How Characters Make My Stories Interesting

I don't write mysteries about detectives solving cases. I write stories about people who happen to be solving cases.

There's a difference.

When you crack open one of my novels, you're not just picking up a thriller set in Oregon. You're meeting Sheriff Maxwell Wilcox, who's doing his best in a county that keeps throwing bodies at him. You're sitting across from deputies who've known each other since high school and give each other hell. You're watching a tracker read the forest floor because he wants something better for his granddaughter.

These are the people who keep me writing. Not the plot twists. Not the murders. The people.

What Makes a Character-Driven Story Different

Plot-driven stories race you to the finish line. Character-driven stories make you want to slow down and stay awhile.

In The Good Sheriff series, the tension comes from who these people are and what they're carrying. A family secret. A grudge. A lie they told twenty years ago that's finally coming back around. The crimes are real, the stakes are high, but the heart of the story is always about the people trying to navigate it.

Take the Oregon setting. It's not just backdrop. The forests, the small towns, the highways cutting through nowhere, these places shape the people who live there. You can't separate a character from the place they come from. The landscape gets into their bones.

What you'll find in character-focused storytelling:

• Real relationships with history and friction

• Choices that matter because you care who's making them

• Tension that builds from the inside out

• Settings that reflect what's happening in the characters' heads

  
  

This is the kind of story I want to read. So it's the kind I write.

A mysterious forest path setting the tone for character-driven stories

How Characters Drive the Story Forward

Here's the thing about character-driven fiction: the plot still matters. It has to. But the momentum comes from the characters' decisions, not from some external force pushing them along.

A body shows up. That's the plot. But what drives the story is how Wilcox handles it, what his deputies do when old friends show up asking questions, how a tracker reads the pine needles and broken twigs like they're a map. The suspense is in watching people make hard choices under pressure.

I'm drawn to stories about forgiveness, second chances, the ways people screw up and try to make it right. That's where the real drama lives. Not in the crime itself, but in how it forces people to confront who they are.

When you read character-driven fiction, you're getting more than a mystery. You're getting:

• People who feel real, with flaws and histories

• Relationships that matter as much as the crime

• Tension that comes from within, not just from the plot

• Moments that surprise you because the characters surprise themselves

  
  

The best moments in my books are the ones I didn't see coming. When a character does something that makes me stop and think, yeah, that's exactly what they'd do.

Stephen King Gets It

People ask if Stephen King writes plot-driven or character-driven stories. The answer is both, but the characters are what stick with you.

The Shining isn't scary because of the hotel. It's scary because of Jack Torrance. Because we watch him unravel. Because his family is trapped with him. The supernatural stuff is the framework, but the horror is human.

King knows how to create people you believe in, even when they're facing down things you don't. That's the trick. Make the characters real enough that the reader will follow them anywhere.

That's what I'm shooting for. Stories where you care what happens because you care about the people it's happening to.

An old typewriter symbolizing the craft of character-driven storytelling

Why You Might Love This Kind of Story

Readers who come back to character-driven fiction do it because the people feel real. They're flawed. They make mistakes. They're trying, and sometimes that's enough, and sometimes it's not.

These stories dig into the messy parts of being human. Redemption. Identity. The ways we lie to ourselves and each other. The slow work of forgiveness. In The Good Sheriff series, that plays out against the backdrop of Oregon—small towns, big trees, roads that go on forever.

I write about relationships because that's what matters. How people connect. How they fail each other. How they show up when it counts.

If you're looking for stories with heart, a sense of place, and characters who feel like people you might know, that's what I'm trying to give you.

If this sounds like your kind of read, here's what to expect:

• You'll care about what happens because you care about who it's happening to

• The setting will feel like a character itself

• The mystery is the frame, but the people are the picture

• You'll find yourself thinking about these characters long after you finish

  
  

Reading is better when you're part of a community. That's why I write this blog. That's why I want to hear from you.

Why I Keep Coming Back to This

I've been writing in Oregon settings for years now. The landscape matters to me. The people matter to me. The way a story can be about a crime and also about a father trying to make things right with his kid, or a deputy figuring out who she wants to be, or a tracker who just wants to get his granddaughter a safer way to cross the road.

These are the stories I care about. The ones where the mystery is just the frame for something deeper.

Character-driven fiction asks you to slow down. To sit with the people. To let the story unfold the way it needs to. There's suspense, there's tension, there's always a crime to solve. But underneath it all, there's the question of who these people are and what they're going to do about it.

That's the story I'm telling. That's the one I hope you'll stick around for.

If this sounds like the kind of book you want to read, sign up for my newsletter. I'll let you know when the next one's coming. And if you've already read one of my books, reach out and tell me what you thought. I write these stories, but they don't really come alive until someone reads them.

Thanks for being here.