I am an aspiring author, currently planning out an entire series of sci-fi novels. One thing that I have done multiple times throughout the course of this process is not only give my characters traits and/or mindsets that I personally have, but also put them into similar events as ones that I have had in my life.
Was this something that you ever did in your own writing, and did it work well for you?
I would imagine that by making your characters relatable to yourself in particular (and by extension, other potential readers, of course) it would make it easier to know them better, and more carefully plan out their place in your plot.
I love to work on little stories and books as a hobby, and I find that in basically every one, there is a character based off of at least a little part of my personality, whether it is the main character, or not. I feel this really sets a tone for a book, making it more of your story rather than others’. I also feel that other people with similar characteristics find this relatable. For example, I really like Spider-Man Homecoming, as I see myself in Peter Parker’s shoes. I’m a sophmore, I love Legos, I have a friend I can almost always be seen with (Kalmah_Ren), and so on. But, you should make sure not all of your characters match your own description, as there are lots of other types of people out there.
Well, I’m not Greg, but as a fellow author I can say that as characters grow they begin to lose your personal character traits, snd insted begin to take on a personality of their own. I think it’s perfectly fine for you to insert yourself into your story, as long as you avoid making them a Mary Sue. And if you want a character that isn’t a carbon copy of yourself, I’d recommend writing about a character that’s a different age or gender than you.
I base many of my characters off of different people that I meet, be they very similar in persona or so different that only one or two characteristics remain. It creates a more varied cast than one based off of one person, and it shows.
Oh yeah, I’m not worried about carbon-copy characters. I manage that with the fact that not all of my characters are human, and I do this in such a way where the non-human characters have the potential to be just as relatable as the non-human ones(while shying away from stereotypical/overdone caricatures of non-human characters). I also have more or less spread my own traits among the characters, not letting any character have more than one, if said character had one to begin with.
@Styrofoam I do the same. I just noticed that I have, somewhat subconsciously, self-inserted traits into my characters. I have done almost equally as much “trait-inserting” with inspiration from not only other fictional characters (for example, one of my star villains shares Makuta Teridax’s “would rather speak and order than fight one on one” sort of method of villainy) but also friends of mine. Having a great background of other fictional universes which I love helps me greatly, as I can look(and have looked) to them for inspiration.
@ToaNoah_Wafflemeister Yeah, I’ve been making sure to limit the number of shared traits between myself and my characters to one per character, and making sure not every character has one, as it would be unnecessary for it to be that way.
of villainy) but also friends of mine. Having a great background of other fictional universes which I love helps me greatly, as I can look(and have looked) to them for inspiration.
I would say no. I really can’t point to characters I have written that were based in part on me, mainly because I don’t find myself that interesting. As far as similar situations, if I didn’t do so much genre writing, I might, but as it is – most of what I write is sci-fi/fantasy/action, so it doesn’t match up with anything I have lived.
I usually have a scene in my head when I start a book and that’s it, and then I get to know the characters as I write. A lot of the time, they develop in ways that completely surprise me.
Wow, that sounds really interesting, and even exciting, getting to start yourself with a single backdrop and cast, and then having them grow into their own unique beings as they develop.
Unfortunately, I am unable to develop characters in that way, my method is more or less to start by planning out an event (similar to the way you do it), but then think to myself “Who, or what kind of character, would be interesting to see in this kind of situation? Who would accompany them? Would the be alone? Would they even be human?”. Questions like that are usually then answered with sporadic ideas that then develop into concepts, and then grow in complexity and intricacy over time, mingling with other concepts and eventually forming this big, nasty, beautiful web I call a story.
