Do you pick "real life" people

ccarver30 · Mar 27, 2007

that represent your characters? I have. I was wondering if that was odd. For example, if you look up my profile pic (not the avatar), Paul Leyden (actor fromerly on As the world turns) represents the main character in my book, Clayton Carver.
Is this weird? :e2hammer:

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 27, 2007

No, it isn't weird. I base my characters on people I know in real life. Not actors, I don't know any actors.

I take little bits and pieces from everyone I meet. A personality quirk. A strange habit. A mannerism. An inflection. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and I form my own characters.

scarletpeaches · Mar 27, 2007

I've often heard it recommended that we picture people in our minds as we write. I tend not to do this though as my characters' looks don't have much bearing on the plot. I make a note of minor details like eye colour so they don't change from one chapter to the next, but aside from that don't mention their physical appearance.

But it's a common thing, lots of people do it. I think I'm in the minority.

MidnightMuse · Mar 27, 2007

I'll have a mental picture of my characters in my head, not usually based on anyone I know, but clear in my mind so I can watch them "act out" what I'm writing - but I leave those details out, and describe them in the physical sense as little as needed, so my readers can form their own pictures in their heads.

Having an image in my own head keeps me entertained.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Mar 27, 2007

Same as with MM. I like to watch the Movie of the Week version in my head.

scarletpeaches · Mar 27, 2007

Oh, I picture people as I write. Just not 'real' ones, if that's what was being asked. I don't use film stars, especially those I fancy as that would tempt me into Mary-Sueing the MC and turning her into me.

Namatu · Mar 27, 2007

ccarver30 said:
that represent your characters? I have. I was wondering if that was odd. For example, if you look up my profile pic (not the avatar), Paul Leyden (actor fromerly on As the world turns) represents the main character in my book, Clayton Carver.
Is this weird?

Sometimes I make a character evocative of a real life person, but they usually morph into their own individual. Paul Leyden, however, is a good pic to have in front of you for any reason.

(Did you see him in that one Farscape episode he was on?)

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 27, 2007

For most of my characters in both of my novels/stories, they are purely fictitious, right down to their looks, I have a good mental image of how they look.
However, the main male character in both my stories are based on my favourite actor, because I think some of his films suck and don't do him justice, so I write the kind of stuff I'd like to see him play instead. Btw, the female characters are never me, I wouldn't want the things happening to me that happens to them.
I also use the personality, name and looks etc, of my friend who passed away last week, as the foster mother to one of my main female characters.

Other than that, everyone else in my works are fictitious.

Elodie

OverTheHills&FarAway · Mar 27, 2007

I'm very bad at "seeing" my characters in my mind. They are somehow sculpted by their emotions and characteristics, if that makes any sense. When I read, also, the characters don't get faces. They get reactions--mine, the other characters. The basic things, like general build and coloring, I can do that. But every time I try to do specifics I fail.

Like my current protag. He started out life as Frankie Muniz, but, as I'm going along, he tells me he tried to dye his hair red so he'd look more like Johnny Rotten. ??? Okay, so he looks like Johnnny Rotten now?

I think the recent discussion on the novels board on description brought up a good point. People are going to have their own idea about what the characters look like. Giving them a general attitude and style will go a long way in steering the reader toward what "you think" is right.

spike · Mar 27, 2007

All of my characters are based on real people, because they are the only people that I know.

The two main characters in my latest book (which the full is at an agent...Please everyone, cross your eyes and spit for luck) were based on 2 girls I knew at college. However, since my characters are 12 and they were in their 20's, I've taken them back to what I think they were like. Probably nothing like what they were like at 12.

Another character was based on my cousin, if my cousin was a superhero, which he isn't.

So while they start out as people I know, they never end up that way.

Namatu · Mar 27, 2007

I began a story roughly basing three of the characters on people I knew, but they now no longer resemble those people. This story is an anomaly though, as I prefer to make characters up completely.

Calla Lily · Mar 27, 2007

I make up my characters, but I tend to give them little quirks of people I know. This way no one can throttle me because I've slaughtered their alter-ego, or turned them into a ranting villain. :tongue

My one exception is a character in one of my 2 WIPs--and I got my friend's permission before I started to write her. She turns out good in the end...but it's a twisted road.

