: Re: How to write a chaotic neutral protagonist and prevent my readers from thinking they are evil? I've come across a problem with one of the main characters in my book. The "heroine" of my story

@Candy753

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You are trying to make a character who cares mostly about themselves appear not evil, when in most societies that is exactly what makes people be seen as evil.

Societies, by definition, work by having people care about other people. That's how groups, teams and on the larger scales tribes and societies work. Only if everyone cares about the others does the greater advantage to all manifest.

A neutral character should not be so self-absorbed. Your character tends too much towards evil to be seen as neutral. My suggestion would be to tone down all the "I don't care" parts. One the evil-neutral-good scale, I suggest you put "I don't care" on the evil part of the scale. The neutral position would be "I don't care enough to actually do something about it", which is a lot more relateable because most of us are in that position about most things. We simply can't act on everything that needs acting, even if in theory we agree that something should be done. Actually doing something would be the definition of good.

So, specifically, replace:

Banshee_Harvest: Save your preaching for someone who actually cares. I was in this solely for the thrills. I’m uploading the files now #2_files_attached (New_labor_contract.pdf, Redacted_labor_contract_CONFIDENTIAL.pdf)

with something like:

If you think so. Well, here's your files, the rest is up to you.

or if you want to retain the "in it for the thrills" part:

If you think so. It was an interesting challenge. Anyway, here are your files, the rest is yours.

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