#232. 5 Tips For Crafting Morally Gray Characters Readers Love

Discover the five craft techniques that make morally gray characters impossible to put down—so you can write complex, compelling figures readers will argue about, defend, and love despite everything.

Morally gray characters are some of the most memorable in fiction. Think Cersei Lannister (Game of Thrones), Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows), Severus Snape (Harry Potter), or Amy Dunne (Gone Girl). These are the characters readers can't stop thinking about long after the book is finished.

But what actually makes them work? It's not randomness or shock value. And it's definitely not just "bad person with a sad backstory." It's intentional craft.

In this episode, I'm breaking down five tips for writing morally gray characters that feel authentic, nuanced, and impossible to look away from—whether you're writing fantasy, thriller, romance, or any other genre.

You'll hear me talk about things like:

• [02:45] What "morally gray" actually means and how it differs from the antihero—so you can stop conflating the two and start building true moral complexity.
• [04:25] How to create a character worldview that justifies their actions, including the role of backstory, goals, and the personal code that reveals what they truly value.
• [07:51] Why lose-lose dilemmas are essential for morally gray characters—and how to construct impossible choices that test your character and keep readers emotionally invested.
• [10:05] The importance of letting your character make questionable choices with real consequences—and why softening the gray undermines everything you've built.
• [12:50] How to keep readers invested in a morally gray character even when their choices are hard to stomach (hint: it's not about making them likable).
• [14:54] The redemption arc trap most writers fall into—and why the best morally gray characters don't get "fixed" by the end of the story.

If you've ever struggled to write a complex antagonist, a flawed protagonist, or a love interest readers can't quite root for but can't look away from either, this episode will give you the tools to craft morally gray characters with confidence and intention.

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Chapters

• 0:37 What Morally Gray Really Means
• 1:05 Show Intro And Promise
• 1:33 Defining Moral Ambiguity And Antiheroes
• 2:26 Tip 1: Worldview And Moral Code
• 6:05 Tip 2: Design Lose-Lose Dilemmas
• 9:59 Tip 3: Choices With Real Consequences
• 13:22 Tip 4: Reasons To Stay Invested
• 16:27 Tip 5: Resist Easy Redemption

