149: Writing Morally Gray Characters

 

NOVEL JUMPSTART is open for enrollment on October 7! Get more information here.

Morally gray characters exist in the gray - their actions and choices aren't as clear cut as those of other types ofcharacters. Learn common traits of morally gray characters and how to write them. 

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writting morally gray characters

Hello and welcome to your big creative life Podcast. I'm Katie Wolf. We're back in the co working space today. I'm doing a Instagram story, little I don't know, spend the day with me, thing where I'm posting on my stories, everything I'm working on, and it's funny, like, how so I don't work nine to five. I'm not... I don't have traditional hours, because I work for myself, and I can set my schedule for the most part. I do have a few calls with clients that I'll have. But other than that I set it for myself, and I didn't actually start working until like, 1030 this morning, and I almost put something on Instagram that was like, this is so late, I know, like, because I had a workout class this morning, and then I was stuck behind a train, and it's almost like I was going to apologize to everyone for not starting until 1030 or whatever. And it's like, what?

 

It's so weird. It's just two and a half years later. I quit my job two and a half years ago, and I still have this programming about what a typical workday should be, and all of this stuff about I need to hustle and I need to show that I'm busy, and I need to show that I'm productive. And it's like, it's just so stupid. It's so stupid. I don't need to be performing work for anyone, because who's gonna... I don't know... It's like, I want someone to give me a stamp of approval for that, which is so silly. So today, I'm working from like 1030 to five, maybe 430 because I have to stop at CVS to get something, and then go pick up my daughter at daycare. And then I might do another 30 minutes of work when I get home, I might not we'll see I don't have anything due tomorrow, so it's not like I have to, but, um, yeah, and then tomorrow I will probably start work at 730 because Sam's gonna get up with Audrey, and I'll be able to get started right away. So it just varies.

 

Um, but, yeah. Anyways, it's been kind of fun to share, like, what I'm working on, and I just shared that I'm gonna record a couple podcast episodes. So today we're talking about something that I think is so interesting to talk about. I y'all know I love talking about characters. And I've never done a podcast specifically on morally gray characters. And it was an idea that someone submitted a couple of months ago, actually, and then the episode, this episode topic, just kept getting pushed because there were other things that I had planned or wanted to record, or whatever.

 

And so, yeah, it's a good at time as any let's talk about morally gray characters before we do that real quick. I just want to remind you, if you are listening to this on the day that this is released, let me look at my schedule or schedule quick and make sure that I'm that I've got the dates right here. So October, yes, okay, so October 8, this episode will come out, and if you're listening to this, on the week that it comes out, novel Jumpstart is officially open for enrollment. Novel Jumpstart is a program to takes place over eight weeks, and it's to help new writers write the first 50 pages of their book. It kicks off officially on october 14. That's the start date for the program, and it goes for eight weeks. You get access to an online course. There's a discord group where you can be in community and getting accountability with the other writers who are in the group. The max I'm gonna I'm gonna cap it at eight people. So there's only eight spots open for this on the course the discord group, we have a coaching call that happens every week. It's happening every Wednesday at 1pm Central, and then at the end of the eight weeks.

 

So in December, I will read over your first 50 pages and give you notes and suggestions. So there's also an editing component, which is really valuable, because getting feedback at an early stage can help you spot issues in your plot, issues in your character, instead of waiting until the very end to get that kind of feedback, it can be super valuable to help you course correct and just start to learn more and understand more about story structure, about writing characters, developing conflict world, building all of these pieces that are so essential when it comes to writing a book. So check out novel jumpstart if you're interested. Again, just eight spots open. We start Monday, October 14. And, yeah, I think that's everything. You can always DM me on Instagram if you have question about it.

 

Okay, morally gray characters. So what I want to do in this episode is just give you some traits of morally gray characters, because I think this will do two things. Number one, it's going to help you spot morally gray characters in fiction, but then number two, it's also going to help you understand how to write a morally gray character, if that's something you're interested in, because morally gray characters appear a lot in fiction. They're really fun to read. They're fun to write, because they represent the complexity of humans. They're not one thing, they're not pure good, they're not pure evil. And it's just, it's fun to dive into that. So the traits of a morally gray character, if this is a term that you are not familiar with, and you're hearing me talk about this for the first time, basically it just means a character who lives in this gray area, this morally ambiguous area where, like I mentioned good and evil a second ago, they're not in the completely in the good spectrum, but they're not completely in the evil spectrum either. They're somewhere in the middle.

