What My Political Opposite Taught Me About Writing

I have a neighbor I disagree with on politics. He shows up at my house pretty often too because our sons are good friends. Either way, the two of us disagree on SO MANY THINGS over the snack table it probably scares the squirrels on the deck back into the garden.

For context, this friend of mine used to be the chief of staff to a senator whose views are very different from mine, to say the least. And the thing is, I totally look forward to him coming to my house each week. I’ve learned so much from his perspective and really value his ability to engage thoughtfully without turning into a jerk.

At a time when politics in this country is so divisive that it’s fractured families and friendships, being able to sit across from someone, disagree openly, and still respect each other feels increasingly rare.

It’s important to me as an American citizen. But it’s also made me better at something I didn’t expect: writing.

One of the most underrated skills a writer can develop is genuine curiosity about other people. It doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily in agreement, but that you’re listening intently with the goal of comprehension. Essentially the ability to listen, ask questions, and understand how someone arrived at a worldview radically different than your own.

I recently shifted from nonfiction into writing fiction based on true stories in the security world. What I’ve discovered is that the most interesting characters on the page are the ones most different from me, the ones I have to work to understand.

I’ve also realized how easy it is for writers to unconsciously create characters who are just fragments of themselves wearing different clothes. After all, our own worldview is the one we understand most instinctively. It takes far more effort to step outside of that framework and inhabit someone else’s emotional logic.

Real people (and great characters) carry contradictions, loyalties, blind spots, wounds, and private logic that often make complete sense from inside their own worldview. The challenge for a writer is learning how to step inside that worldview long enough to understand it honestly, even when you strongly disagree with it. So, the more seriously I try to understand people I disagree with in real life, the more dimensional my fictional characters become.

It’s a challenge, but it forces me to stretch in ways that are hard to replicate otherwise.

If you can’t understand how someone else thinks, you can’t fully engage with them—whether that’s in a story or in real life. And as a writer, if you don’t take characters with alternate perspectives seriously, you’re going to risk writing flat caricatures that turn off your readers.

So next time you’re sitting across from someone with a different viewpoint, don’t try to fight them. Engage them. Be curious. You have nothing to lose except some new insights.

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About Jessica L. Walton: Jessica is a communications strategist, video producer, and writer in the U.S. defense sector. She has written articles on a range of security and mental health topics and conducted interviews with military leadership, CIA officers, law enforcement, psychologists, filmmakers, and more. Jessica also teaches organizations how to enhance their effectiveness with strategic communications, story craft, and writing through the "Maximizing Impact" workshop.

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