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

So, in my opinion, the best morally gray arcs don't erase that grayness. They instead deepen it, they complicate it, or they force the character and the reader to sit with it. Also, sometimes characters become more morally compromised, not less. Sometimes they find peace without ever fully redeeming themselves. And sometimes they stay exactly who they are, and the story is honest about what that costs them. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo, and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, I'm going to share five tips for crafting morally gray characters that readers can't stop thinking about, even when they're uncomfortable with what those characters do and say. Now, these are the type of characters who linger long after the book is finished. The ones that readers argue about, defend, and love despite everything. Think about characters like Kaz Brecker from Six of Crows, Cersei Lannister from A Game of Thrones, and Severus Snape from Harry Potter, just to name a few. Now, what makes these kind of characters work isn't randomness or shock value. It all comes down to intentional craft, and that is exactly what we're going to break down today. So I'm going to walk you through how to ground your morally gray characters in a worldview that justifies their actions, how to test them with impossible choices, and why you should resist the urge to redeem them too quickly. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear framework for creating morally gray characters who feel authentic, compelling, and impossible to look away from. So let's dive right in with a quick definition of what morally gray actually means. Now, morally gray doesn't mean bad person or villain with a sad backstory. It means a character whose moral compass doesn't align neatly with conventional right and wrong. So they exist in that space between hero and villain, and their choices come from an internal logic that the reader can understand even when they disagree. And this ambiguity is what creates the tension that makes these characters so magnetic. Readers find themselves loving and hating them at the same time. They feel sorry for them, they root for them, and yet they don't always agree with their actions. And that push and pull dynamic is the heart of moral grayness. Now, one quick clarification: morally gray and anti-hero are often used interchangeably, but they're not quite the same thing. An anti-hero is a specific type of protagonist who lacks traditional heroic qualities. Morally gray is broader. It describes any character, so they could be a protagonist, antagonist, love interest, side character, whoever you want, whose morality is ambiguous. So all anti-heroes are morally gray, but not all morally gray characters are anti-heroes. Now, the examples we're going to go over in this episode are primarily from fantasy books, but morally gray characters can thrive in any genre. So think about Amy Dunn from Gone Girl, Walter White from Breaking Bad, or Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Alright, so now that we're on the same page about what morally gray actually means, let's dive into five tips for crafting morally gray characters that feel authentic, compelling, and impossible to look away from. Tip number one is to ground your morally gray character in a worldview that justifies their actions. Now, morally gray characters believe that they're doing the right thing or at least the necessary thing. And to us readers, their worldview might appear to be skewed, but it follows its own logic. And this is the key to crafting a really compelling morally gray character. They need to have that sense of internal logic, and readers need to understand why this character operates in the way they do. And this is important because without that understanding of why the character operates the way they do, the character's behavior and the actions they take, the decisions they make, they're going to feel inconsistent or just plain confusing to readers. So if you're writing a story with a morally gray character, you're going to want to develop that worldview and that internal logic. Now, where does this come from? Well, almost always it's going to be shaped by that character's backstory. So to uncover what this worldview is, what that internal logic is for your character, you can ask questions like, what happened in this character's past that made them the way they are? What did they learn about the world or themselves from those experiences? And then how does this worldview or these beliefs, how do those things show up in the present day or in the story present? All right. So as an example, let's say that you have a character who spent years in survival mode fighting for their safety, their family, and even their next meal. That character's present-day worldview is going to reflect that. And when readers get to know that character a little bit more and they start to understand that life has just taught this person that the world is brutal and unfair, they're going to empathize with them more and they're going to understand why they make the choices they do, even if they don't agree with those choices. Okay, now this isn't just about what a character will do. It's also about what they won't do. And this is where their moral code comes in. So what are the lines that they won't cross? And this is going to reveal to readers what they actually value beneath their grayness. So maybe they'll lie, cheat, and manipulate, but they would never hurt a child. Or maybe they'd destroy their enemies without hesitation, but they would die before betraying their family. Right? So things they will do and things they won't do. All rooted in their worldview and in their moral code. Now, something else to keep in mind when you're developing a morally gray character is that often their greatest strength and their greatest flaw are the same trait. So the thing that makes them effective is also the thing that causes harm. And it's this duality that creates that really juicy internal tension that makes their grayness feel inevitable rather than arbitrary. As an example, consider someone like Cersei Lannister from