 

But the good person, the good character, right? The protagonist in the classic kind of hero's journey that we think about this person? Yes, they have a goal. Yes, they have a motivation, something that they want in the story, but they're not going to go to any length to get that thing. They do still have this, this moral code that prevents them from making decisions that will cause suffering for other people, whereas a morally great character doesn't have those same issues. They're not wrestling with that decision the same way that a pure kind of like good soul, a good character would. They know that there are going to be consequences for their decisions, for their behavior, their actions, but they don't care, because the things that they want, it outweighs whatever the negative costs, whatever the consequences might be.

 

So it's not black and white, it's gray. That's essentially what that term means. First trait of a morally gray character is they want what they want, regardless of the cost, and have a reason for why they want what they want. This is a piece that is key for a character, if they are truly morally gray, they are very clear on what they want, which, if you've heard me talk about characters before, you know that this is something I recommend for all characters, is having some kind of goal or motivation, something that's propelling them forward in the story, like, what does your character want? But it's really true for morally great characters they have, they have things that they want, and they want those things regardless of regardless of what it costs to get that thing. If you think about a traditional kind of hero, like the good guy, the good girl, that sounds weird to say it, it sounds like a different meaning.

 

So figuring out what this character wants is going to be essential in the writing process, because it's going to affect so many other things in terms of the character's decisions, behavior, etc. And this is true. I mean, real quick. Let me just say when I'm talking about traits here, I'm focusing more on traits of morally gray characters who are either the main character or an important character in the book, like an important side character. So it can work for it can work for either love interest, anything like that. So they want what they want, when they want it, regardless of the cost, and they have a reason for why they want what they want. They do have Trait number two is they do have a code of morals, but it's just that those morals, that moral code, may not match anyone else's. It might not match society's code of morals. If you think about our world that we live in our society? I mean, yes, this varies a bit depending on where you live, but for the most part, we have a kind of cultural, societal understanding of like what, what is good behavior and what is bad behavior and a morally gray character, if you're writing them in our world, their actions, decisions, their thinking, might not necessarily line up with that code of morals that the rest of us kind of operate under, but they do still have their own code of morals, going back to that whole spectrum of good versus evil.

 

Your morally, morally gray character is not all the way over on the spectrum of pure evil. Because if you have a character who is just pure evil, they do not care. They literally do not care who suffers. They don't. They're not doing anything out of love. They're not doing anything to protect anyone, like it's just, they're just pure evil. They probably don't really. Have a code of morals, a code of ethics, that they operate under. But a morally gray character does. It's just that their definition of those things is looser. They have their own internal guidance about about those things. Later on, I'm going to give you some examples of morally gray characters. So if you're not quite tracking all of this yet, or it feels kind of fuzzy. Maybe some examples will help. So just stay tuned for that next.

 

The next trait of a morally gray character is they have deep feelings, even if that's not always evident to the other characters in your book, they're not just brooding and pissy and sulking or sullen, or whatever adjective we might use to describe, I'm thinking particularly of male, male, morally gray characters. They have a rich inner life. They have a lot of feelings. They have fears that they're they're dealing with and working through, but they're not necessarily revealing that to people. And why I mention male, morally gray characters specifically is because I actually see this a lot, both in client manuscripts that I'm editing, but then also books that I just read for fun, because I read a lot of fantasy, I guess I'm this is more specifically for fantasy or like speculative fiction. I see a lot of male, morally gray characters where it's clear what the writer is doing. It's clear that this character is ambiguous. There's a there's a level of grayness to how they're operating.

 

It's not the pure good, pure evil kind of black and white situation. So it's clear that that's how the reader is meant to interpret this character. But what ends up happening is that the character comes off as just like, they have a lot of jaw clenching, they're very sullen. They're like dark and handsome and brooding, and we love that they're intense, and we love that that's so fun, it's definitely sexy, and pulls us in and all that stuff. But there has to be more underneath this third surface. There has to be more to this character than just the morally gray sort of possibly kind of dangerous bad guy who's sexy and clenches his jaw a lot like there has to be more to the character than just that.

 

 So if you are writing a character who is morally gray, who is a male and who maybe is in one of those genres that I mentioned, just take care to not it's just become such a trope, I feel at this point. So see if there's a way that you can mix that up. And tropes exist for a reason. There's a reason that that works so well, especially in something like romanticy. But again, just make sure that you're not kind of like limiting the character, especially if he is a really main character or the main character, that you're not limiting the character to just those things go go a few layers deeper with who they are. And then another trait that I want to share this is this is one that's not true in every circumstance, but in most cases, this is true that they have a background, or a backstory that explains why they are the way that they are. Again, this is not true in all cases.

 

And if you have a morally gray character who's just a side character, and yeah, maybe they play a somewhat of a big role in the plot, but they're not, they're not the focus of the book, then maybe we don't have an opportunity to really dive into their backstory in great detail to understand why they are the way that they are. They might just be that way. But in a lot of cases, these characters have a history. They They didn't just they weren't just born being morally gray. Events happened over the course of their life that shaped them into the person that they are today, to the outlook that they have, how they view the world, how they relate to other people, the things that they care about, how easily they trust or don't trust. Like all of this stuff is just a stew, and it mirrors real life, right?

 

If you think of a morally gray person in real life, well, not even just a morally gray person, if you think of just a person in real life, we are shaped by our experiences, and it doesn't mean that because we have X, Y and Z experience that will naturally lead us to be this way. And it doesn't mean that we can't overcome and move past those things. Of course we can. It's just that all of that plays a role in our worldview, especially if we don't do anything to shift it and change it intentionally. So the same is true with your K Characters, and especially the morally gray characters. Okay, so those are the traits that I want to cover. That's not completely comprehensive, like it doesn't cover every nuance of morally gray characters, but that gives you a good baseline, a good understanding, so that when you are reading, you can start to identify these characters more easily.

 

And then also when you're writing, hopefully it'll be a little bit easier to write these kinds of characters. I'm going to give you a few examples, and I'm going to give you some examples from like TV or movies as well, because sometimes that's a little bit easier to wrap your head around conceptually. Okay, the first one, I'm going to be totally honest, whenever anyone talks about a morally gray character, and it's a it's a male character. The first thing I immediately think of is Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. I don't even care that I'm a 37 year old woman admitting this. I love The Vampire Diaries. It's like my comfort show. I rewatch it probably like once a year. It's It's so silly. It's just escapism. It's, I just love it. Damon Salvatore is a great example of a morally gray character, because, and if you've never seen the show and you have no idea what I'm talking about, this will go over your head, but you can always just do a little bit of research to familiarize yourself with his character or the show.

 

So he is morally ambiguous, morally gray, because he makes decisions based on what he wants and who he wants to protect, and he does not care who gets hurt in the process. He's a vampire, so he has this element of like ruthlessness to him anyways, just because of the nature of what he is. But he as he starts to care about Elena and fall in love with Elena like He will do anything to protect her. He will kill he will manipulate people. He will do anything it takes to protect her. So he has a code of morals. He's extremely loyal. He's very loving. There's a lot going on underneath the surface. He has fear, he has all these deep emotions. But the way that he that's not always the way that he presents and he he again, he has a code of morals.

 

There are lines that he will not cross, but those lines get pushed further and further and further, and he does stupid things. He makes mistakes, but a lot of his decisions and behaviors are driven solely because he loves Elena and he wants to protect her at all costs, whereas other characters who care about her do care what the consequences are, and they're not willing to have to cause other people to suffer in order to protect her. So he's, like, kind of a classic example. Another example is Elizabeth Salander from girl the dragon tattoo. I love these books, the movie, I've seen both of the movies, and they're fine, but I really love the books, and I wanted to choose a female character because she does not fit the kind of like tall, dark and handsome, brooding male that we get in fantasy a lot of times, who is morally gray.

 

So Lisbeth has her own morals. She has a code that she lives under, but it doesn't necessarily match society's rules and society's kind of morals that are pushed upon her, but she has a very clear sense of justice, right. If you think about the behavior, if you think about the kinds of things that she's involved in, she has this sense of justice, and she wants to hold people accountable and see things made right. But the way that she goes about it, she doesn't necessarily care that people might get hurt along the way, in big ways or small ways. And yeah, so, so she's an example of a morally gray character as well. If you are, if you want more examples of morally gray characters.

 

There's, I'm sure, a lot of good resources on like Google or something that you could look at if you want some for movies or TV shows or books or whatever. But yeah, morally gray characters, like I said in the beginning, are really fun to read about, because there's a complexity to them that mirrors real life and makes a character feel real and authentic. It makes the world and the book feel real and authentic. And they're also fun to write. They're really fun to write. I was going to share about my own experience writing one, but I'm actually not going to, because it plays into um, yeah, it plays into a mystery in my book that, I mean, at this point, who knows if it will even get published, but I want to hold off on that.

 

So, yeah, I think that's all I'll say about morally great characters. Keep these traits in mind. Look for examples when you. Or reading or watching stuff, because it'll it'll get easier to spot, and you can also start to see different versions of morally gray characters, like I said, they're not all male and tall, dark and handsome and brooding and doing whatever they want to or whatever they need to, to protect the person that they love. That's just kind of like the most common iteration that we see of this. So all right, thank you for listening. I hope that this was helpful, and thank you to whoever suggested this as an episode topic. I will catch you next week. Thank you so much for listening.

Katie Wolf