Your Characters

Write4U2 · Jul 20, 2008

Yesterday someone asked me which of my characters is me. I thought about it, and I can truly say, none of them are me. BUT - there is a piece of me in each of them, except for the antagonist. She's a psychopath, and although she's modeled after someone I know, but have never met, she doesn't have any piece of me in her.

How about you? How did you create your characters? Were/are any of them "you?"

Are they all fictitious, or have you gleaned characteristics or personalities from people you know or have met?

Why did those characteristics appeal to you?

Seaclusion · Jul 20, 2008

Every character has a piece of someone I know, have met, or seen. I'm not good enough to imbue a character with traits completely from my imagination. Although I may not describe the character just as I had seen them, their real life counterpart is in my mind when I do describe them or create dialog or actions for them. For instance, one of the minor bad guys in a work was modeled after a bad guy from a James Bond Movie. Every time I wrote dialog for that character, I had that actors mannerisms, speech patterns and temperment in my head.

Richard

WendyNYC · Jul 20, 2008

If my characters are me, I'm in some real trouble. I'm not so nice to them.

But most of them have small pieces of me.

SPMiller · Jul 20, 2008

Few of my characters have any nontrivial trait in common with me. No one wants to read about a character who's like me. Besides, if I wrote myself into a story and someone found out, I'd be committed. I'm not exaggerating.

Mumut · Jul 20, 2008

My MC has traits I'd like to have as well as failings I do have. Other characters have some of my traits - mostly failings because that's what I have most of.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Jul 20, 2008

Oh, how I'd love to be Carolyn! For just a week... just a day! Oooooweee!

Mandy-Jane · Jul 20, 2008

I created a character once who was definitely not me, but she was everything I'd like to be.

maxmordon · Jul 20, 2008

There is a character in a WIP that is currently in animated suspention that some sort of exaggerated version of me, it wasn't a Mary Sue, though; since it was a bad exaggeration and it was hinted he was going insane

kct webber · Jul 21, 2008

I'm not sure if you can really help 'leaking' into your characters, even if it's just a little bit. In my case, none of my characters are me, though. None of them are people I know, either.

They sort-of grew their own personalities; they certainly aren't what I envisioned when I set out to create them. That was one of the greatest feelings I've ever had--when I realized that my characters had become real products of their experiences, just like real people, who had no concern at all for what I expected them to be.

C.M. Daniels · Jul 21, 2008

There's a sliver of me in every one of my characters, because I created them. However, there's not a single one of them that I could point to and say "that's me".

Mr Flibble · Jul 21, 2008

One of my MC's is a bit like me. I too have whacked someone round the face with a poker. However, I haven't murdered anyone, accidentally or otherwise. We share the same trait of completely failing to notice if a guy is interested in us right up until the point when he loses patience and snogs us. She's a lot less sarcastic than me though. In fact she's nicer than me by quite a way.

She's more like me when I was young and stupider.

Tink · Jul 21, 2008

My current MC is actually more like my Lil' Bro was when he was alive but in female form. Her name is even similar to my younger Bro. name...but she does share some of my characteristics.

Angelinity · Jul 21, 2008

all my characters are me.

auntybug · Jul 21, 2008

The female MC's from both my books are me. I couldn't invent someone with that much attitude

NeuroFizz · Jul 21, 2008

Tell him/her it's the short-tempered murderer, and give a good eyelid-twitching grin.

Pagey's_Girl · Jul 21, 2008

My female MC is definately me. Nobody else could be so illogical.

SPMiller · Jul 21, 2008

IdiotsRUs said:
We share the same trait of completely failing to notice if a guy is interested in us right up until the point when he loses patience and snogs us.

Now, imagine being a male who can't tell when a female is interested in him. Since very few women will start anything, in most situations nothing happens.

Yeah, that was me when I was younger. Boy, was I a stud

Kitrianna · Jul 21, 2008

Seaclusion said:
Every character has a piece of someone I know, have met, or seen. I'm not good enough to imbue a character with traits completely from my imagination. Although I may not describe the character just as I had seen them, their real life counterpart is in my mind when I do describe them or create dialog or actions for them. For instance, one of the minor bad guys in a work was modeled after a bad guy from a James Bond Movie. Every time I wrote dialog for that character, I had that actors mannerisms, speech patterns and temperment in my head.

Richard

I'm pretty much the same way. Not from lack of imagination, but if your life influences your writing, then your associations in life should influence your characters, at least that's how I see it. Don't bug me...I'm half asleep.

The character most like me...see my username sillies.

