I’m in the second draft of my village mystery and see my main character does a lot of thinking. Thinking is great. I do a lot, myself. But it’s not so great watching people think.
Given the soulfulness of my MC’s experience, I can forgive her but my readers won’t.
I invited a minor character for tea in the garden and waited to see what would happen.
Magic.
It’s like I’m eavesdropping. The dialogue gets her outside her own head, so she sees new perspectives in her dilemma. And that’s more interesting for us.
And his personality unfolds every minute. Like all good characters, he expresses a variation of the Theme, and I can see now, he’ll be the catalyst for the big reveal.