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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/17149
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I am writing a book. However, I can't quite wrap my head around making my character do bad things, while still making their actions and/or motivations for their actions believable.

Here is an example of what I'm tying to achieve, from Season 2, Episode 24 of _House_: A former patient walks into House's office and shoots him. However, its revealed that the patient's wife committed suicide after House made him confess to cheating. The fact that he was cheating didn't turn out to be medically relevant, so the former patient decided to get revenge and put House into pain (to make House feel the pain he felt when his wife died).

What I'm really trying to avoid in my story is the whole "evil for the sake of being evil" thing. I'm not trying to make the antagonist look like a good guy, but to make the reader question themselves for just a second and wonder, "Is the protagonist _really_ doing the right thing?" or "Is the antagonist _really_ doing the wrong thing?" Because I can't make my antagonist, I haven't really been able to determine what the plot or conflict will be, though I am pretty sure thre will probably be a group / organization of antagonists, not just one or two, and that the genre is fantasy. Thanks for any advice or examples!

Original score: 11