Characters in your stories

[Aeroplane]

Hello everybody!

 

Ive just finished reading a long story which has a character named after the author and this lead me on to thinking: do any of you use yourself as a character in any of your stories?

 

If you do, is it an idealised version of yourself or just normal you?

 

Do you think it would be too obvious to use your own name or pseudonym for the name of the character or would you come up with a different name?

 

If youre a reader; what do you think of this?

 

 

:king:

[MikeL]

Hello everybody!

 

Ive just finished reading a long story which has a character named after the author and this lead me on to thinking: do any of you use yourself as a character in any of your stories?

 

If you do, is it an idealised version of yourself or just normal you?

 

Do you think it would be too obvious to use your own name or pseudonym for the name of the character or would you come up with a different name?

 

If youre a reader; what do you think of this?

 

 

:king:

Interesting question, Rob. I'm not a writer so I'm no help. Thought I would ask if you had seen Nicholas James' stories. He may be one to contact. See: What's the Difference Between Me and You? by Nicholas James.

[Aeroplane]

Ah yes, to clarify I wasnt asking for help or anything, just curious about what everybody thought about it. Telling the story of yourself is a different case, I mean inserting yourself into a fictional setting in a cameo role .

[kitten]

Hello everybody!

 

Hellooooooooooo!

 

Ive just finished reading a long story which has a character named after the author and this lead me on to thinking: do any of you use yourself as a character in any of your stories?

 

I can neither confirm nor deny that!

Seriously, it would take a very brave author to admit it if he/she did. If I ever used myself as a character (and I'm not saying that I did) I certainly wouldn't admit it. When I write I pour my heart and soul into it. Having already exposed my naked soul in my stories, it would be a step too far for me to expose which (if any) characters more specifically represent myself.

 

If you do, is it an idealised version of yourself or just normal you?

 

That question implies we can really get a balanced view of ourselves and answer the question 'What is a normal me?'. Don't we all idealise ourslves much of the time or, when depressed, don't we see our more negative aspects? So even for those who *can* get occasionally a balanced view of themselves, that view would be just a snapshot at one instant of time.

 

Do you think it would be too obvious to use your own name or pseudonym for the name of the character or would you come up with a different name?

 

Obvious or not, it would be a sleight-of-hand magician's trick. Maybe even a double-bluff to keep the reader guessing!

 

Kit

[darkfoxprime]

Not that I write very often, but when I do, most of the time my main character is some projection of myself into a different reality. It's not easy for me to "get inside the head" of some random character I create; it's much easier to say "this is me if I'd grown up in such-and-such an environment".

 

Although, in my submission for Ghosts, my main character is entirely fictional, and I have a cameo appearance as myself (with a different name of course)

 

- dfp

[Richard Lyon]

I enjoy reading literary biographies. It is always very interesting to read the historical reality of people whose novels you have read and to try to figure out how the facts shaped the fiction.

[NickolasJames8]

Hello everybody!

 

Ive just finished reading a long story which has a character named after the author and this lead me on to thinking: do any of you use yourself as a character in any of your stories?

 

If you do, is it an idealised version of yourself or just normal you?

 

Do you think it would be too obvious to use your own name or pseudonym for the name of the character or would you come up with a different name?

 

If youre a reader; what do you think of this?

 

 

:king:

Well Mike reference my first story, What's The Difference Between Me and You? so I'll talk about writing that story. At first it seemed like a good idea, especially when I was writing the first ten or so chapters and all kinds of memories were flooding my mind. It felt good, but the more I wrote, the more I realized that I had a lot of issues with people in my life who happened to be in the story. I released a chapter last week, but the previous chapter was released like 8 months prior. It's just gotten really hard to work on it because so many things have changed, especially with the person I considered to be my best friend for so many years.

I don't think it was a mistake to write the story, but I do think it was a mistake to base it on things that actually happened. I tried to portray myself as honestly as possible, and when I did I can see how I came off as a real jerk in the story. Unfortunately so did my dad. So if I could change one thing about it, I would have skipped over a bunch of details and just focused on the main point of the story, which was me coming out and meeting my best friend. Also, it probably would have been a lot better to use aliases for myself and my family, but I don't think it was that big of a deal.

[Tiger]

There are pieces of me in all my stories. What pieces they are and where they are I shall leave to the imagination.

[Krista]

I share little bits really. Mostly just small things that have happened. Like I wrote an Anthology for Halloween and the the costumes I had my characters have made, me and my friends did that and went. Anyway as far as making any characters similar to me I don't do that my female characters are created to be a counter voice or a supportive one typically. I also write descriptive Mother characters, but as far as me putting anything about me or creating a "cameo" me I won't ever do that. I'm lazy and I live a simplistic, boring, safe, sheltered life (and I hope to keep it that way) so if I had a character in a story like me she would always be asleep or something.

[AFriendlyFace]

An interesting topic!

 

Actually, I personally think it might be better suited to the Writer's Corner since it's mostly directed to writers. But your call of course

 

 

Anyway, I've definitely never written a character based on myself. Nor have I written a character based on anyone else. HOWEVER, the majority of the characters in BMAD have bits and pieces of them based on real people. For example Aaron has my two majors (only for me it was a double major, for him it's a major/minor). Cosmo has my drink of choice as his namesake (though I'm not as exclusive about drinking Cosmos as he is). Bits my personality are infused in different ways into Aaron, Mick, Ben, Cosmo, and Ronnie. Bits of Ronnie and Cosmo are also very loosely based on bits of other people I know.

