I can't help but wonder how that affects someones writing style. What I mean is, lets say you're writing a mystery novel about ohh...a serial murderer. You probably know what the detective has to do and probably isn't much of a problem. But developing the antagonist, the bad guy. I think we become our characters to some degree, and thus if we're writing about a murderer we'd have to let his murderous thought process into our own. Everything the bad, evil guy thinks, whether he's a demon, a murderer, rapist, cannibal, necromancer, or basically anything that would normally be unpalatable would have to be accepted and embraced to develop the character with those intentions. Not sure if I'm on the mark here, but does this affect your writing, and if so to what degree? Dean Koontz is a great example. In alot of his stories, we see the protagonist and the antagonists' side of the story. Thoughts?
Aristotle said it best. "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." I write in a way that is incompatible with what you're suggesting, so my advice may be suspect. I start inside my character's heads and work my way out, into the world of the narrative. When a character has to do something that I would find unpalatable, I simply write it, let myself feel the revulsion/horror/remorse etc. and then use that emotion to drive the story forward. I feel everything that all my characters feel. If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to write them well, if at all. Empathy, even for a person/character who has a different belief set/moral code is necessary and healthy, in my opinion, and makes for a better story.
