People who read fiction books have a desire to escape reality for just a moment. They want to explore another world and Fall In Love with Characters. Or maybe they need to hate a character. Either way, reading a novel brings out a desire to feel something. It can be difficult for a writer to create an environment that allows readers to fall in love with characters and completely submerge themselves in these fictional individuals. Whether you are writing a crime novel or any other kind of novel, you need to create that emotional connection.

If your characters are not well-developed, your readers will have a hard time connecting to them.

One way to really dive deep is to find their deepest desires. Of course, as an author, you decide what these desires are. You decide what your characters will fight for and what drives them. Readers will relate to these desires and this is where the connections are made. If a character doesn't have something to fight for, readers may not be able to relate to them. This makes your novel empty.

Find the purpose

Before you even start writing your novel, you should develop your characters. It may take you a long time to develop these characters, but you can't just start writing and expect to develop a person over time. Instead, try to find something strong about each of your characters. What drives them?

What is their biggest passion? What gets them up in the morning? What would they fight for to the death? What scares them? What absolutely terrifies them?

Knowing the answers to these questions allows you to build characters with motivation. They have a motivation for life, motivation to solve crimes, or the motivation to commit crimes.

There's a driving force behind their actions and this must be relatable to readers.

Motivation can be good and bad

Remember, it's not just your main character that needs a strong motivation. Sometimes, the motivation can really come from anywhere. Maybe a good cop angered a stressed out guy and he becomes the enemy in your book.

He doesn't have to have a dark past, a troublesome childhood, or a psychological illness to commit crimes. It could be a good guy who got angry at the wrong time at the wrong place. Don't think that sounds credible? Think about people with road rage. They may not be killers, but a quick snap can sadly lead to horrible things.

How do you build up your characters' motivation? What is your main character's biggest driving force?
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