How To Write Morally Gray Heroes Antiheroes Writing Tips And Tricks Every morally ambiguous character must strike a balance between good and evil. as the author, it’s your job to compare and contrast those balances through the ebb and flow of the narrative. 2. heroic traits. since your grey characters need balance, then they must show some positive traits. Even if the morally grey character is 75% a jerk and 25% okay. as always, there must also be a strong 'why' behind what makes the character behave in good ways, as well as bad. using the example from before: the orphan urchin character may value someone who keeps their word since they have trouble trusting people due to their upbringing. hence.
How To Write Better Heroes And Protagonists P S Hoffman 3. they need to still have a system of core values to abide by. even morally grey characters have an internally consistent scale of, well, morality (albeit on their own terms). give your character a code to live by that even they wouldn’t break. 4. Give your hero multiple motivations with varying degrees of importance and immediacy. these goals can do many things: tempt and distract your hero. guide them toward their main goal. or simply sit in the background, to flesh out your hero more. for example, frodo seeks to destroy the ring…. In general, these are some of the reasons we love morally gray characters: 1. they’re human. look, i’m not saying that all the other characters don’t have human characteristics or aren’t realistic. but… the other characters are usually one dimensional in terms of their morals, and that isn’t realistic enough. A morally grey character is one whose actions and motivations cannot be easily classified as good or evil. they may do things that are considered wrong. however, for reasons we can understand them or even sympathize with. a morally grey character might steal food to feed their family or kill someone in self defense.
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