So is it possible to ethically write characters or circumstances that go against your personal beliefs, code of honor, and/or standards?
It’s not an easy thing to do, for sure, but to a point, I’d say yes. Allow me to provide an example:
In college, I took classes dealing with European Socialism and Fascism. In one of the classes, we were asked to recreate the Nuremberg Trials. I was asked to play one of the defense attorneys in the debate and to come up with a viable defense for the Nazis that I would be representing.
My grandfather fought in WW2 and helped liberate one of the German labor camps. It was something he refused to talk much about, if at all. So coming up with a defense for people who committed such monstrous acts was… well… I wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. However, I sucked it up, because I wanted a good grade and frankly, I found the subject interesting. I wanted to see how it would play out.
However, I told the professor that under no circumstances would I use Holocaust denial as a defense. In my mind, that was going too far. She thankfully understood.
In writing, I’ve done the same thing. I’ve created characters in my stories that don’t share my views, and I haven’t always made them bad guys either. Going against your beliefs is uncomfortable, admittedly, but it also makes you think outside the box and embrace other thought processes in order to create a realistic perspective. Do you want to understand why/how someone could allow other people to suffer like they did in the 1940s? Do you want to understand how such evil occurs?
Well as someone who has tried to understand it and done heavy research into the whole mess that was WW2, I can honestly say that you’re not going to get very far unless you try to look at things from the perspective of the people who committed such evils. You have to get into their background, get into their mind frame, and understand what brought them to that point where something like mass murder was okay. I’m not saying come up with excuses for such deplorable and disgusting actions, but simply to take a look at things from the other side.
This analogy is, in my mind, how you create a perfect villain. When writing the bad guy, put yourself in his shoes. How does he react to outside stimulus, what brought him to where he is? Does he have any mental deficiencies? Could he have been good had just a few set of circumstances happened differently? Nature vs. Nurture.
But I’m getting off track…
So to put it simply, unless you plan on writing a very linear story, going against your beliefs and thinking outside the box is not only possible… it’s actually essential in many cases. Don’t be afraid to try it, and feel free to leave comments below discussing how you feel about such things.
Thanks Friends,
Catch you on the flip side,
Jim
James Harringtons Creative Work 
I agree in that we, as storytellers, need to create a multifaceted experience to avoid a one dimensional world. However, stepping too far away from the box can endanger who we are; therefore, we run the risk of losing who we are. Thank you for your post. It has challenged me to stretch myself and not look at my stories from a single point of view.
LikeLike
I agree, creating a character that goes againat our beliefs and core values stretches our creativity and helps us grow as a writer. Plus, sometimes we need a really bad villain so our hero grows as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I totally understand that too, and am still working on it currently in my own book 🙂 Research into that mindset that you don’t agree with helps a lot. Thanks for the advice!
LikeLike
You’re quite welcome, I’m glad it helped!
LikeLike
Very interesting read. I totally agree. It’s definitely all about the fact that without evil(especially in stories) there can be no good. Very smart thing to learn about if you want to put some good conflict in the story.
LikeLike
Too often this is taken to mean that there doesn’t exist principled people; that everyone is a shade of grey, and it’s very boring to read, & quite cowardly to write. It’s not the 90s — a character doesn’t have to be flawed to be interesting; there just has to be enough conflict and challenge, — a villain doesn’t have to be sympathetic to be realistic; surely we learn this from real life!
Great article, though! And I do agree that you have to move out of your comfort zone and against your beliefs to write true characters, as all people do not share your principles!
LikeLike
I very much agree, but I’d go a bit further. Most well written protagonists (especially in realistic fantasy) seem to differ from their author in pretty major ways. I’d like to think that most authors today wouldn’t dream of killing someone if they could possibly avoid it, yet books feature this kind of violence all the time without going into ethics at all. I think this has a lot to do with point of view and situation. The world we live in changes how we see things quite a lot, so the characters need to change too. This would be especially important if the narrative spends any time at all in the antagonist’s head. It seems that to write a character from their own point of view would definitely require some level of sympathy from the author and giving such an important character less attention would be a disservice to the story.
A very good post, thank you for sharing.
LikeLike
I found that an easy way of doing this outside active debate of existing characters is to roleplay in gaming. Plenty of electronic and pen/paper RPGs give you options to explore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In order to avoid conflicts in real life, I’ve often tried to see things from others’ point of view. This has really helped me to understand different people better. I really hope that I’m able to put my knowledge to good use when writing. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
In my work I’ve done all sorts of stuff that goes all over the place ,my beliefs are mine, but when it comes to writing I try to separate my self from my work,great post
LikeLike
I tend to agree. It has really eveolved my writing, learning to get into the mind of the dark side, trying to justify the hurtful things that people (even my characters) do. Sometimes peple really do believe they are right, even if they are completely delusional. Other times they are so caught up in a situation, even being manipulated by a greater power, that theu do bad things in the name of good (I daresay, even love). Readers (or viewers, or listeners) might feel uncomfortable making a connecion to the dark side, feeling compassion for hubris and delusions and mistakes, but the fact is, it’s a part of all of us. Everyone has the potential to do harm, just as they have the ability to help and heal, and it just takes the right set of circumstances for the darkness to express itself. As they say, hurt people hurt people. Thanks for reading, and keep on writing!
LikeLiked by 1 person