Have you ever met a person that reminded you of your character?

Marzipan · Jul 17, 2009

Today I took my mother to a café, and I was really spacing out over nothing in particular, then BAM! There he was! He looked exactly like ‘Jared’ from my WIP. Right down to his facial expressions and voice. My stomach twisted and I had to resist the urge to ‘eeek’ (A nervous habit I have). It almost scared me.
I hear this also happened to Stephen King when he was ran over. The driver supposedly looked like one of his antagonists.

ShowerInspiration · Jul 17, 2009

Actually I have. Not in real life though. See I had never played a video game until about a year ago. I'm addicted now, but what happens is that one game I started playing in particular after I was about half way done with my first WIP, the MC of the game reminded me of my main character. Sam Fisher, from the splinter cell series. His bad-assness and his voice and everything. I started playing and I was like "Motherf*****" lol

MarieSheridan · Jul 17, 2009

The Kidd said:
Today I took my mother to a café, and I was really spacing out over nothing in particular, then BAM! There he was! He looked exactly like ‘Jared’ from my WIP. Right down to his facial expressions and voice.

That is like the end of the movie Stranger Than Fiction. He calls up the author and then shows up on her door step. If that ever happens to me, I don't think I will be able to sleep right for weeks.

Great movie BTW. Exactly how I feel about the whole writer's block situation.

MissKris · Jul 17, 2009

No, but that would be cool.

Epiphany · Jul 17, 2009

I met a girl at an amusement park that looked and acted exactly like one of my characters. I wanted to take a picture of her.

Marzipan · Jul 17, 2009

You just want to drag them home with you...but that would be creepy.

Ha.

Epiphany · Jul 17, 2009

The Kidd said:
You just want to drag them home with you...but that would be creepy. Ha.

ROFL exactly.

tengraceapples · Jul 17, 2009

Wow, that sounds like it would be fun. I did see an actress that I thought would be great for my MC. I saw her on Gilmore Girls. She would be perfect. But I would love to have that happen to me. Then again, I would end up stalking them. And well, the judge has already warned me (three strikes rule and all. LOL)

Sage · Jul 17, 2009

Epiphany said:
I met a girl at an amusement park that looked and acted exactly like one of my characters. I wanted to take a picture of her.

Oh, I was going to say no, but that reminds me that at a convention I saw a little girl who looked exactly the the young version of one of my early characters. She was dressed in a Harry Potter costume, so I thought about using that as an excuse to ask for her picture, but ended up deciding it was still a little creepy.

Marzipan · Jul 17, 2009

From all the answer's so far. I gather that writer's can be creepy. I don't feel alone anymore!

Just kidding of course. I find I base a lot of my character's on celeb's from previous ages, mostly the 80's. I have this huge thing about the 80's... Still most of my character's are based on people i've met briefly.

Repartee · Jul 18, 2009

I saw someone [at a Tractor Supply, no less, lol] who looked exactly, and I mean exactly, like Ethan. It was so creepy. I couldn't stop staring.
I was relieved when he started talking, and didn't have a Southern accent. Otherwise that would have been too weird.

Well, they say that everyone has an identical twin somewhere in the world. Maybe that goes for our characters, too.

Red.Ink.Rain · Jul 18, 2009

I met a kid at school once who looked just like my love interest in my first novel. I introduced myself and found that they actually HAD THE SAME NAME.

It was creepy.

Elysium · Jul 18, 2009

I was walking past this garage where this guy was fixing a car. One of my characters, Liam, is a car thief and he has like this Grease/Bad Boy look to him and when the guy looked up I was like "OMG that's Liam" I almost said it out loud too but...yeah.

Marzipan · Jul 18, 2009

Oh God...now I want to go back and find out his name. The problem with that is, like my character, he looks like he would bite my head off. Eeek!

Well, they say that everyone has an identical twin somewhere in the world. Maybe that goes for our characters, too.

