What makes a reader fall in love with a character? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I write my sixth book, hoping that this will be my breakout novel. You know, the one that people can’t quit talking about.
I thought about Louise Penny’s early books. I read the first one and wasn’t that impressed. Yes, the characters were quirky, but the story was simple and didn’t hold my interest. Later, someone suggested I listen to her books on audible and I fell in love with Inspector Gamache and the rest of the cast. The narrator’s voice brought the story to life for me. But other readers loved the early books and continued to read and beg for more, making Louise Penny a household name for those of us who love mysteries. Do we all need a duck who spits profanity, a quarrelsome old lady who is a renowned poet? What is it about these books that readers love so much? Is it that the characters are larger than life?
I also love JA Jance’s Sheriff Joanna Brady books. I love the interaction between Joanna and her husband, Butch, and their children. I love that she can be a tough cop at work and a warm wife and mother at home.
Lisa Regan writes the Detective Josie Quinn series. Josie is such a great character. Even though she’s had to overcome so much—being abducted as an infant and raised by a cruel, vindictive woman— she never gives up.
There are so many books with so many great characters. I’m sure we could go for days naming our favorites and why they are our favorites.
In my first book, a standalone titled, The Truth Will Set You Free, a young woman is looking for her birthmother and travels to the small town of Cascade Locks, Oregon, where her mother grew up. It’s a dual timeline, told from the young woman’s perspective, and thirty years earlier from her mother’s perspective. Even though, Natalie, the young woman searching for her birthmother is broken because she had been lied to by the woman who raised her, the real star of the book is her mother, Colleen. Colleen makes all the wrong decisions, but you fall in love with her because her heart is so big. Even though she’s made so many mistakes in her life, when she loves someone, her boyfriend, her mother, she loves with all her heart.
I recently binge-watched Roseli and Isles. I know, I’m way behind in my TV viewing. But I fell in love with the characters on the show. I enjoyed each episode, but mostly what I loved was the relationships between the characters, and I really loved the friendship between Roseli and Isles.
I’ve watched a lot of cop shows over the years. Blue Bloods was probably my all-time favorite. I loved the family and how they interacted. I’ve been thinking a lot about acting and how actors take a character and bring them to life. Maybe an acting class would be a good way to learn how to write outstanding characters.
What makes a great character? Maybe it’s just people doing people-y things. Being scared and courageous and mean and kind and smart and doing stupid stuff, all the things that really make someone human. Or maybe it’s making each character bigger than life. Creating something inside them that makes readers sit up and take notice.
Now I’m going back to work on my characters and see if I can make them even more real. What character traits can I give them to make them stand out? I’ve heard that mysteries are more about plot than characters, but I believe characters are what bring the plot to life.
Ladies of Mystery 
I love my character, Persephone (Percy) Cole. She is one of the first female detectives in a Manhattan of 1942, a very feisty broad. In fact, the series won a couple of awards. The Chocolate Kiss-Off had a comment it was a “perfect mystery.” But enough readers just didn’t take to her. I started pouring money into advertising until my publicist said stop, you’re wasting money. The few who read the series got her the way I did, but it was only a precious few. I did find a base for the Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, and count myself lucky that I did. I write all of this to say sometimes the author doesn’t know what will click with readers. At least, I didn’t!
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Great post! I, for one, will stop reading a book if I don’t like the main character. Even if it’s a mystery. I’m reading a book now that if I had bought it, I wouldn’t have continued reading it, but I’m reading it as a judge for a contest, so I have to read it all the way through to make my comments. The character didn’t grab me, and while I like that she’s been standing up for her convictions, she falls flat to me in other ways. Not to mention it took nearly ten chapters before the story really started moving! Anyway, I’m not sure what makes a character relatable. You will never have everyone like a character, but if you can get enough readers to love your character(s), then you have won half the battle of writing a good story, in my opinion.
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You have posed the question that bedevils every writer. What makes a character alive and enduring? Each one of us figures that out for ourself–and our characters. We find what makes them tick, what makes them care, what makes them lovable and forgivable for being human. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we don’t. But that’s why we keep writing–to get it right.
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