A couple of sleepless nights ago on Twitter @aerynvala and I (@technosage) got into a conversation about OCs and the use of them in fanfic. ( Allie is a fannish Victorian? )
I don't disagree with any of that. I think it's a peculiar twist on the romance angle of OC-creation that makes it feel strange or awkward, or just embarrassing when people do it badly. In the end for me it really does come down to an embarrassment squick. If you do it well, then brava, but if you don't, oh god, and I just want to hide my face.
I also don't worry unduly about self-insertion, but that's because I don't conceive of myself as a personality monolith on the one hand, and on the other, I'm entirely aware of the fact that it's nearly impossible to write a character that doesn't reflect at least one aspect of my personality. More to the point, why would I want to? It's clearly the case that we fic the characters we identify with, or the ones we don't identify with but create some kind of dynamic with us that we want. Did that make sense? I think I mean that for me the act of writing is nearly always a romance between me and the character/s to some extent. Not necessarily in the currently favored sense of romance but in the older sense of bildungsroman.
We say "write what you know" but what we really mean, to some extent, is "write what you are or what you want to be or what you don't want to be." I think that's an authentic urge, to reimagine ourselves or our worlds with us in them. Creator-gods. And now I'm going off track, but this reminds me, have you read Bartles's slide show on being gods? I think you'd like it.
To conclude your conclusion, at the moment, I identify a lot with Will Zimmerman. Profiler with the curse of potential.
I also don't worry unduly about self-insertion, but that's because I don't conceive of myself as a personality monolith on the one hand, and on the other, I'm entirely aware of the fact that it's nearly impossible to write a character that doesn't reflect at least one aspect of my personality. More to the point, why would I want to? It's clearly the case that we fic the characters we identify with, or the ones we don't identify with but create some kind of dynamic with us that we want. Did that make sense? I think I mean that for me the act of writing is nearly always a romance between me and the character/s to some extent. Not necessarily in the currently favored sense of romance but in the older sense of bildungsroman.
We say "write what you know" but what we really mean, to some extent, is "write what you are or what you want to be or what you don't want to be." I think that's an authentic urge, to reimagine ourselves or our worlds with us in them. