My hero needs to get other characters to trust him, let him guide them through dangerous situations. He is trying to win the villain’s trust without destroying the heroine’s faith in him.

Becca Puglisi wrote a good post on how to gain someone’s trust. This is a useful skill for my current hero to possess, so I’m going to try to include some of these traits in his portrayal.

• Good at listening to people
• Quick to pick up clues from body language
• Able to control the situation without coming across as manipulative. So he has to appear caring, willing to use his people-reading skills for a good cause.

Might be useful if I ever want to take up a career as a con artist. I suppose there are some similarities between that career and writing. An author is someone who tries to persuade readers that characters she made up really exist, even if only between the covers of a book.