Being a psychologist influences my writing in two main ways—one is intentional, the other less so, but both shape how I build characters and how readers experience the story.

The first is in how I create characters. Every character I write has a set of beliefs that guides their behaviours, motivations, and interactions with others. I make sure each character behaves consistently throughout the book, because that’s how people are (usually!). If a character acts in a way that goes against their belief system, I hang a lantern on it—I make it intentional. That tension often becomes part of their internal conflict or signals an important moment in their character arc.

An example of this is Beast’s belief that “all free men and women are selfish.” He often ends up in situations where, despite this belief, he’s forced to trust free people, which leads to consequences that reinforce his belief, and make him feel powerless and desperate. But that belief is eventually challenged and destroyed by Ink’s actions at the end of Beast of Zarall, which completes Beast’s arc. The result is a drastic change in his character, and experience of a not-so-great new emotion that he actually really needed to feel.

A character arc often involves a belief system being questioned, unravelled, or transformed—for better or worse. Understanding what those beliefs are, then designing the character’s experiences to test or support them, and finally showing how and why those beliefs shift (and what happens because of it) is what makes a character arc satisfying.

When readers read characters written this way, they may not be able to articulate why the character feels so real and relatable, but this is the underlying reason. And I do this intentionally.

The second way my psychologist brain influences my writing is by guiding the reader’s emotional experience—and this part is less deliberate.

I want readers to think certain things and feel certain emotions as they move through the story. I don’t have a formula for how I do this (and I don’t think I could explain it if I tried). I think being a psychologist and being wired to empathise with people really helps me do this naturally.

As I write, the emotions I tend to aim for are curiosity, care, and love. I structure the plot, character arcs, and prose in ways that evoke those specific emotions. The heartbreak, the anger, the emotional gut-punches that hit readers at the end of my books—those are just the byproducts of the curiosity, care, and love they’ve built up for the characters.

I hope this gave you a little insight into the psychology behind the page—and why my characters hurt so good.