Which is easier for you: writing kind characters or writing cruel ones?

[themerrytroll]

This is interesting.

[gmaximin]

A friend once told me:”You do good thing, but always in a way to make sure that everyone will still hate you”. Kind/cruel? Hard to tell... self centered probably.
Characters are extensions, so it’ll always be easier for me to portray characters close to my logic, and more fascinating and challenging to explore characters that are coherent, yet completely different from me.
So what I do, is I generally have my main character close to my own mental logic, and get a second role with traits I notice in others and that I don’t understand, so it keeps me engaged in my work and forces me to study that, to question and improve my writing...

[thedude3445]

I like writing nice, or at least friendly characters a lot more than mean ones. Cruel characters often feel one-note when I write them and it's hard for me to give them as much depth as I want.

[baasinsimple]

Cruel is so easy for me, want to see a well thought-out criminal from the seedy-underbelly of a steampunk world, you got it.
You want me to write King Arthur or our favorite big blue boy scout in red tights? Prepare for a disaster.

[joannekwan]

It's way easier for me to write kind characters in so far as their actions go. Like they can still be sarcastic or grouchy and complain about things, but I just can't say no to them being kind to animals or the less fortunate or marginalized groups.

The world's already such a terrible place, give me some characters who aren't total assholes. ToT
Like Gone Girl, I could never write that.

[demthorshie]

It's about the same level of ease writing both. I prefer writing kind to neutral characters but I have no problem writing cruel characters either.

[TheBluester]

Writing crueler characters are easier for me because they don't exactly think the same way kinder characters do. Murder and other terrible actions can be on the table for them while a kind character has more morals. But, then again, writing cruel characters who have a reason to be cruel can be especially hard.

[DiegoPalacios]

Fun fact: out of curiosity i researched about king arthur and it turns out many of the characters are way more morally gray than what we commonly see in media.

[ar-ninetysix]

Kind characters. Motives don't run as deeply with them. i actually have to come with reasoning behind cruelty and that's- ugh, it gets weird for me lol "This is how I justify this character doing awful things- what does that say about me?"

[DiegoPalacios]

A tip that may help to write cruel people: You don`t need to agree with your villains/antagonists/jerks. Only to give them motivations that makes sense for them. Some of these motivations can even be unconscious for the character.

[ar-ninetysix]

Nah, I completely understand lol I just happen to base many characters' actions on things I personally would do, so like my own way of rationalizing things kinda bleeds in there. Hopefully, you can see how that'd raise concerns every once in a while xD

[spadesart]

i really like getting in the heads of my villain characters and the way they rationalize what they're doing. i also like writing bastards. like characters who are just evil for the attention. i think those types are funny.

[baasinsimple]

Yeah but I was kind of talking gawain and the green knight Arthur, not Warlord Chronicles or Once and Future King Arthur