I once knew this girl, and her mother's friend had a daughter that looked JUST LIKE HER.

I introduced myself and found that they actually HAD THE SAME NAME.

..... Did you say anything?

Red.Ink.Rain · Jul 18, 2009

The Kidd said:
Oh God...now I want to go back and find out his name. The problem with that is, like my character, he looks like he would bite my head off. Eeek!

I once knew this girl, and her mother's friend had a daughter that looked JUST LIKE HER.

..... Did you say anything?

No, but I just kind of stared at him for a few open-mouthed seconds. Then he started to look uncomfortable, and so I stuttered out something like, "Oh. Yeah. Hi."

Skye Jules · Jul 18, 2009

Uh...not yet! Well, that girl Esther from Orphan reminds me of my MC when she was a little girl--a lot younger than the girl in Orphan (I haven't seen the movie, just the trailer).

auntybug · Jul 18, 2009

Yes & it was embarrassing. It was hubby's cousin's son. It was shameful to be drooling over someone I had 20 years on! I had to change my MC a bit after that :} I was a jackass though & told them.. I'm still picked on about it.

firedrake · Jul 18, 2009

*aging writer tiptoes into YA forum*

I had a meeting a couple of months back at work. I spent the entire half an hour or so gawping at the land-use attorney. He resembles one of the MCs in my WW2 book almost down to the last freckle. It was a bit freaky, to say the least.

*tiptoes out again.*

Marzipan · Jul 18, 2009

http://www.squidge.org/nroberts/king.html

The guy that ran him over ended up dead that September. Strange. Although I don't think you can write anyone but yourself to death.

RunawayScribe · Jul 18, 2009

Oh goodness, have I. Last summer my boss's toddler daughter was the spit and image of the toddler raised by my teenage character, from physical traits to mannerisms. The kid came to work with her mom all the time and ended up taking a liking to me. I picked her up, got her juice, played with her on breaks - and I couldn't for the life of me remember her real name, since in my mind I thought of her as the character. I was fascinated with this kid but had to hide it, since I didn't want to creep out her mother and lose my job.

Marzipan · Jul 18, 2009

It’s hard to not analyze a person when this situation happens. I’ve received a lot of material just sitting on the bench at School, Walmart or hanging out at Starbucks. Writer’s have been doing it for thousands of years so I suppose it comes with the territory.

Last summer my boss's toddler daughter was the spit and image of the toddler raised by my teenage character, from physical traits to mannerisms. The kid came to work with her mom all the time and ended up taking a liking to me.

Thats really cool

Juneluv12 · Jul 18, 2009

My third year of teaching I had a kid that looked just like Harry Potter...or Daniel Radcliffe. When we were on a field trip in Savannah, he had his nose so buried in a book, he ran into a Stop sign! LOL

Life imitated art with my novel, The Guardians.....one of the characters is a cheerleader who gets pregnant....I coach cheerleading, and one of my cheerleaders got pregnant this year....and her name is the same name as the sister in my story....freaky.

Greenify13 · Jul 18, 2009

I've come across pictures before. I was searching for pictures to add to my Photobucket and I came across one and had to stop for a minute in awe. It was my MC, right there in front of me. Missing a few hundred tattoos...but there she was. Other then that, there have only been a few minor incidences in real life that I come across people that really seem similar to characters. And places too, I don't know if people come across this, whether in photos, drawings or real life. But sometimes "scenes" come by, and all I can think is that...I wrote that. That's my setting, or the picture I was trying to portray in my writing.

Skye Jules · Jul 18, 2009

Well, I will say that if Witch Tourniquet ever gets made into a movie, the girl who plays Luna Lovegood would be a perfect match! But by then she'll be too old to play a fifteen-year-old.

History_Chick · Jul 18, 2009

I buy old photographs and base my characters off of them because I write historical stuff.

But who knows...everyone has a twin..right?

Have you ever met a person that reminded you of your character?

Is the random.

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