Why I Love The “Outsider” In Fiction

I was an only child on a block of big families. The daughter of immigrants in an All-American town. A hippie-type in an era of the preppie look. It’s no wonder I gravitated to books and writing. I was an outsider in my world. I needed a place of belonging. Stories provided that. I never gravitated to traditional books about girl groups, but chose narratives about precocious, observant children, who saw beyond the status quo and yearned for something more. Something deeper.

I can still remember the first novel I deeply feel in love with when I was about 15. It was James Clavell’s Shogun, the sprawling saga of an English seaman who is shipwrecked in feudal Japan in 1600. He is the ultimate outsider—a European plunged into an exquisitely sophisticated and cloistered culture. I became fascinated with Japanese culture, eventually spending four months in Japan in my early twenties.

My fascination with characters who “don’t quite fit in” continued into motherhood. I was one of the first moms to discover J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series long before it became a cultural phenomenon. I was immediately drawn in by the contrast between Harry’s dull, unmagical life with the Dursleys and the wizarding world in which he belonged. As a mystery reader, I fell in love with Attica Locke’s portrayals of a black Texas Ranger who is torn between his allegiance to his identity and his career, and Japanese-American author Joe Ide’s portrayal of Isaiah Quintabe, a black high-school dropout who solves cases with street smarts and clever observation.

My own two mystery series feature characters who are outsiders in the worlds they inhabit. My first mystery series was set in the New York City Fire Department, a macho institution that, even today, is still 99 percent male.

My protagonist, Georgia Skeehan, was a five-foot-four-inch female firefighter-turned-fire-investigator who proved she could go toe-to-toe with the men. My current series is about Jimmy Vega, the child of a Puerto Rican single mother, who is a homicide detective in a white suburban county that has recently had an influx of Latin-American immigrants.

Throughout the series, Jimmy is torn between his duty to the law and his cultural connection to the immigrants he comes into contact with. It’s a constant battle for him, given that he forsook much of his faith and culture when he married his Jewish psychologist wife and raised their daughter in her faith (they’re now divorced). His mother’s murder has sharpened his sense of guilt over his decisions.

Writing about a protagonist who doesn’t fit in with their environment is a good way to get readers quickly vested in a story.

Movies and television shows do this all the time. Think of the sheriff in Jaws who patrolled a beach town but couldn’t swim. Or the detective on the series Monk who was germophobic. We’ve all had situations where we’ve been thrust into something unfamiliar—a job, a social setting, an exercise class. Everyone else seems to be competent except us. How comforting it can be to read about someone else who is clueless. Nobody reading my Georgia Skeehan/FDNY series can fail to notice that she’s this short female in a crowd of big macho men.

Or that Jimmy Vega is a dark-skinned Latino, originally from the Bronx, who has more in common in many ways with the immigrants than he does with his Irish- and Italian-American colleagues.

Here are a few ways to make your characters stand out from their settings:

Gender/Heritage/Ethnicity

While I don’t suggest writing about cultures you aren’t familiar with, there is nothing wrong with giving your character some background that you do feel comfortable exploring. Think how much Dwight Schrute’s Pennsylvania Dutch background plays into his character on The Office. I loved the mystery series by Julia Dahl about Rebekah Roberts, a journalist whose mother escaped from the ultra-orthodox Jewish community and who now must go back and help investigate a murder there.

Skills/Fears/Longings

If you are writing a story set in the wilds of Alaska, an opera buff and wine connoisseur from New York City who can’t jump a battery in sub-zero weather is going to stand out (not to mention, freeze.) Don’t forget unspoken longings. Some of the best tension is between what a character desires that he never admits to, whether it be a desire to leave his job, reconcile with a parent or win someone’s affection. In my current series, Jimmy Vega never wanted to be a cop. He wanted to be a guitarist in a rock band. His daughter’s unexpected birth undermined his plans. He’s a good cop, but that longing for something more is always there.

Birth/Physical appearance/Disabilities

My Georgia Skeehan firefighter character isn’t just a woman, she’s a short, slight woman. Harry Potter is an orphan. Jeffery Deaver’s character, Lincoln Rhyme, is a brilliant criminologist. He’s also a quadriplegic. It’s not just about giving your character these traits, but about digging deeply into how that affects their work and their thinking. Deaver has often spoken about how he never wanted to make Rhyme’s injuries heroic, and throughout the series, he has often let Rhyme be angry about what happened to him. That’s what readers identify with: the honesty of the portrayal.

Readers and writers love characters who buck the norms, so don’t be afraid to write quirky protagonists who don’t fit the world they’re in.

You can’t move a crowd by standing in the middle of it.

—

Suzanne Chazin is a former journalist and the award-winning author of two suspense series. Her latest stars Hispanic homicide detective Jimmy Vega, an upstate New York cop wrestling with the new suburban melting pot and his own complicated place in it.  

   The series has received glowing reviews for its authentic portrayal of immigrants and its timely and realistic storylines. Suzanne drew inspiration for the books from her volunteer work with immigrants and her own childhood as a first-generation American. Voice with No Echo, the fifth and latest installment, was just released.

   Suzanne’s prior mystery series stars Georgia Skeehan, a New York City firefighter-turned-fire-investigator solving arsons in the macho world of the FDNY. USA Today called the series, inspired by her husband, an FDNY veteran, “searing and emotionally explosive.” 

   When she’s not writing, Suzanne can be found burning dinner, helping with homework and trying to find her muse beneath two feet of laundry. Find her at: www.suzannechazin.com. 

 

VOICE WITH NO ECHO

A long-buried family secret and a chance encounter with an estranged sibling force police detective Jimmy Vega to confront his deepest fears in this gripping new mystery by award-winning author Suzanne Chazin . . .

It’s spring in Lake Holly, New York, a time of hope and renewal. But not for immigrants in this picturesque upstate town. Raids and deportations are on the rise, spurring fear throughout the community.

Tensions reach the boiling point when the district attorney’s beautiful young bride is found hanging in her flooded basement, an apparent victim of suicide. But is she, wonders Vega? If so, where is her undocumented immigrant maid? Is she a missing witness, afraid to come forward? Or an accessory to murder?

Vega gets more help than he bargained for when Immigration and Customs Enforcement sends an investigator to help find—and likely deport—the maid. It’s Vega’s half-sister Michelle, the child who caused his father to leave his mother. Now an ICE agent, Michelle tangles with Vega and his girlfriend, immigrant activist Adele Figueroa. The law is the law, Michelle reminds Vega. And yet, his heart tells him he needs to dig deeper, not just into the case but into his past, to a childhood terror only Michelle can unlock.

While Vega searches for the demon from his youth, he discovers one uncomfortably close by, erecting a scheme of monstrous proportions. It’s a race against the clock with lives on the line. And a choice Vega never thought he’d have to make: Obey the law. Or obey his conscience. There’s no margin for error . . .

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips