Are your characters like you?

[Coco82]

Simply put, is your main character or characters like you?

[wurdwise]

Yes

[azbikergirl]

Not really. He has some qualities I believe I possess, and others I find appealing that I don't possess, but I don't think that people who know me well would think, "Hey! He's just like his creator!"

[ElizabethJames]

No, we are like them.

:)

[XThe NavigatorX]

I certainly hope not.

[Writing Again]

I'm a dull boring person: Nobody wants to read about me. I write about interesting, exciting people someone wants to read about.

[Coco82]

So would you say your characters are your alter egos?

[preyer]

there are elements of myself in each character most of the time. i try to be extra careful with female characters, though, because women aren't like men in their thought processes in a lot of situations.

also, i have stock characters that round out the background, people who i'm very familiar with in terms of their profiles. only if i ever get to the point where several books of mine are published will i start to differentiate them a little more just so it's not quite so obvious.

at the same time, i'm going to miss where i work. not doing factory work, but the hundreds of people i've shared the last ten+ years with, all of whom are characters themselves. i don't have to supplant people walking by in a coffee shop with fake histories based on impressions which may or may not be true, i've got the real thing to fall back on. everyone has an interesting story if you get to know them, stuff you simply can't invent all the time. since i can't possibly live every type of lifestyle (and wouldn't want to anyway), i can still talk to people who do.

i'm going to miss that. i know already that if by chance i ever happen to be able to write full time, i'll need to carry a job where i get to have plenty of human interaction if i want. a lot of a character's surface features might depend on someone i know in real life, but it's my thoughts i project into them the best i can with the understanding that i'm trying to be true to their, ah, character.

yeah, i think my characters are like me to a great extent, that's why i tend to have them perform in situations things that i'm capable of. my characters typically can't swim or dance for @#%$, because i can't, either. they're great in bed, though, just like me, so at least they all have great sex. ahem. anyway, is it terribly possible to not put at least a facet of yourself, be it from experience or fantasy, in your characters? are your fantasies not a part of who you are? i'd guess that those who say 'no' are the ones with the sickest fantasies of all, lol.

[maestrowork]

I'm in every character.

[Jamesaritchie]

I suppose I always put my knowledge, skills and experience into the main character, but whether or not I put my beliefs and opinions into a protagonist just depends on what the story needs.

Sometimes my protagonist is me in every way. Sometimes my protagonist is my opposite in every way. It just depends on the particular story.

[Nateskate]

Not at all. I think I've been a door checker far too much of my life, and my protagonist is very independent and adventurous to a fault. Perhaps he's more like I wished I had been.

[Writing Again]

I'm a dull boring person: Nobody wants to read about me. I write about interesting, exciting people someone wants to read about.

So would you say your characters are your alter egos?

Nope. I like who I am. I like doing what I do.

A character is not a real person. A character is essentially a cartoon -- It is how we see our neighbor: Our neighbor is not always how we perceive them to be, but we see them a certain way so often that we are shocked to discover they sometimes feel and do things differently.

Sometimes our neighbors are cartoons of themselves. I know a man who is called "Cowboy" and he acts like a cowboy. I think he would hogtie himself if he ever caught himself doing anything a cowboy does not do.

[Jamesaritchie]

A character is not a real person. A character is essentially a cartoon -- It is how we see our neighbor: Our neighbor is not always how we perceive them to be, but we see them a certain way so often that we are shocked to discover they sometimes feel and do things differently.

I hope my characters are more than cartoons. They're as real as my talent and experience can possibly make them.

I don't believe readers respond well to characters who are cartoons. My neighbor may do something in a way I didn't expect, though I can't think of any reaction that would shock me, but however my neighbor reacts, that doesn't make my character any less real.

And whatever my neighbor does, I know myself pretty darned well, and I know how I have reacted, and how I will react, to pretty much any situation.

I can say the same thing about quite a few real people. I've seen one or another of them react to almost any conceivable situation, from killing to dying, from being mugged to breaking the law, from having a child to losing a child, from marriage to divorce, and from protesting pornography to being caught with a closet full of gay porn.

I may not always know how my neighbor will react to a given situation, but there's always someone whose reaction I will know because it's already happened to him. If not, I'll find someone the situation has happened to and use his reaction.

Good characters may not be flesh and blood, though all of mine are based on flesh and blood people, but a good character should be just as real as any flesh and blood person out there. Without this, fiction itself is a cartoon, and while some fiction certainly fills this bill, good fiction doesn't.

[maestrowork]

My characters are real.

[katdad]

My protagonist (private detective Mitchell King) is definitely not me, but he does have certain characteristics that I do.

For example, his main hobby is pool shooting. I can write on this with some authority since I've played tournament-level pool for many years (as well as pool hall "money" games).

He's a classical music fan and knows literature quite well, same for me. He's well versed in modern art but I'm not. He carries a Glock model 30 (.45 ACP) pistol and so do I.

But he's not me by a long shot. He's much younger, more athletic, and a lot better looking. Personalities are different, too.

Nevertheless, yes, I do sometimes use my own interests and knowledge base as a foundation for some of my characters' traits.

[Dhewco]

Well, in some ways. My protag is a precociously bookish girl. Like me, her vocabulary and reading comprehension is way above her age.

In fact, I've had people tell me she didn't sound her age. When I say she's just like me at that age, using words bigger than normal preteens use, I'm treated with skepticism. I had to age her from 9 to 12 to make her more realistic. Naturally, I had to replan the entire series.


David

[Coco82]

My main character (and other assorted characters to a point) are like me. My main character is has the same ethnic background as me (Mexican-American) and body type, but the similarity ends there. He's someone who's charismatic, outgoing, able to get any woman he wants. So yes, to a point IMO he's an alter ego of sorts. My characters are special b/c when I create one it might be due to what's happening in my life at the time or to express what I'm feeling. BTW, if I haven't mentioned he's a director in the '30s-'60s something like a Howard Hughes/Errol Flynn type character if anyone is familiar w/the actors of that time.

[Writing Again]

Good characters may not be flesh and blood, though all of mine are based on flesh and blood people, but a good character should be just as real as any flesh and blood person out there. Without this, fiction itself is a cartoon, and while some fiction certainly fills this bill, good fiction doesn't.

You must know much more interesting people than I do. The people I know are more like soap operas than good fiction. They talk about boring, uninteresting things and do so interminably -- Come back in three years and sure enough he is still telling how he told of the rail road attendant about the baby bottle the dog thought was a chew toy. Most people are cowards, few will stick up for themselves or the people they love let alone help a stranger being beaten to a pulp. Few have any spirit of adventure -- I'm told daily that I'm insane for riding a motorcycle, "You could get hurt, man, don't you know that?" People are actually afraid of a few skate boarders in a mall -- Anybody want to go hang gliding?

You character can only be as complex as the situations you place them in. You only have from 60,000 to 200,000 words with which to create situations that demonstrate the characters complexity -- Which is shown by how interestingly they react to the various situations.

Each situation progresses smoothly from initial problem to final resolution -- And do so in an interesting manner. There is no time or reader interest in all the boring aspects of "real people." This is what real people are trying to get away from by reading your novel.

Characters are not and cannot be real people: They are characters. A good character is bigger than life, and is more real and more interesting, than real people.

[Daughter of Faulkner]

There is a bit only a bit of me in everything I write.

[Azura Skye]

One character seems to be a mini-me. :evil

I would say, other than that one, there are only small traces of me in the other characters. It seems to be likes and dislikes instead of personality traits.

[Terra Aeterna]

There's some part of me in each of my characters.

My characters are not my alter egos.

My characters tend to be amalgams of people I've known and people I've observed.

My characters are "real" enough to me that I can have conversations with them in the back of my head if I wish.

[Mya Bell]

Coco82 said: " Simply put, is your main character or characters like you?"

Simply answered: I hope not!!

--- Mya Bell

[CourtneyAllisonMoulton]

LOL @ Mya Bell :rollin That was funny!

My characters have bits of me in them. The main character from my first book wonders many of the same things about me, has many of my own thoughts, and contains bits of me in her.

I think that EVERY character has pieces of their creater in them. Everyone has different sides of themselves, just as (hopefully) their characters do and have depth to them.

[RGame]

I can fit six Fig Newtons in my mouth at one time. My characters can only fit five.

[clotje]

Parts of me are in my characters. But I amplify those bits and make those traits stronger so that I have different characters, not just clones of myself.

I must admit that my characters are a lot better looking than me though :D :D