on Writers Helping Writers:

No matter who your protagonist is—a formidable galactic emperor, a morally complex teenager, or the retiree down the street with too many cats—readers must find something fundamentally relatable about them, something that resonates with their own human experience. This causes them to feel bonded to the character in a way they didn’t expect, and we need that to happen to get them invested in the story.

Tapping into our reader’s psyche to pull on their emotions is essential. Often writers focus on likeability, giving a character admirable traits, a passion, or a noble mission that readers can get behind. But the secret sauce is something more subtle yet nuanced: emotional common ground.