A great storyteller is like a good stripper.  They are both suggestive in ways that keep your attention.  They titillate, leaving one more interested, more intrigued.  Even though everyone knows how it will end, there is anticipation.  Protagonists and antagonists alike should be unveiled.  It is far more interesting to glimpse their attributes over time instead of being rudely exposed like some photo in Hustler.

The characters of tier one writers slowly tease the reader.  They evolve over time.  Personality traits are gleaned, inferred, and deduced from other characters comments. Peeks at what is behind the veils, the fans, or the bubble.  Writing a page turner doesn’t mean that you cram in as much detail as quick as you can.  As Jack Carr says, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”. 

Why is Court Gentry such a huge fan favorite?  Because Mark Greaney slowly revealed his protagonist over many books. In Mark’s fourth book, DEAD EYE, Gentry is forced to consider if he is a borderline sociopath.  Even after eight books, we are still learning what makes Sierra Six tick.  Which is why the upcoming Gray Man novel ONE MINUTE OUT, the first to be told in the first person perspective, is so intriguing.

Character development should not fit neatly into some kind of thriller Caliper Profile.  Otherwise the story turns cliché. Take the Charles Cumming character In A SPY BY NATURE and THE SPANISH GAME as a perfect example of a protagonist not fitting into a box.  Love him or hate him, Alec Milius is interesting.  

Characters are people, so ditch the one dimensional motivations.  Describe their messy, conflicted personalities.  Brad Thor is brilliant at getting into the heads of the baddies and telling their side of the story.  Brad humanizes them.  By not treating them as caricatures, they become truly terrifying. 

And for recurring characters in a series, take a page from Jo Rowling, she never once repeated the same character description.  Don’t copy and paste descriptive sentences from past books.  Each character should have new descriptions that reflect their growth and changes.  If you don’t care enough about your characters to uniquely describe them, why should the readers?

The most memorable and beloved characters are never perfect specimens, rather, they are people who know how to best use their assets.  The thriller genre needs more Sally Rand and less Stormy Daniels.