Self Inserts

[dim_aldebaran]

Heya-

I posted more FDL. It's a boring segment; just some more angsting and the return of the 'ghosts'. I'm a little afraid of the next segment... Holly gets drunk - Mud Man liquor - and Teh OMC is introduced. He's very fun to write, and he doesn't have a name. He doesn't strike me as a Gary Stu, which seems rather nonexistent in this fandom, but

Comments

[linwenilid]

And who on Earth would actually play Für Elise so many times

*raises hand* Me, and my youngest brother. Ever since I bought the keyboard, we've been wanting to learn that song, and at times it's sorta annoying to hear ourselves going on and on and on and on... My other brother prefers the Mozart's Turkish March, though, and at the moment, I've been engulfed in learning Mozart's Minuet from 'Don Juan' for a lesson.

So, nope, you're not alone in the world.

Questions:
1. Is this phenomenon unique to Teenagers in Conservative Suburbia?
2. Are characters that share similar interests to the author self-inserts
3. If they are self-inserts, is that necessarily a bad thing?
4. If it is a bad thing, how would I go about fixing it?

1. No idea. I do know it happens in the rest of the world, though. *cough*Sue*cough*

2 & 3. Hmm, well, I guess if you're blisfully ignoring canon to make the character do something you want (like Draco Malfoy going clubbing -ugh-), they're blatant self-insertions, at least of part of your personality. But if you're only filling in the blanks for things that the author didn't say, I don't think it's bad (unless it's something that doesn't fit with the actual description of a character, like abovementioned Draco clubbing.

4. Go back and re-read the books, get a beta, etc. It's not really a big problem when you're willing to improve. :)

[dim_aldebaran]

Isn't Fur Elise prettyful? It's so simple and elegant but still so emotional and lyrical. It just... flows. Grr. I can never describe things when I have to. IMO, Vocalise and Fur Elise are the prettiest songs ever written.

Go back and re-read the books, get a beta, etc. It's not really a big problem when you're willing to improve.

A problem for me is that my usual beta, Whilily, has been off moving house for a while now. I have a beta for FDL now, but she hasn't gotten far at all and she's in it mostly for helping me with my French and my portrayal of France. Besides three FDL segments, I haven't had anything beta'd since February or so. I'm not really in a betaing relationship with anyone else. Whilily withdrawal might explain my degenerating sense of character. [/self pity]

[linwenilid]

*nods* Lovely, lovely song.

Well, it's not like you're in desperate need of a beta, really. Your work is good as it is already. If you keep on like that, what you'll be needing pretty soon is a professional editor, not a lousy net-beta. ;)

no offense to all the good-willed betas out there, please don't smack me *is afraid of t3h smacking*

[dim_aldebaran]

I like having a beta, especially one as good as Whilily. When I write something I always feel like I have no control over it, no way to make it say what I want to say, and Whilily could always see what I was trying to say and make it much more clear. It's like looking up and seeing stars with a bunch of cirrus in the way: now, they're pretty and all, but wouldn't it be better if there wasn't that little layer of clouds there so you could see them much clearer? That's what it always feels like to me, anyway. I get carried away with allusions and symbolism and such that I end up forgetting what I was trying to say in the first place.

[linwenilid]

Fair enough. That's a good reason; it's always useful to hear someone else's opinion on the matter.