 

So for that story, it's sort of like a lot of myself and a lot of the people I know have been shoved in, tossed in a blender if you will, and the characters pulled out with various aspects. However, the majority of their traits are completely original. All of the plot is completely original.

 

Really, that story's as close as I get to this as well. None of my characters in Indefensible, If No One Notices, or Giving Up are based on real life people to any extent.

[Phantom]

Even though I haven't posted that many stories on here, the work of fiction I have written usually contain bits and pieces of me. For example, the story I'm writing now Lost in Pain, has a character in it that is really me, but set up as a doctor. In another story I wrote awhile back, the main character was really me telling a story and living through that experience.

 

I think that when an author writes a story they always include a little bit about themselves, but whether or not it's them to the T, that's up to the author to know.

[Cynical Romantic]

Oh, HELL no. Nobody'd want to read about my boring life, anyway. That's why they read fiction; the lives of my characters are always much more interesting.

 

Okay, that's not entirely true. Most of what I write is based on reality to an extent - familiar places, events and people that I've met at some point. I'm sure I infuse my voice or my opinions or my perspectives into an awful lot of my characters in small ways (some not so small). But I've never published a story that's been about "me" specifically.

 

Have I written any? Yeah, sure. But not for public consumption. It's like one step up from keeping a journal - writing a story about real-life accounts in an honest fashion in order to sort through feelings about things. Those are private, though. Even if I was brave enough to share my own stories, the fact that they always involve the people around me means I'd never put them on display.

[Dion]

Interestingly enough, I recall having this same conversation in Live Chat a while ago.

 

Some situations and fictional characters are real or based on real events. In others I use 'how/what would I think if this happened?' For the most part my stories are purely fiction.

 

I will admit, though, that every story I write has a character that has something 'in common' with me. Some people here will know what to look for to find that character.

[Tiff]

Interestingly enough, I recall having this same conversation in Live Chat a while ago.

 

Some situations and fictional characters are real or based on real events. In others I use 'how/what would I think if this happened?' For the most part my stories are purely fiction.

In my stories, I never have a character that is exactly like me. But every character has bits and pieces of me, whether their mannerisms, things they might say, or past experiences.

 

In 'Jumping over My Mountain' all the characters had some of my personality. Even some of the things are the same, like what a character fears, dislikes, likes, or certain sports (snowboarding, etc). I think it helps to inject more life in a character.

 

When creating a character, you could start from scratch, but I think it's natural to add a little bit of yourself in there, or perhaps people you know. It's the whole thought/creation process. You wonder, 'hmm, where should this story take place. What should this character do?' and then before you know it, you're referring to a real life experience or a real occurence, or person. But so far, no one has been like me to a T, or anyone else I know in real life. It's a big blender mix. And the outcome is unique.

[Caipirinha]

I don't write about myself.

 

I write about who I wish I was ;-)

[AFriendlyFace]

I don't write about myself.

 

I write about who I wish I was ;-)

Oh my! I do the opposite!

 

I hate to be any of my characters! Well I'd hate to be any of my main characters anyway.

[Tiger]

I will make one exception and mention a character with some of my attributes. Julian certainly does. He has a temper just as I do. His temper is much worse than my own. Just how much worse? I won't say. If you want to find out, read Dark Earth: The Prophecy. I know. It's a shameless plug, but I don't want to ruin anything for those who have not had the opportunity...

[BeaStKid]

Each and every character of mine is somewhat related to one of my own traits. As Kit wonderfully put, when I write, I pour my heart into it. And that goes equally to all characters and not just a single person. Therefore, every character has a little bit of 'me' in it.

 

BeaStKid

[JamesSavik]

I don't think that any writer can avoid putting at least a little of them self in their work.

[colinian]

I reflect some of my likes and dislikes and physical attributes (no, the color of my hair, the hair on my head) in some of my stories. But they're usually minor things that I sometimes find funny. For example, my latest short story Catching Some Rays has the protagonist sharing a sandwich with a guy he meets at the beach -- peanut butter and sharp cheddar cheese on light rye -- that probably no one else in the world eats and would find very bizarre. But I love it so I wrote it into the story. Maybe I was trying to proselytize or something.

 

Colin

[S.L. Lewis]

To be honest, David from my story, 'A Butterfly's Dream', is a...how do I say this...not idealized me, but more of a representation of my past. Of the confusion, pain, happiness, ect that I went through for many years in my life. He is that little part of my history that has taken a character form.

No matter the writer, we put a bit of ourselves into the character and story, no matter how hard we try not to.

[Graeme]

While I'm aware that some authors have based characters on themselves (I remember one author saying that original inspiration for the two main characters in his story were who he was, and who he wanted to be), I haven't done that myself. There are certainly parts of me in the characters, or things in the characters that I would like be able to be able to claim for myself, but the characters are largely an amalgamation of ideas and traits, some of which I possess and some I don't.

[CarlHoliday]

I try very hard to stay out of my characters. In fact, I have yet to have any character with my real name, though I used "Carl" on occasion as in my current project "The Artists."

 

When I'm developing a character I also try to use as many characteristics that are different from me, though sometimes a bit gets in whether I want it or not. I don't think I can help not doing it, even though I should try harder not to. David in The Pastel Cowboy is probably closer to me than any character I've come up with and now that I've done him, I feel that I don't have to do that again.

 

Looking at The Artists, I can honestly say that a tiny bit of me is in Six, Casey, Kevin, and Jim. Whether that amount is of any significance will be born out as the story progresses, though Kevin has already shown himself.