Teens Writing for Teens, issue 6

Grayson Moon

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...anyway. Are any of you writing about self-insert characters or characters with a lot of similarities to yourself (intentionally or not)?

I used to be really scornful of the idea, but I'm realizing now that writing a character that reflects the author's life actually works well when it comes to sharing oneself through one's writings.

The main character of my young adult novel started off as someone painfully similar to myself (unintentionally of course), but eventually, I tweaked the personality enough to make the character all their own. Now the hero is a avid bookworm AND an over-imaginative scatterbrain... with the tendency to break the forth wall. Sure, there will always be parts of me in the MC, but knowing the protagonist is actually very helpful for first person narration (where the MC is telling the story). The tricky part is making sure none of the other characters reflect yourself, that would cause major problems with lack of individuality. But in the end, if the author is an interesting or quirky person, then it wouldn't hurt to use it. If the readers don't know the author personally, then they can't tell the difference.
 

amlptj

Speling & grammer murderer, Sorrie!
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How Was the last post in here from over a year ago?! Any TWFT still out there? I guess all of us grew up.... and did everyone transfer over to OPWFT? I mean I guess since I'm 28 now I really should be with the old people....
 

Sage

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Cheering you all on!
When you consider that the first post in here was 9 years ago, probably most of the regulars aged out of it, and newbies didn't seem able to revive it.