Arrogance, confidence or fear.

There's no doubt in my mind that a character and/or story reflects the author in one way or another, whether it's in the positive or negative. Sometimes the writer could be trying to project a message. Take Norman Lear, for example, the producer of shows such as "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons," "Sanford & Son" and etc. Lear was outspokenly progressive in rights movements, yet most of his characters, Archie Bunker especially, were outspokenly conservative. Archie's character was brilliant, yet it was a direct interpretation of Lear's opinions of conservatives/extremists. There's no way that Lear's personal views and feelings did not come out in his writing.

Even in genres where the author's opinions and worldview may be harder to find, such as mystery, romance, thrillers, etc., the author's opinions will be somewhere in the book, and not necessarily in the MC. The author's ability to convey his/her worldview without making every story convey the same message takes honing (or else you'll get the Vin Diesel effect). And there are plenty of authors whose MCs are assassins and the like, and their readers love them. It's all in how you write about them.

As a writer, take confidence and don't be afraid of what others may or may not perceive you as fill-in-the-blank. That's what artistic freedom is about. If a character I'm reading about does something outrageously immoral, I would want to know s/he did that. I wouldn't hold it against the author at all, but I would hold it against the author if s/he didn't explain the why or how of the immorality. Without it, I would begin to wonder if the author has no problem with said moral issue. Even a psychological problem would be explanation enough -- but as a reader, it would be imperative for me to sympathize or have respect for an evil protagonist. If the author has a protagonist murdering people and if their reasons for doing that aren't explained by the end of the book, I would think it a rather odd story. But I'm just speaking for myself, and undoubtedly there are others who digest a story differently.

Do I think Stephanie Myers has a desire for BDSM in lieu of writing her 50 SoG? I never thought about it, nor do I care. Does she care if people think she's into it? Probably not. You can't please everybody all the time. So don't even bother trying. Write for yourself because you have to, not for pleasing the public.

Reminds me of something one of my old professors was fond of telling budding freshman historians: "There is no such thing as history. Only historiography."

The same basic concept applies to writing fiction, only more so. Every word we type is a window to our souls. Even the banal ones. Even the stolen ones. Writing is ultimately an act of exhibitionism.

We are what we write. There is nothing so like a god on earth than an author in front of a keyboard. I'm not the first to point out that we, as writers, create worlds, people them, then manipulate them. And like gods, the things we wink into existence cannot be drawn from a vacuum. They're part of us. The good, the beautiful, the bad, the evil, and the completely perverse. All of it. Terrifying, isn't it?

That sense of unease you feel after writing something "wrong" -- that isn't fear of your future readers crying out in horror as they realize the depths of your depravity, it's your own conscience, trying to come to terms with a part of yourself YOU aren't comfortable with, or didn't know you possessed. It's not a feeling to be avoided, but confronted and overcome. Because great writers are the ones who find that zone of disquiet, plumb it to its depths, and then throw everything they've learned onto the page in a bold declaration: This is how I see the world, critics and armchair headshrinks be damned.

FWIW, you have to write for yourself first and foremost. Yeah, it's vanity, but that's how it stands. Now, if you're writing something racist, anti-gay, anti-religious without a reason (and this is a general "you" and not you specifically) then expect to be called on it. But if those anti-something feelings are part of a character and they're explained/shown to be part of this character's development, then have at it. Will everyone like it? Probably not. Will you be called on it? Probably, but you have to write what's in your heart first.

Some subjects are very tricky. Me, I'm a straight guy, yet I've written YA lesfic as well as a novel about the relationship between a straight cisgender guy and a transgirl (see avi). Did other people question my choices or make snide comments? Yup. But I felt so strongly about those stories I went ahead and did them, also doing the requisite research along the way, especially for the transgender story. And it has garnered solid reviews so far from most people.

Not everyone will love what you write, but you have to be confident in your abilities to tell a story and to make the characters real. You have to have the confidence--and yes, even a touch of arrogance--to say "This is my story, I wrote it and I'm standing by it". So get to it. Never let anyone hold you back.

Or to have fear and do it anyway.

Writing does take a certain amount of courage. When we write we put something out there that we have made. We are making a public statement: "I made this."

And that opens us up to criticism. We could be criticised for the way that we have written, for spelling and grammar mistakes, for the subject matter, for the way that the characters behave. In part we can hide behind the fact that this is fiction, but we deep down know that we leave a little bit of ourselves on every page.

One approach is to try to please everyone, but that can lead to very dull stories. It might be unobjectionable but is it interesting?

So yes writers need courage, but we find many different ways of accessing that courage. Some authors can be confident because of years of experience. Others try hard to reduce the level of risk by avoiding contentious subjects. Some are downright arrogant. Some believe passionately in what they want to say. To use the cliche, some feel the fear and do it anyway.

I find that the more off-norm something is, the more interesting it is to me. Though I agree that we write what is within us, I also know that when something happens with a character, sometimes that's from a life experience of mine and if I don't know about it and just think of it, I do research to make sure the character is as authentic as possible. Though we ALL worry to be judged, you sometimes can't help it. Write what's within you. Fear nothing. Life is too short!

"... I sometimes fear that if a character says or does something perhaps morally objectionable, will the reading public think that I, as the author, have some sort of moral deficiency for even thinking it let alone publishing it."

This is one reason I use pen names. People who know you might well play amateur psychologist etc. with whatever you write. I am not interested in bothering with the thought police lol or having such worries spoil the fun of writing freely for me. If I wrote under my real name, I would feel like people were looking over my shoulder as I wrote. No thanks!

I got a character - in order to prevent his world from being destroyed, he has to sacrifice a child. I have a couple of stories with human sacrifice. Human sacrifice! I don't even know where that came from, other than my mind. Honestly, I think it just makes for a good story.