Hooboy, here's one thing that has been floating to the top of my mind lately...

I generally picture myself as a nice guy. And, of course, I don't really make any secret of the fact that I let my personality affect my characters.

But I'm starting to think that because I am a nice guy, I'm really really having problems creating people with credible negative traits. I can't easily think up a nasty villain.

Sure, it's one thing to say that here we have a peasant-murdering, cottage-torching, tax-grabbing feudal lord... but I tend to mentally complete that somehow, saying "okay, I bet he still likes his dogs, so he's not really a completely bad guy."

(Come to think of it, I can't easily imagine the other extremity either. I can't think of a completely pure hero either.)

In short, I don't really believe the negative parts.

This is something I really need to spend some more thoughts on. It's a problem I need to get out of.