Mr Flibble · Jul 21, 2008

SPMiller said:
Now, imagine being a male who can't tell when a female is interested in him. Since very few women will start anything, in most situations nothing happens.

Yeah, that was me when I was younger. Boy, was I a stud

Hehe. I just think people are being friendly. I was once asked if I wanted to go see a band that this guy sang in. Sounded good, so I said ok. I only realised it was a, you know, date, about three hours into the evening...

If I fancied them rotten it was worse. I completely convince myself they just want to be friends. When I got a little older, I started taking the bull by the horns. if I fancied a guy and I wasn't sure I'd just say 'I fancy the pants off of you. What are you going to do about it?'

My husband still has to tell me when guys are hitting on me though.

SPMiller · Jul 21, 2008

IdiotsRUs said:
Hehe. I just think people are being friendly. I was once asked if I wanted to go see a band that this guy sang in. Sounded good, so I said ok. I only realised it was a, you know, date, about three hours into the evening...

If I fancied them rotten it was worse. I completely convince myself they just want to be friends. When I got a little older, I started taking the bull by the horns. if I fancied a guy and I wasn't sure I'd just say 'I fancy the pants off of you. What are you going to do about it?'

My husband still has to tell me when guys are hitting on me though.

Hilarious.

I didn't say I was any less oblivious--I still have no idea when the ladies are interested. However, I've compensated for that by going for the snog (as you call it) whenever I feel like it. Works sometimes, fails other times, like a coin toss. And I never know exactly what sort of reaction I'm going to get.

Another note which may help you if you ever write from the perspective of a man chasing women: verbally expressing desire (as you say you did) has a much, much lower success rate than actually attempting to fulfill the desire...

Shadow_Ferret · Jul 21, 2008

My current urban fantasy is in 1st person. The character is me. I'm not just writing as "I," the character is a literal me, nearly complete with my history, my personality, my thoughts and views.

And generally, I think every character I write has a bit of me or a bit of someone else I've met. As a writer, I'm an observer, and absorber, and I take everything from the world around me to create my characters and situations.

Danger Jane · Jul 21, 2008

All my MCs have pieces of my personality. Hopefully, though, they're more likeable than me and in some cases I REALLY hope they're more out of their minds than me.

Something weird I noticed when wasting time on a HUGE and detailed horoscope website was that it seems all my MCs would be considered Virgos to varying degrees, personalitywise, and although that's my sign I wouldn't say I'm DEFINITELY a Virgo. Kinda weird.

Write4U2 · Jul 21, 2008

Danger Jane said:
All my MCs have pieces of my personality. Hopefully, though, they're more likeable than me and in some cases I REALLY hope they're more out of their minds than me.

Something weird I noticed when wasting time on a HUGE and detailed horoscope website was that it seems all my MCs would be considered Virgos to varying degrees, personalitywise, and although that's my sign I wouldn't say I'm DEFINITELY a Virgo. Kinda weird.

That's interesting, DJ. When I was developing my characters, I went to a site where it tells you all kinds of things about you after you answer a list of questions. I did it from my character's POV: Do you like this or that? Do you do this or that? Do you believe this or that? You know the kind of stuff they ask. I went a step further. After I got that description, I went to an astrology site. That was interesting, too, and helped develop the characters even further. But as they interacted with each other throughout the plot/story, they became their own personalities.

I agree with kct, "They sort-of grew their own personalities; they certainly aren't what I envisioned when I set out to create them. That was one of the greatest feelings I've ever had--when I realized that my characters had become real products of their experiences, just like real people, who had no concern at all for what I expected them to be."

At this point, it would be interesting to go back and revisit that site -- if I could remember where it is!

Edit: Looked for the site. Here it is: http://sminds.com/

Jcomp · Jul 21, 2008

In my current WIP the antagonist is me if I quit work and made a full-time commitment to evil megalomania.

Indy Tarquinson · Jul 22, 2008

Weird, I took one of the personality tests and found out that my MC has the same type as me, which oddly enough I was not planning at all (he's an ENFP and I'm an ENFP with maybe a dash of INFP). I thought it's funny cause I wasn't purposely putting my own traits in there but it must've come out subconsciously...

Your Characters

Absolute Parsley

fiddle-dee-dee

Prodigiously Hanged

Well begun is half done...

Hand? What hand?

venturing ever further into the unknown

Penúltimo

Squirrel, Sekrit type, 1 ea.

Cinnamon, sit. Bad fish!

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Just soaking up some R&R...

absent

teh other evil broad

The grad students did it

Still plays with dolls

Prodigiously Hanged

Official Bad Cat's Prez

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Prodigiously Hanged

Court Jester