In working to write round characters, I’ve had to reevaluate the images of family members that I formed as a child. No person is all good or all bad. In writing, it means that heroes are flawed and villains have backstories. This aunt wasn’t always loony and that uncle wasn’t always mean.
As I’ve searched for and created interactions that may have shaped the people in my quasi-fictional world, I’ve found myself having more empathy toward the villains in my real life. Once upon a time, they were just kids, too.