A Game of Thrones. Cersei's worldview is forged by a lifetime of being underestimated and diminished because she's a woman in a world that rewards men. She believes power is the only protection and her children are the only thing worth protecting. And so one of her biggest goals is to keep her children safe and hold on to power so that nobody can harm them or take them from her. And her fierce love for her children is genuine and sympathetic. It's the most human thing about her. But that same love is what justifies, in her mind at least, every single terrible thing that she does. She will destroy anyone who threatens her children. So her strength and her flaw are the same trait, just viewed from different angles. And that's what makes her impossible to look away from, even when she's being monstrous. Alright, so that is tip number one. You want to ground your morally gray character in a worldview that justifies their actions. Now, tip number two is to put your morally gray character in lose-lose situations. So once you've established who your character is, the next step is to test them. And the best way to reveal moral grayness is to force your character into situations where there's no clean answer. These are situations where every option costs something and where choosing one value means betraying another. So maybe they can save their crew or they can get their revenge, but not both. Maybe they can keep their walls up or let somebody in. Maybe they can protect their reputation or they can decide to show mercy, right? So one or the other, but not both. And these types of impossible choices or lose-lose situations do two important things. First, they reveal what your character truly wants because they have to make a decision. And second, they make readers feel the weight of their moral grayness rather than just observing it from the outside. Because when there's no right answer, readers can't just judge from a comfortable distance. They're forced to go within and ask themselves, what would I do if I was in this character's shoes? So as the writer, your job is to construct these lose-lose situations or these dilemmas intentionally. You'll want to look at your character's worldview, their goal, and their code, and then design situations that put those things in conflict with each other. So think about things like what would force them to choose between two things they value, or what would make them compromise their own code. This is where that really nice, juicy tension lives. Now, one of my favorite examples of this has to do with Kaz Brecker from Six of Crows. And Kaz is constantly caught between impossible choices. His need for revenge, wars with his responsibility to protect his crew, his feelings for Inez, war with his inability to let anyone close. And his trauma makes even simple touch unbearable. But intimacy requires vulnerability, right? And so choosing to protect himself emotionally means pushing away the person he cares about most. Choosing vulnerability feels like annihilation. There's really no clean answer, and that tension drives his entire arc forward. Alright, so that is tip number two. Put your morally gray character in lose-lose situations. Now, tip number three is to let your morally gray character make questionable choices with real consequences. So it's not enough to just put your character in difficult situations. You have to let them make the ugly choice and then make sure that choice costs them something. And so what I mean by this is don't soften the grayness of your morally gray character. If your character only makes bad choices that turn out to be secretly justified, then they're not morally gray. They're a hero with edgy branding. True morally gray characters need to do things that genuinely cost something, things that the reader might not forgive them for, and things that don't always neatly get redeemed. And these kind of choices need real consequences. So damaged relationships, trust that gets lost, guilt they carry, prices they pay, things like that. And this is really important because when a character makes a morally questionable decision and walks away unscathed, it starts to feel like the narrative is letting them off the hook, which we don't want. And this is where many writers pull back too soon with morally gray characters. They want readers to like that character so they cushion the moral impact. But that discomfort is really the point. Readers should sometimes wince, they should sometimes disagree, and they should sometimes wonder if they can even keep rooting for this person at all. Now that said, there is a difference between someone being morally complex and irredeemable, because we all know that certain lines, once crossed, will lose the reader entirely. And you probably already know what that line is. So I just want to be really clear there. A character can do terrible things and still remain compelling, but there are some actions that will make readers close the book. So know where that line is for you, for your character, and for your readers. Alright, now an example from my all-time favorite morally gray character, and that is Severus Snape from Harry Potter. We all know that Snape is cruel to children, he's petty, he's driven by an obsessive love that sometimes borders on possessive, he bullies students, he holds grudges for decades, and he makes Harry's life miserable because of who Harry's father was. But if you've read the series, you know at the end Snape makes a really huge sacrifice for Harry. Now we love him for this sacrifice, but that sacrifice doesn't erase the harm that he caused, right? It just complicates it. So readers are left holding both truths. Yes, he was heroic, and yes, he was also unkind. So the narrative doesn't let him off the hook, and neither do the readers. And that unresolved tension is exactly why he's still being debated, and that unresolved tension is exactly why he's still being talked about decades later. All right, so that is tip number three. Let your morally gray character make questionable choices with real consequences. Now, tip number four is you want to give readers a reason to stay invested in your morally gray character. Moral grayness alone isn't going