Tuesday's Inspiration - Richard Lockridge - Crime and Characters

Today's inspiration came at the right time for me. While looking through The Writer's book I came upon an essay by Richard Lockridge, creator of Mr. and Mrs. North. What he said was about characters "The problem of those who write mysteries and of all writers is basically the same." The reader can care or not care about the characters." This is rather a summary. What he's saying to me is the characters must be ones the readers care what happens in their lives. This can be easy or hard.

My current WIP is part of a series and while the main character basically stays the same. She's stubborn, loyal and caring. The truth is often more important to her than anything else. But she is also changing and those changes can bother a reader who doesn't know the character the way I do. She is the main character but there are others in the story. How does one make the reader care what happens to the villain of the piece. By showing them in action. I remember a review I once recieved for the first book of this series. The reviewer couldn't wait for the villain to find justice.

So what did this inspier me to do? To look at the story I'm writing and determine what the changes my character has been making so they're logical. This is something important to remember. Another thing I'll look at is to see if the victim and the suspects are people the reader can see and either like or dislike but feel satisfied when the book ends.

Developing characters the readers can care about in some way is my inspiration for today