I have a strange problem when it comes to writing bad people in fiction. When I first write them, I’ll make them despicable and totally unlikeable. But the problem is, I eventually start to enjoy writing as them and the more I enjoy writing as them the less ‘bad’ and unlikeable they become. You see, when I write as a character a lot, I then can’t help but make them a little more sympathetic, even if they are generally quite flawed. I think it ties in to how I view the world; I know some people will tell you that some people are ‘just bad’ but I don’t agree with that at all; nobody is ‘just bad’ and while people do sometimes realise that their actions are not ‘right’ that doesn’t mean that they are just a ‘bad person’ and to believe that is the case is a rather black and white way of viewing things. In fiction, a villain often is portrayed in a very black and white sort of a way, but I nearly always end of writing them more as anti-heroes after a while, rather than plain villains. I’m not entirely sure whether this is a strength or a weakness, but it is an interesting pattern I have noticed in my work…
