Why Every Character Thinks They're Right
Hello, dear readers,
I think I'm probably starting to annoy everyone by talking about characters all the time. But this is a hill I'm willing to die on. Characters are what make a story interesting. Not because you can't have an incredible world, a fascinating magic system, or a perfectly crafted plot. Quite the opposite, those things matter, and they deserve a tremendous amount of respect.
But at our core, we're all human. And people connect with other people. Wars begin because of people. Cities are built because of people. Books are written because of people. We've come all the way from living in caves to building enormous cities. We've created art, technology, and entire civilizations. Human beings are extraordinary.
Maybe that's why I love observing people so much. I know that makes me sound like an alien. I'm not... although I have to admit, that would be pretty cool. I just find human psychology endlessly fascinating. The way we think. The way we love. The way we justify our own decisions.
The more I explore my characters and try to make them feel like real people, the more I've realized there's one rule I never break.
Every character has to believe they're right. Otherwise, you don't have characters. You have functions.
This one is the villain. He gets in the hero's way. This one is the good guy. He helps the protagonist. Yes, the story still works. But the characters remain flat. Real people don't live like that.
Everyone has a reason for becoming the person they are. Childhood trauma. The way they were raised. Wealth or poverty. A loving family. Abandonment. Betrayal. And many more reasons.
Every experience slowly shapes the way we see the world. And most of the time, we genuinely believe our perspective is the right one. That's what makes people so complex. And that's exactly why our characters should be complex too.
While writing the villain in The Puppet King, I had to justify actions in my own mind that I personally consider unforgivable. Not because I agreed with them. But because I needed to understand why he believed they were justified. Where it all began. Where he broke. And how far he would go if no one stopped him.
Because if I, as the author, can't believe my own character, neither will the reader.
The same was true for Alistair, my protagonist. Even though he spends much of the novel questioning himself, he still believes the choices he makes are the right ones in that moment, even when the cost is devastating. Nobody makes decisions believing they're the villain in their own story. They're simply trying to live according to what they believe is right.
I think that's one of the most important parts of creating memorable characters. Don't make them good. Don't make them evil. Make them human. Because when a character genuinely believes they're doing the right thing, even when they're wrong, they begin to feel real.
That's the moment a story truly comes alive.
If you’d like to follow the journey of the book I am writing and see how it’s coming together, you can find more here:
But if you want to, you can see more about my work as a ghostwriter here:
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