Moral Gray Areas & Relatable Villains

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MORAL GRAY AREAS & RELATABLE VILLAINS

If everything in life were black and white, there would be no confusion in any situation. You’d always know what to do, and it would be easy. But life is made of gray areas of uncertainty. Our choices and our perspectives make us unique individuals—and it’s no different in fiction. Moral gray areas and characters’ decisions about how to handle them make the story interesting and create both likable and dislikable characters. But most importantly, they create relatable characters. Life isn’t easy, and it shouldn’t be for characters, which is why all my books include those moral gray areas. Villains aren’t so easy to judge harshly if you can understand where they’re coming from. In fact, villains can be readers’ favorite characters and the most relatable ones. Most of the time they’ve been through hell, and a lot of the time, they never really came back. They’re still stuck in their own living hell, one made of poor

by Christie Stratos

decisions, pain, and confusion caused by their background.

One of my most beloved characters in the Dark Victoriana Collection books is Jude from Brotherhood of Secrets, who is also the most dangerous character. He’s violent, has a lot of unresolved anger issues, and nobody understands him nor cares to. He doesn’t fit in Victorian society. His disturbed nature manifests in odd behavior, something he can’t fix without help. And the only man who offers him a helping hand is one with bad intentions, one who plays off Jude’s pain and tendency toward violence and uses it to his own advantage.

But can you, as the reader, really dislike a character whose weaknesses are used against him in such an ugly way? Can you condemn Jude for his actions, even if his violence saves some people from even worse brutality?

The complexities of characters in fiction reflect the intricate web of real life. Complex characters and moral gray areas are just a couple of examples of what makes fiction both relatable and enjoyable.

Christie Stratos is an award-winning writer who holds a degree in English Literature. She is the author of the psychological suspense novels Anatomy of a Darkened Heart and Brotherhood of Secrets as well as the historical suspense short stories “The Wrong House” and “The Artist,” all of which are part of the Dark Victoriana Collection. Also a poet, Christie has been published in anthologies, literary journals, and magazines. Christie has been featured on the radio, in magazines, and on podcasts, and she has given presentations for writing organizations and at writing conferences.

She owns her own editing company, Proof Positive, where she works one-on-one with authors as well as with small presses as a freelance editor, and she has enjoyed working with a rising press as an acquisitions editor.

Christie currently co-hosts the once-a-week (Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET) interactive videocast Lurking for Legends with award-winning epic fantasy author Richard H. Stephens. She was the original host of the well-received podcast Writers Showcase, rated #1 videocast of 2019-2020 on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. She has interviewed New York Times bestsellers, publishers, and major award-winning authors, including America’s favorite inspirational storyteller Karen Kingsbury, #1 New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub, Hugo Award winner Robert J. Sawyer, BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley, and Mary Higgins Clark Award winner Hank Phillippi Ryan.

ABOUT CHRISTIE

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