As a writer, you want your characters to feel human. One of the best ways to do that is to give them opinions. Opinions, large and small.

Whether your reader agrees with your character’s opinions is not as important, as making that character feel real to your reader.

Mystery writers have multiple opportunities to create character opinions. As your sleuth navigates the victim’s world interviewing suspects and discovering clues, give them opinions about suspects and their social place, emotional reactions, and smoke screens.

One of the reasons readers love Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch is because Harry has opinions…about everything.

Opinions make characters relatable. And, the reason they are relatable is because the reader understands their attributes both positive and negative. So don’t be afraid to give a character an opinion that might not resonate with everyone. The humanity of the opinion is what resonates with your reader.

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