Character Development: Morally Grey Characters

hello everybody today I'm continuing my series on character development by covering another heavily requested topic you guys want to know all about morally great characters so we're gonna talk about feet I'm just kidding we're talking about morally gray characters calm down morally gray characters have become increasingly popular in fiction people eat them up are they good are they bad who cares we love them the problem is there are different interpretations of what constitutes a morally gray character which leaves a lot of writers confuse thus I'm going to try my best to demystify moral greatness so you can write yourself a bunch of shady ass characters first things first I want to give a shout-out to audible who has generously sponsored today's video you guys already know about audible I'm sure but if you're not familiar they feature an unmatched selection of audiobooks in a wide variety of genres like fantasy sci-fi romance and a ton of other selections like news and comedy on top of that they have audible originals which are exclusive audio titles created by celebrated storytellers in literature theater journalism and so on you can get the audible app for free on your phone or your tablet I personally like having it on my phone because then I can listen to audio books while I'm cooking or while I'm doing chores they also have a bunch of membership perks like one free audiobook a month exclusive sales and 30% off all regularly priced audiobooks if you're interested in checking out audio books featuring morally gray characters might I suggest the savior's champion it's a dark fantasy novel with a massive cast most of whom are morally gray so if you like violence and romance give it a listen on audible I have it on good authority that it's the tip even better you can get your first audiobook for free plus two audible originals when you try out audible for 30 days all you have to do is visit audible.com slash Jenna maresi or text jennipher se two five zero zero five zero zero and you know that free audio book can be the savior's champion it's got a love story it's got bloodshed it's got morally great characters what more could you ask for onto the topic we are breaking down the mystery that is the morally gray character in three two one go what is a morally gray character a morally gray character it's a character who is morally ambiguous they've got good traits and bad traits they do good things and bad things one moment they may seem like the good guy the next moment they may seem kinda evil why is this concept so confusing while the definition of morally gray characters may seem straightforward it kinda isn't no one can seem to agree on how heavily we can read into the definition or what additives we can tack on to it there are a few schools of thoughts involving morally gray characters but the two I see most often or as follows first is the simplest option morally gray characters do both good and bad things and have both good and bad motivations looking at this interpretation of moral grayness a hefty chunk of characters fit under this label what do they lean more so toward being a good guy or a bad guy a lot of characters do both good and bad things for a variety of impulses for example Robin Hood steals from the rich which is bad but he gives to the poor which is good so he would be considered morally gray diving in deeper we can look at Tobias from the Savior's champion his primary motivations are helping his family and protecting his girlfriend which are good motivations however he also murders and assists in the murder of several people and while some of those situations are self-defense most are revenge fueled which is a bad motivation thus according to this interpretation Tobias would be seen as morally gray then there's the second interpretation which is a bit more complicated this school of thought believes that morally gray characters commit both good and bad actions however their motivations are hard to determine in this situation the lack of clarity is key their motivations are unclear or unknown looking at Tobias while he does both good and bad things his motivations are very clear thus he wouldn't be considered morally gray similarly a robin hood's motivations are clear so we wouldn't consider him were lee gray either what's my interpretation of moral grayness normally when I do a video like this I try to stay as objective as possible however I can't really continue on to the next points without picking aside thus I'm going to focus on the interpretation that I believe makes the most sense and that's the first one morally gray characters do good and bad things and have both good and bad motivations the reason I lead toward this interpretation is it's pretty common for a character's motivations to be revealed if not initially then as the book or series progresses thus if we look at the second interpretation very few characters would be categorized as morally gray in fact all the characters that I've seen listed alongside this interpretation have had their motivations revealed which directly contradicts the definition even if the motivation isn't explicitly stated it's often showcased through action emotion or dialogue so it's kind of hard to keep the rear in the dark forever if a character has both good and bad motivations I personally believe they're morally grey what are the benefits of writing morally gray characters the biggest benefit is that they're realistic most people even if they're good or bad people are not 100 percent pure or 100 percent evil I consider myself a good person who is motivated by good but I up before and I've made decisions that had some less than pure motivations readers tend to find morally gray characters believable because they're an accurate and often relatable look into the human experience the next benefit of morally gray characters is that they are multi dimension which makes them engaging to read sometimes characters who are just good or just bad can come off as flat because it feels like that's all there is to them they're just a hero they're just evil morally great characters tend to come off a lot more layered because both their assets and flaws are on full display what are the pitfalls to writing morally gray characters the first pitfall is also realism while it's true that most people are not 100% pure or 100% evil a lot of people lean heavily in one direction or the other I'm sure you can think of a lot of people throughout history who have done a ton of horrible things maybe they had a redeeming quality or two but in the midst of prejudice and genocide that doesn't amount to much additionally there have made people who have devoted their lives to others or making the world a better place sometimes people are genuinely good natured there isn't anything inherently wrong with writing morally grey characters because they are prevalent but sprinkling in some evil doers and good doers is a smart idea because they exist to the second pitfall is the unlike ability factor while not all morally grey characters are supposed to be likable many are especially if they're the protagonists problem is when you're juggling both good and bad acts as well as good and bad motivations it can be easy to tip the scales in one direction and turn the audience against the character there are certain line fact once crossed there's no going back the character is now dirt you have to heavily weigh the justifications of their actions and make sure the audience is on board how do I write a sympathetic morally grey character a sympathetic morally grey character is basically a morally grey character that readers root for and there are two components to nailing this first your character needs to wrestle with important decisions that could potentially be really bad if they're perfectly fine with doing something evil then they're gonna be seen as evil bottom line the reader needs to see a struggle either before or after the decision is made maybe they feel guilty after word or maybe they're apprehensive to take the plunge that's not to say that every single less than pure act needs to require shame or a meltdown if there's a more full about every little thing they're just gonna look like a big old wimp and that's embarrassing but they should give a about the big things and their actions should have consequences when relevant the second point is that certain lines cannot be crossed because once you do so you're gonna lose a big chunk of your audience the lines in question are subjective so my advice would be to take a look at your own personal lines for example if I'm reading about a morally grey character who turns out to be a bigot and that's it there's nothing you can do to make me like him at this point to figure out where you draw the line and keep your character away from it that's not to say they can't do terrible things it's just that certain things are impossible to recover from especially when there's absolutely zero justification that's like our for you today don't forget to check out audible you can get your first audio book for free as well as to audible originals when you check out audible for 30 days all you have to do is visit audible.com slash Jenna maresi or text Jenna mercy to five zero zero five zero zero I've got the information in the description below the savior's champion is available on audible so if you want to check out some amazing morally gray characters and you want to check them out for free give the savior's champion alissa non audible now don't forget to subscribe my channel I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you want to be alerted as soon as I upload ring that bell and be sure to follow me on social media I'm on Instagram Tumblr Facebook and of course you can tweet me at generosity bye hey this is Nick the voice of Tobias and the narrator for the savior's champion written by our Jenna if you enjoy her writing advice or if you want to find out about her publications then you know what to do click subscribe button being the Bell get notified every single time she puts up a video or she goes live now what you're waiting for

Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

Views: 72,121

Rating: 4.9569545 out of 5

Keywords: write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, book, books, author, novel, literature, ebook, publish, publishing, jenna moreci, audible, audiobooks, audiobook, booktube, authortube, writing tips, writing advice, writing motivation, writing inspiration, publishing tips, publishing advice, character development, how to write a book, writing a book, tips for writing a book, morally grey characters, morally gray characters, morally grey, how to write morally grey characters, writing moral grey

Id: mB7mJQepfVc

Length: 10min 56sec (656 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 13 2019