This is not (I know you’re shocked) a post about race and aliens.  (We’ll save that for later.)

I was asked recently how to establish good and evil in fiction.

I must confess that even a total hack like me, who has found ways of cheating the appearance of genius in writing, has no earthly clue how to do that.  Part of it is because good and evil, as defined by you comes from your moral values, which might come from your religion or your moral upbringing or a dozen other things.

Some of you might consider war the greatest of evils for instance, and think that living in submission is much better.  I’m not of you, and that will be reflected in my work, in characters who, if they must fall, will go down swinging and take an escort to hell with them.  Some of you will say that it’s best to pretend to have beliefs you don’t have to succeed.  I tried that for a while, I confess.  It didn’t work.  And therefore, my characters are more likely to spit in the eye of constituted (or unreconstructed) authority.

We are what we are, and surely those who disagree with me have on their side most of – if not all – the world’s great religions.

Still, as I found out, you can’t write that which you don’t believe in with any measure of authority.  And authority is what makes authorial voice compelling.

You can, however, read what you don’t believe in – though perhaps not if the world is so built it causes your eyes to roll so hard they fall on the floor – and even enjoy it, provided you know whom to cheer for…

And I think that’s REALLY what the person who asked me how to create good and evil was asking about.

That I know  how to do.  That, I can help with.  A lot of it will hit you as schlocky and obvious, and of course it is.  However, if you do it right, it’s not obvious from the other side.  Remember, like any craftsman, you’ll see the craft much more clearly than will someone – just – reading your stuff for fun.

And as schlocky as it might seem, if you don’t do it right, it can blight all your work.  In many ways – the technical ways other writers appreciate – Marlowe was a way better writer than Shakespeare, but he failed at putting in obvious moral pointers and to hang the sign that said “Cheer for me” on the hero and “kick me” on the villain.  Possibly this is because he was “so sharp he cut himself” and therefore failed to see anything BUT tones of grey.

Weirdly, this is all the more important if your world and your characters inhabit some sort of morally grey universe: say, your character is a good family man kind to puppies, nice to his children, but he kills demons on the side, and some of the demons disguise as humans and he can’t be SURE till he kills them.

First, remember that however we see your character first is most strongly fixed in our minds.  Forget that “first impressions are important” – in writing first impressions are vital.  Take that character above.  If you want to make him the villain, you show him killing someone he thinks is a demon, and then when it turns out to be just an addled kid, you have him shrug and think “Oh, well.  At least the killing was fun.”  No matter how nice he is to his kids, or how many puppies he pets the rest of the book, we’re going to want him dead.

On the other hand, make sure the first thing you show of him is his risking his life to save a puppy from a likely demon, and NOT killing the demon until he has to, and no matter how many people he mistakenly kills, we’re going to cheer him on to the end.

Second: if your “good” character is required to do something really, really, really bad – show us what can happen if he doesn’t do it.  So, in the example above, have him not kill someone because he’s not sure, and an entire city – literally – goes to hell.  Describe it in lavish detail.  Make it a prologue, if you must.  Make sure your character carries the guilt of that miss.  We’ll forgive any amount of unreasoning violence.

Third: this applies to other things we view as “bad” as a culture, not just unreasoning violence.  I was recently advising someone on how to make a character palatable who lives with his mother into his thirties.  I have the same issue with Rafiel in the Shifter’s series.  Our culture – despite all the boomerang kids – views someone in his late twenties or early thirties living with mom and dad as a loser.  The way to turn that upside down is to make it so they’re there to look after the parents.  (Or in Rafiel’s case, which is obvious in Noah’s boy, to keep them from worrying themselves sick.)

Fourth: counter other negative characteristics in the same way for a character you want us to cheer on.  Say you have a young man with a debilitating disease, and we’re supposed to be sorry for him, but he’s STILL supposed to be “the hero.”  I.e. you don’t want us to think he’s  a sad sack.  Well, have him drag himself, through a heart attack, or an asthma attack, or something, to rescue that kitten or save that puppy.  (I’m trying to remember the title of the story in which the spaceman with acrophobia crawls out on the roof to save the kitten and failing.)  Schlocky?  Sure.  But people will cheer him on and NOT think him a wimp.

Fifth: and from the above – be aware of your culture’s unconscious assumptions, such as “people in their thirties living at the parental home are losers” – this requires a LOT of reading, and sometimes reading lifestyle blogs, as well as everything else.  Sorry.

Sixth: While you’re burnishing up your hero’s heroic characteristics, make the villain extra villainous.  Come up with a few vices to give him, and make it things that culture frowns on, whether it’s big or small…  He cheats at solitary.  He used to drown litters of kittens for money.  When he gives his girlfriend flowers, he steals them off some old lady’s garden.  From the subtle to the obvious, and preferably having some relation to the plot, but even if it doesn’t, tie that “I’m an evil guy” sign on the villain.

Trust me.  People will follow.  They like to know whom to cheer for and whom to boo.  And your job is to make them happy.

After you paint your stark white and your pitch black you can be an artist and pile on as many greys as you wish.  But first, first, you must make sure the book is enjoyable.  Getting the readers to think is always secondary.

If they don’t finish it, they’ll never know how subtle you are…