Main Character Switcharoo And Existential Pondering

This morning, I was journaling and working through some internal motivations for the main character in part two of the duology I’m working on. I wondered, is “goodness,” and “doing the right thing,” something innate to humans?

Obviously, we all do bad things throughout our lives, even if we’re good people. We can’t help it. We’re human. But were we really gifted some sort of universal knowledge at birth, or is everything, and I mean literally fucking everything, learned through our interactions with other humans and the natural world around us? And if that is so, is nature not God? Are we not standing on a fractured, spiraling chunk of the broader “miracle” that so many are searching for in an apparition?

It seems to me that we know nothing. All humans have evolved in societies to some degree or another and within those societies, we have learned how others’ actions make us feel, and how our actions make them feel, and we’ve asked ourselves how we should act toward others in accordance with how we would like to be treated in return. Also, the size of our societal group, history, and geographical location plays a huge role in our values, and what we consider right and wrong.

This makes me wonder, if we were born outside of society, with no guidance, would we automatically be brain bashing savages, taking what suits us and caring not about how our actions affect others? Me thinks, yes, to a degree, however, the brain bashing would be tempered only by fear of what another might do to us in turn, which brings us right back to the beginning of human interaction and fear governing our “ideals.” If this is so, is “God,” not simply within all of us, far more primal than we’d like to believe, and not out there in the heavens wagging a finger at us when we piss on the rug?

I struggle to see any evidence that we’re born with an internal compass. Do you have any thoughts on this? I’d love to hear it.

While we’re here and since this is the whole reason I walked this path today, I have a question to the community about my WIP:

In my journaling journey this morning, or “Journaley,” (Jesus, I’m sorry). The main character I’ve been developing for book two is not the same main character from book one. They are from the same timeline and coexist in each story, but after writing the first book, I fell in love with another very important character, felt her story needed to be told through her eyes, and decided I wanted to tell the rest of this linear tale from her point of view.

Have you ever seen this done in a series before? Do you know of any examples? Do you think it would work? Is it a dumpster fire of an idea? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

That is all. Thank you.