Humanizing Your Protagonist: a Crash Course in Character Development

Humanizing Your Protagonist: a Crash Course in Character Development

by Nikki Stern

Sam Tate, the anchor of a four-book mystery/thriller series, is a complicated woman. Resilient and resourceful, she is nevertheless plagued by nightmares. She’s known heartbreak as a child and as an adult and has a habit of sublimating her feelings. She’s at times meticulous, at times impetuous. She’s a skilled detective, adept at getting inside the minds of the criminals she pursues. She’s all in on her cases but struggles with commitment. 

Sam is recognizably human. She just didn’t start out that way. 

I mean that quite literally.

In her earliest incarnation, Sam Tate was an artificial intelligence, one of seven developed and trained by a private organization to support underserved police departments across the globe.

Books, movies, graphic novels and TV shows have long featured non-human characters with human aspirations. What I thought set my book apart was the premise that these beings might be able to develop the kind of intuition prized by investigators. The original manuscript was titled Gut Instinct. When I showed it to a development editor, she asked me if I’d meant to write mystery or sci-fi. 

Because, she went on, while I might have the makings of a decent mystery, the plot needed to be filled out. As for the sci-fi, I didn’t have nearly enough of the kind of detail and world building expected by such fans. I needed to do a deeper, more carefully researched dive into the science behind my conceit before I fictionalized it. I’d touched on a number of possible themes but, as she pointed out, I’d left most of them underdeveloped. 

While I licked my wounds, she offered a surprising suggestion. Why not make Sam human? A flesh and blood detective out to solve a mystery. 

At first, I balked. Female cops were getting to be a dime a dozen. How was I supposed to make Sam Tate unique? 

Turns out that was what my editor wanted me to figure out.

I followed her suggestion that I create a comparative diagram with a book featuring an AI investigator on one side and a human one on the other. Who was she? What drove her? What made her interesting? What obstacles would she face? 

First, I spent a month studying artificial intelligence and realized I’d need to spend a year. Was that how I wanted to invest my time? When I decided it wasn’t, when I concluded I preferred to focus on the procedural aspects of the crime, I answered the editor’s first question: I wanted this book to be a mystery. I probably put in a year’s worth of research on the procedural aspect of criminal investigation. The process has been fun, engaging, and tremendously helpful in creating a series.

The side-by-side exercise helped me in another way. I’d let myself off the hook by creating an AI version of my lead character. Sure, she could ask profound philosophical questions. She could test the constraints imposed on her by her programming. She could display an unprecedented level of curiosity. In the end, though, we wouldn’t know much about AI Sam, because there wasn’t much to know. She was brand new, without experience. Her interest in exploring her limits could serve the main plot or distract from it. Might or may not hold readers’ attention. It might or might not hold mine.

I turned my attention to the flesh and blood version. I decided to keep her looking the same, never mind the danger that I was creating a fantasize version of a female super-cop. Human Sam would have a history and an interior life. She’d have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, attributes that could be seen as positive or negative. These would all inform her professional and personal lives.

I decided to give Sam a complicated past, including a childhood tragedy that destroyed her family, left her with unanswered questions, and a mystery that has followed her through the series.

I’m not a cop, nor am I a long-legged, dark-haired beauty. And while I didn’t go through the same level of childhood trauma, Sam and I share the experience of profound loss and repressed grief. Writing about unresolved grief has been an exercise in vulnerability for me. It’s also made Sam a more interesting and, dare I say it, more human character.

In, fact, we have a lot in common. Like me, she once hoped to be a professional singer. Like me, she went through the shock of an unexpected death. Like me, she feels deeply, suppresses those feelings, commits fully to the task at hand, but not to a big picture plan, and makes lists. She overthinks, tends to obsess over certain details, but then gives in to impulse. She loves her dog, and hates to ask for help. 

I’ve thrown a lot of challenges at her, particularly in this latest book. I think she’s up to the task. Knowing that, gives me a modicum of hope for the future.

I don’t necessarily believe one should “write what you know.” What’s the purpose of imagination if it can’t be used? On the other hand, there are human experiences that make the readers relate to the characters whose stories they’re following. Maybe the heroine sleeps with her socks on or favors bourbon. Maybe she’s a stickler for punctuation or binge-watches “Real Housewives.” It’s all good. After all, she’s only human.

—

Nikki is the author of seven books including four in the award-winning Sam Tate mystery series. Learn more at nikkistern.com

JUDGE NOT, Nikki Stern

In the nail-biting fourth installment of the award-winning mystery series, Sam Tate comes up against a clever killer with a warped sense of justice.

Five detectives in five states have two things in common. They’ve all solved serial-killer cases — and they’re all dead, victims of an assailant known as the Judge. As the murderer cuts across the country, the FBI invites Lieutenant Sam Tate to be a part of the investigation. Sam, whose job leaves her feeling desk-bound, is more than willing to accept. She’s got a knack for tracking and catching serial killers. Her skill set makes her an asset to the Bureau. It also marks her as a target.

“Seemingly simple scenes … deliver a surprisingly high emotional punch, setting Stern’s fiction apart from the pack.” ~ Best Thrillers

“Powerful … poignant … delivers a thrilling climax.” ~ Indie Reader

“High-octane drama” ~ D. Donovan, Midwest Book Reviews

New York Times best-selling author Karin Slaughter meets crime fiction master Michael Connelly in this twisty thriller about rectifying the sins of the past.

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing