Writing Your Way [Writing Tutorial]

Characterisation: Archtypes

Yellow again! You're back for more writing tips, eh? You wanna know how to make a character?

Ok!

Well, there are different types of characters. Here they are with their names;

Morally grey: This character does too much bad to be good and too much good to be bad.

Sympathetic villain: a character who is bad/evil but whose backstory makes you pity them and feel sad or sorry.

Anti-hero: This is a character who does bad things to achieve a good goal. Usually has good intentions.

Anti-villain: a character who does bad things to achieve a goal they believe is good but it's actually not. Like...at all!

Just plain annoying: A character that does bad things to achieve a bad goal but likes to throw in a tragic one-liner to make you feel sorry for them but you are just annoyed.

Now, you can make each of these characters great, it just takes some technique.

Writing a good Morally grey character: Why are they doing what they're doing? Most readers will forgive the morally grey character if they feel like the actions are for a good reason. The reasons could be anything;

-The goal is worth the crimes they've committed.
-They believe they will suffer if they don't
-They believe everyone else will suffer if they don't.
-They believe their actions will benefit in the long run
-They're convinced they'll be hurt if they don't do it

So like, yeah, you get it but it also has to make sense within the context of the story. Their decision should also align with their backstory.

What do they think of their own actions?

Make it clear to the reader what the character thinks about their own actions. An ignorant character's actions might be dismissed if the reader understands they don't (yet) realise they're doing something harmful. A character that already knows their actions are less-than-moral can be sympathised with IF they regret them and wish they could change.

Above all, it's good to show the character has the potential to grow throughout the story. If you give the reader hope that the character is going to try to be a better person at some point, you'll also give them a reason to stick around and offer them something to root for while they do.

Break down their walls

All characters should bend when you put them under too much pressure.

Think Luisa from Encanto! If you haven't seen the movie, basically Luisa is under a lot of stress and the more stressed from the pressure from her family, she starts to lose her powers and has to find a new source of motivation.

Anyway, it'll show a side of them which doesn't normally come out. As a general rule of thumb, you want to push ALL of your characters through these situations, but it's especially beneficial for morally grey characters. Show what your character is like through different emotions;

-Furious
-Incredibly Vulnerable
-Forced to protect someone they love (physically or emotionally)
-Proven wrong about something
-Given something they never thought they'd ever receive. (a present, love, etc)
-Let them fail drastically when they were so sure they'd succeed

In any of these situations, does your character's morally grey trait take over their actions? In which of these situations is that trait dropped entirely revealing who the character is beneath their usual actions?

Give them someone to trust

This can be someone they already knew prior to the start of the story or someone they grow to trust over the course of the book or series. This person should be/become a person the morally grey character can interact with in ways beyond their usual morally grey actions.