1.2 Lin Anderson

To what extent do I think readers form a relationship with my characters? This is interesting. It is undoubtedly at the heart of a series. Readers come back for more because they want to be back with the characters. They want to experience them at work and at play. They become real. That’s very important.

If you have a long-running series that has a major villain as a character, which some series do. I’m thinking about possibly in Rebus. These got a major character that goes throughout and they become part of that world and play important roles in it. So they are very important, both your protagonist and your villain. We empathise with our difficulties and successes. People get annoyed, readers get annoyed or angry with them when they make what they think are wrong decisions in their relationships and in their world of work. They also enjoy the humour and the camaraderie. They become, and I quote from many readers, ‘old friends’.