Hey...I'm evil.

awatkins · Mar 27, 2007

I was in a fast food restaurant one day when this elderly lady walked in. She seated herself, opened up a crumpled paper bag and removed a canteloupe. Then she produced a bent paring knife from a pocket, carefully peeled the melon, and then ate it by spearing chunks on the point of the knife. I made tons of mental notes.

Later, I was walking through a department store when another elderly lady entered. She was dressed in a knee-length, sequined gown, nylon stockings rolled up to her knees, and a grubby pair of men's tennis shoes. More mental notes.

I eventually combined these two real-life examples into a character in a short story. By keeping the images of the women in mind, the character I created seemed very real, to me any way. I loved that character.

Azure Skye · Mar 27, 2007

One of my main characters looks like a young Reese Witherspoon with glasses. Another character, an elderly lady, is a mix between my grandmother and woman who lived down the road from me when I was a wee thing.

ccarver30 · Mar 27, 2007

I have pictured my people in my head THEN found a person that emulates them, i.e. "OMGZ, That's ____!"

I have not seen Paul in Farscape, but I have seen screencaps. That man is 6' 3" of perfection. YUM. :LilLove:

MidnightMuse · Mar 27, 2007

My MC's are all guys.

Really hot guys.

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 27, 2007

i done that with my female character's husband. I had made him up in my head, how he looked via hair, height, build etc, even down to his glasses. Then a few weeks later, I was sat on the opposite table to him outside of a cafe in Reading!

ccarver30 said:
I have pictured my people in my head THEN found a person that emulates them, i.e. "OMGZ, That's ____!"

Namatu · Mar 27, 2007

ccarver30 said:
I have not seen Paul in Farscape, but I have seen screencaps. That man is 6' 3" of perfection. YUM.

I encourage you to rent the DVD. Season 1, episode "A Bug's Life." The screencaps do not fully convey his wonderfulness in this episode. :heart:

The Grift · Mar 27, 2007

I tend to pick real people (celebrities and non-celebrities) for minor characters as a shortcut. Because anytime you decide your character looks like someone, they will probably act a little like them too. I feel that my main characters need to grow a little bit more organically.

Sometimes I will see a person in real life or on TV or something, and they will inspire a main character...but then it tends to evolve from there.

ccarver30 · Mar 28, 2007

Will do Namatu! Thanks!! <3

PeeDee · Mar 28, 2007

I really don't (picture people, or bug out over Farscape, either one). My characters just look like themselves, for better or for worse. Sometimes, I get a story idea based on how someone acts, or talks, or whatever.

There was a student financialadvisor that my wife talked to, going on three years ago. He wore gray suits, had a clean desk, one single picture of a child taped delicately on the wal of the cubicle (which I decided was probably not really his) and a half a bottle of diet coke. I thought you couldn't get any more "gray" and bland than all of that...so therefore, he must have murdered someone.

Combined that notion with a really strange guy I knew a few years earlier, half a country away, and I had a great little murder/horror story. But the people IN the story bore very little resemblence to the people IN real life.

Vanatru · Mar 28, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
My MC's are all guys.

Really hot guys.

Well, at least I won't have to worry about you copying me for a character.

Now, if you need a troll, I can stand in.

I usually base the physical look of my characters off people I know and sometimes take the personalities of others and combine the two.

I don't ever use myself or family. I don't want the public knowing that much about me. Makes me more mysterious.

Alot of my team mates have been the basis for my characters..........good and bad.

For the post-Civil War piece I'm working on, one of the main characters is based off a good friend of mine. Both appearance and attitude wise. The other main character is a combo of two of my other team mates.

I find it easier to visualize them going through the parts of the story if I can see and imagine how they'd react to this or that.

CaroGirl · Mar 28, 2007

"Knowing" my characters (looks and personality) and keeping them in my mind's eye when I write saves me from taking all that time to write out character sketches. I amalgamate characters from my real-life friends, family and acquaintances. I think they become more "real" that way.

ChaosTitan · Mar 28, 2007

Except for my very first novel, I haven't consciously written about people that I know. Many characters in that book were amalgamations of folks I know or once knew.

As for picturing my characters, my habit is a holdover from my RPGing days. I cast many of the characters in my books. It gives me a very clear image of them in my head, which in turn, makes the characters seem more real to me. They aren't just names and descriptions on a page, but living people I desperately need to write about.

Whatever works, right?

Do you pick "real life" people

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