Which real life person do you draw the physical traits of your characters from?

[LJCC]

This pending story I've been writing for almost a year and a half now--yes, it's that long...I'm a lazy writer--well, I was inspired to base the physical attributes of one of the main characters to that of my friend who has Waardenburg Syndrome. There are types of symptoms, but mostly the one he has is basically...the lucky bastard's been blessed with the most lightest shade of blue eyes. It's lighter than that of Paris Jackson (she has Waardenburg as well). So I somewhat associated it as a physical trait to a main character in my story.

 

I have this problem that I need to base what my characters look like from real life. And since they're living inside my head, might as well put a face to it. So I need to imagine their facial expressions when I'm writing. I feel like sometimes I'm a producer scouting for an actor playing the role to a character I'm writing about when I'm googling for references. I'm like, "Hmmm...this German actor looks good but there's something missing. Let's go other countries. How about Switzerland. Yes, let's photoshop his eyes to dark brown and adjust his jawline."

 

So have you ever based any characters attributes or physical traits in your stories from real life?

Edited October 29, 2018 by LJCC

[Mikiesboy]

Yes, all the time.  I don't usually google people but i use myself, my husband, my family, friends. Bits and pieces of people i've met or seen somewhere. I think that's pretty normal. I do not do full descriptions of people .. there are touches of things. Like maybe eye colour is mentioned, or sharp elbows, hair colour ... but never a full description. You need to allow readers to fill in some blanks, as it helps them to make the story theirs as well. Unless of course there is a physical trait that you must describe as it is integral to the character and story, such as the illness, scar or the limp.

[Valkyrie]

Yes, many of my characters contain characteristics or mannerisms I have observed in real life.  I don't base characters on a particular individual, but may include quirks or preferences I have personally or have observed in other people.  The closest I've come to basing a character on someone I know IRL is with Peter from "Downhearted".  Even then, he is a conglomeration of several different individuals.  I rarely describe characters in detail, unless it's relevant to the story.  The development of the character is more important than describing how they look.  

[Thorn Wilde]

Ben Connor, from Lavender & Gold, is shamelessly based on Benedict Cumberbatch. Appearance wise, anyway. Other than that, I can't really think of any characters I've written that are physically based on real people, although I do have characters that are based on my friends. Don't know how much they actually look like them, though.

 

EDIT: I have heard, though, that humans are incapable of inventing faces, and as such any person you imagine (people in your dreams especially), or draw, or paint, is subconsciously based on a person you've actually seen. Don't know if that's actually true or not.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Thorn Wilde

[TetRefine]

Not that I'm a prolific writer or anything, but I do write short stories from time to time. I tend to base my characters off people I know or observe in real life. For example, I based one character's physical description to the T based on a guy I've seen pretty much every week in the gym for the last four and a half years. The thing is, he very much keeps to himself in the gym, which is out of the norm considering it's a majority gay gym where a lot of people know each other. I think I've heard him utter only a few sentences in the four and a half years I've been around him. So even though the character's physical look is exactly this guy's, I invented a personality completely of my own imagining because I don't know his real one. It was kind of an interesting exercise. 

 

But yeah, I mostly base physical descriptions on real people I know.

Edited October 30, 2018 by TetRefine

[MacGreg]

Most of my characters have traits of various people I've seen or met. One of the main characters in my larger story Dissonance is based on a guy a saw in Aspen many, many years ago. I was having dinner in a restaurant, and he stood out like a sore thumb among the Aspen crowd. In my story, he's described as a blonde-headed cowboy resembling a cowpoke who took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Aspen instead of Amarillo. In real life, he wore the same sherpa-lined coat and Resistol-style hat. We shared a few heated glances across the restaurant that night, and he left a mark in my brain. Some time later, a character was born, and from there, a story evolved.

[LJCC]

16 hours ago, Thorn Wilde said:

Ben Connor, from Lavender & Gold, is shamelessly based on Benedict Cumberbatch. Appearance wise, anyway. Other than that, I can't really think of any characters I've written that are physically based on real people, although I do have characters that are based on my friends. Don't know how much they actually look like them, though.

 

EDIT: I have heard, though, that humans are incapable of inventing faces, and as such any person you imagine (people in your dreams especially), or draw, or paint, is subconsciously based on a person you've actually seen. Don't know if that's actually true or not.

 

I think that's the problem I have, since I'm a visual learner and certain facial ticks or identifiers whenever I envision a character are either a hit or miss, especially nuances. For example, how does the character A express anger compared to character B, or is character A reliant to facial expressions as opposed to character B who prefers with body movements.

 

6 hours ago, TetRefine said:

Not that I'm a prolific writer or anything, but I do write short stories from time to time. I tend to base my characters off people I know or observe in real life. For example, I based one character's physical description to the T based on a guy I've seen pretty much every week in the gym for the last four and a half years. The thing is, he very much keeps to himself in the gym, which is out of the norm considering it's a majority gay gym where a lot of people know each other. I think I've heard him utter only a few sentences in the four and a half years I've been around him. So even though the character's physical look is exactly this guy's, I invented a personality completely of my own imagining because I don't know his real one. It was kind of an interesting exercise. 

 

But yeah, I mostly base physical descriptions on real people I know.

 

I think personality-wise, it's easier to create distinctive traits than reanimate what a character expresses in your own head. My friend who I'm basing one of the protagonists in my story is very outgoing, whereas the character I've depicted is an ambivert, somewhat recluse. And those differentiation creates interesting facial expressions, to the extent of how much the said character is willing to convey their emotions through their face. I guess there's a said psychology attached to it, that even as a writer, I'm assuming most of us takes into consideration given that these characters exists in the realm of one's imagination.

 

3 hours ago, MacGreg said:

Most of my characters have traits of various people I've seen or met. One of the main characters in my larger story Dissonance is based on a guy a saw in Aspen many, many years ago. I was having dinner in a restaurant, and he stood out like a sore thumb among the Aspen crowd. In my story, he's described as a blonde-headed cowboy resembling a cowpoke who took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Aspen instead of Amarillo. In real life, he wore the same sherpa-lined coat and Resistol-style hat. We shared a few heated glances across the restaurant that night, and he left a mark in my brain. Some time later, a character was born, and from there, a story evolved.

 

"For a man of handsome features, he sure seemed grumpy. Erect and poised of elegant stature; his sober coloured custom-tailored suit showed a supercilious distinction of class amongst his colleagues. His aquiline nose and chiselled jaws amplified a pragmatic effect to his slicked back golden mane impregnable of young adulthood. And his beard perfectly groomed of austerity mirrored the stout figure underneath the layers of clothing: a musculature of a Roman statue and height, bulging at the seams, intimidating even the most important figurehead in the country, while soliciting the attention of men who envied his surname, and grown women who lusted over those otherworldly eyes like hordes of teenagers raving at the sight of the most popular quarterback."

 

I wrote the description as part of my story. But I tried so hard in remembering that chance encounter on this really gorgeous looking man who was in the train. Everybody was staring at him. I mean, come on, he looked like he was going to a parliament assembly while arguing on the phone and his booming voice sounded like he was whispering sweet nothings. As soon as I got home, I coerced my bestfriend (who's also my neighbour) to google and find someone online who closely resembled him. And viola, a bit of grey hair here and there, adjust the eyes apart, narrow down the nose...and thanks to her photoshop skills, she somehow created a similar facial structure of what the man in the subway looked like.

 

 

His photo now serves as *coughs* inspiration.