to make your character interesting. It's just one tool in your toolkit, not a shortcut to complexity. So readers will need a reason to care about your character, something that keeps them rooting for or at least fascinated by this character, even when their choices are hard to stomach. So what does that look like? Well, it could be vulnerability beneath the hard exterior, it could be a relationship that humanizes them, a goal that the reader can get behind even if the methods are questionable, or moments of genuine goodness that complicate the picture. And again, I mentioned this earlier, we want to let our morally gray characters wrestle with their choices. So a character who is perfectly fine doing terrible things will just read as a villain, right? But a character who struggles and who feels the weight of their decisions, even if they do make those decisions anyway, that's going to retain their humanity. So readers need to see that internal conflict, even if it doesn't stop the character from making the quote unquote bad or wrong decision. All right, now the goal here isn't necessarily to make your character likable. Plenty of compelling characters aren't likable. The goal is to make them someone that readers want to keep watching, so someone they can't look away from even when they're not sure they should still be rooting for them. Now, a great example of this is Cardin from The Cruel Prince. He is introduced to readers as a cruel bully who torments the protagonist. There is no obvious reason to root for him, but as the story unfolds, we see the vulnerability beneath his cruelty. We learn about his abusive upbringing, his self-loathing, and his desperate need to be loved. And over the course of the story, we watch him wrestle with who he's been and who he might become. And that crack in his armor is what transforms him from a villain that readers hate into someone that they are desperate and willing to understand. Okay, so that is tip number four. You want to make sure to give readers a reason to stay invested in your morally gray character. Now, tip number five is to resist the redemption shortcut. One of the biggest mistakes writers make with morally gray characters is rushing to fix them. They want the character to learn the lesson, make amends, and become quote unquote good. But the thing to remember is that moral grayness isn't a problem to be solved. It's the whole point. Now, this doesn't mean your character can't evolve. They can definitely grow, change, and make different choices, but that evolution should feel earned and complicated and not just a clean break or a clean pivot from gray to good. And the reason for this is because if your character's arc wraps up too neatly, then it can feel like you're just letting them and the reader off the hook. And it just kind of makes things feel too easy. So, in my opinion, the best morally gray arcs don't erase that grayness. They instead deepen it, they complicate it, or they force the character and the reader to sit with it. Also, sometimes characters become more morally compromised, not less. Sometimes they find peace without ever fully redeeming themselves. And sometimes they stay exactly who they are, and the story is honest about what that costs them. Alright, so just some things to keep in mind. And an example of a morally gray character that I want to give for this tip is Rin from the Poppy War. So Rin begins the story as a scrappy underdog fighting her way out of poverty. But by the end of the series, she's someone who has committed genocide. So her arc doesn't redeem her, it actually darkens. And Rin becomes more morally compromised as the story progresses. And the narrative doesn't flinch away from that. It doesn't excuse her choices or soften the impact. So by the end, her moral grayness isn't resolved, it's confronted. And that's what makes her arc so devastating and so memorable for readers. All right, so tip number five, you want to resist the redemption shortcut. All right, so let me read through those tips really quickly and then we're gonna wrap things up. So tip number one was to ground your morally gray character in a worldview that justifies their actions. Tip number two was to put your morally gray character in lose-lose situations. Tip number three was to let your morally gray character make questionable choices with real consequences. Tip number four was to give readers a reason to stay invested in your morally gray character. And then finally, tip number five was to resist the redemption shortcut. Now to put a nice little bow on everything, I just want to leave you with this. Morally gray characters work because they reflect something true about human nature. And that is that people are complicated, that good people do bad things, and that understanding someone isn't the same as excusing them. So the key here is to make your character's grayness feel intentional. You want to test it with impossible choices and be honest about what it costs them. You're not just making a character edgy or complex for its own sake. You're building someone whose choices make sense from the inside even when they're hard to accept from the outside. And when you get it right, you create characters that readers can't look away from even when they want to. Alright, so that's it for this episode of the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. Head over to SavannahGilbo.com forward slash podcast for the complete show notes, including the resources I mentioned today, as well as bonus materials to help you implement what you've learned. And if you're ready to get more personalized guidance for your specific writing stage, whether you're just starting out, stuck somewhere in the middle of a draft, drowning in revisions, or getting ready to publish, take my free 30-second quiz at savannagilbo.com forward slash quiz. You'll get a customized podcast playlist that'll meet you right where you're at and help you get to your next big milestone. Last but not least, make sure to follow this podcast in your podcast player of choice because I'll be back next week with another episode full of actionable tips, tools, and strategies to help you become a better writer. Until then, happy writing.