I have a confession.
I am suspicious of characters who are too good.
You know the ones. They always make the right choice. They say the right thing. They sacrifice themselves at precisely the right moment and somehow never have a selfish thought while doing it.
Lovely people.
I don’t trust them.
Give me the character who wants to do the right thing but has approximately seventeen reasons not to.
Give me the person who loves fiercely, screws up spectacularly, makes a decision that has me yelling at my own laptop, and then has to live with what they did.
Those are my people.
Which probably explains a lot about my books.
Nobody Thinks They’re the Villain
One of my favorite things to consider when I’m creating a character is incredibly simple:
Why do they believe they’re right?
Because most people aren’t walking around thinking, Excellent. What terrible thing can I do today?
They have reasons.
Maybe they’re protecting someone.
Maybe they’re terrified.
Maybe they’ve been hurt enough times that hurting someone first feels safer.
Maybe they’ve convinced themselves that the end justifies the means.
Maybe they’re choosing between two terrible options and taking the one they think they can survive.
That doesn’t automatically make their choices acceptable.
It makes them interesting.
There is a huge difference.
I Don’t Need You to Approve of Them
This might be one of my favorite parts of writing darker characters.
I don’t necessarily want readers to approve of everything they do.
Sometimes you’re absolutely supposed to think:
You idiot.
Or:
That was a terrible idea.
Or the ever-popular:
If you two would communicate for approximately thirty seconds, we could avoid half this book.
Unfortunately, characters are terribly inconsiderate about making sensible decisions merely because it would make our lives easier.
But I do want readers to understand them.
There’s something fascinating about reaching a point in a story where you still think a character made the wrong choice, but you understand exactly why they made it.
That’s where things get complicated.
And complicated is fun.
Good People Can Do Terrible Things
The opposite is true too.
A character doesn’t stop being good because they make a bad decision.
People get angry.
They get jealous.
They panic.
They act out of grief.
They protect the wrong person.
They trust someone they shouldn’t.
They say things they can’t take back.
They sometimes choose themselves when everyone expected them to sacrifice.
Those flaws don’t necessarily make someone weak.
They make them human.
Even when the character in question isn’t technically human.
Apparently angels, demons, and supernatural creatures are perfectly capable of making a complete mess of their lives too.
Who knew?
And Sometimes the “Bad Guy” Has a Point
This is where things get especially fun.
I love a story that makes me uncomfortable with how much I understand the person I’m supposed to dislike.
Not because every villain secretly deserves redemption.
They don’t.
Some characters cross lines they can’t uncross.
But a villain becomes much more interesting when their motivation makes sense.
Maybe they’re fighting for something they genuinely believe in.
Maybe they’re trying to protect their world.
Maybe the hero and villain actually want the same thing but completely disagree about how to get there.
Suddenly the conflict isn’t simply good versus evil.
It’s belief versus belief.
Choice versus choice.
And now we’re having fun.
Morally Grey Doesn’t Mean “Bad Boy in Black”
Although, to be fair, I have nothing against black.
Morally grey characters aren’t interesting because they’re dangerous or brooding or capable of dramatically leaning against doorframes.
They’re interesting because they’re contradictory.
They can love someone deeply and still hurt them.
They can be incredibly powerful and terrified of losing the one thing that matters.
They can make selfish choices for understandable reasons.
They can do something heroic without suddenly becoming a hero.
And sometimes they can spend an entire book convincing themselves they don’t care while absolutely everyone reading knows they’re lying.
Including me.
I Want Characters Who Make You Choose
Some of my favorite reader reactions happen when people can’t quite decide how they feel about someone.
You hate him.
Then you understand him.
Then you like him.
Then he does something ridiculous and we’re back to yelling.
Perfect.
Because I don’t want every character neatly filed into GOOD PERSON and BAD PERSON.
I want loyalties to shift.
I want choices to matter.
I want readers wondering what they would have done if they’d been standing in that character’s place.
And if the answer isn’t easy?
Even better.
Because the characters I remember aren’t usually the perfect ones.
They’re the messy ones.
The ones who loved too hard, chose badly, fought like hell, crossed lines, regretted things, refused to regret other things, and somehow made me care about them anyway.
So yes.
The villains have feelings.
The heroes have flaws.
And occasionally it’s difficult to tell which one is which.
That’s exactly how I like it.