first firework set off. The beach went quiet (except for the hollering drunks), watching in fascination as the burst of light soared into the air like a spaceship, then exploded into a glittering, flowery blanket. Norman whispered something to CJ, which made him grin.
“You guys keeping secrets?” I pointed out.
“Oh, no, Norman was just telling me how he’s got a thing for you.”
“Do not!” Norman corrected.
“Do too, but you just turned ten. You’ve got your whole life to think about that stuff, right Andy?”
I nodded. “Right. You’re, you’re gonna find a really awesome girl someday, much cooler than me.”
“That’ll be hard.” CJ chimed.
I rolled my eyes. “For now, the only thing you should have your eye on are these fireworks.”
It was the best show I’d ever seen; red, white, green, blue, pink-- every colour imaginable. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, hearing the booms and cracks of the spectacular explosions before fading to mere dots of flashing dust. Their light would reflect off the frozen lake as if it were a silvery mirror. Small children ran waving their glimmering sparkler sticks, drawing temporary pictures with the light. Then the powerful sparks would burn away, and they would go to retrieve another. The entire area smelled like a metallic bonfire by the end of it all.
“It’s a lot better than the one you see on TV,” CJ said after we’d packed up our stuff and began making our way back to the car. “How’d you like it, Norman?”
Needless to say, on our way back, Norman gave us an elaborate speech outlining each individual firework in vivid detail. CJ and I listened intently, smiling and glancing at each other every so often. It was only 9:40pm, so we took our time walking.
By the time we arrived at CJ’s house, it was 10:15pm.
“I’m gonna stay up till midnight this time.” Norman announced, bundling up under the blanket in his armchair.
CJ shrugged. “Alright. If you say so. I’m not sure I’m gonna make it.”
“Me neither.” I added.
Norman was asleep after ten minutes.
“I knew it.” CJ whispered.
“What are you two doing?” Wes asked, assuming his position in the doorframe of the hallway as if there were some invisible line he couldn’t cross. “Your babysitting duties for the night have been lifted, now get out.”
“Get out?”
“Get out,” he confirmed. “just don’t come back smelling like alcohol, and I don’t have the money to bail you out of jail so I suggest you spend your time wisely, clear?”
“Clear.”
“Oh, and take Dill with you. He won’t sleep if there’s any firework noise, and neither will we so he might as well get out too. His leash is by the door.”
The next thing I knew we were back on the road, though it was much quieter without Norman to keep us entertained. We braved the cold when Dill stuck his head out the window, closing his eyes contently as the wind blew past his fur.
“So, anywhere you wanna go?" CJ asked. "I’m just driving.”
“As a matter of fact, there is a place.”
“Where?”
“The morgue.”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s New Year’s, not Halloween. Try again.”
“Alright, alright. Right at this light.”
“Got any resolutions this year?” He asked.
“To maintain the strength that allows me not to kill you.”
“That’s a good one. I’ll second that.”
After a few turns I told him to stop at a tall building; the tallest in Irvine to be precise.
“Max Irvine Tower?” CJ questioned. Is it not locked up by now?”
I opened the passenger side door, “not for us it’s not.”
We got out of the car, and I led him to the outdoor service elevator. It was probably the most well-kept elevator I’d ever been in-- the buttons actually worked and each ride was smooth. Dill politely sniffed the floor and walls.
“So, are you planning to throw me off?” CJ asked.
I shook my head. “Don’t tempt me. I keep my resolutions.”
When we got to the top the frigid wind slapped me across the face. I led them to the rail on the flat roof that overlooked Irvine’s endless city lights; I’d come here often enough to be able to spot the library.
“Wow,” CJ sighed, tying Dill to a metal bar,“there’s so much light.”
“You don’t see too many stars, but this is the closest you can get.”
“I didn’t know there was a place like this in Irvine. It makes it seem so beautiful.”
“This city’s got good bones, you, you just gotta dig for them. It’s one hell of an archeology project, but it’s worth it.”
“Sure is. I guess people are like that too, because all this,” He stretched his arms out towards the lights, “this all fits in one person, and more.”
“People are complicated as hell. At the end of the day, we’re on a floating rock rotating around a ball, ball of hydrogen, one of thousands, millions of solar systems in the Milky Way, one among billions of galaxies, all while existing in an ever-expanding void we call ‘the universe’; that’s, that’s a lot to fit into one person. If you look at the, the big picture, and you see they’re a space rock, they’re not so bad. It gives you more control that way, so then they don’t get bigger, into stuff like Dark Matter where they’re a part of, a part of everything.”
“Makes sense.”
We let the wind dominate the conversation for a little while longer until my eyes started to water from the cold.
“Alright, your turn. You know someplace warm?”
CJ stood in thought for a moment. “How about the library?”
“Sounds good.”
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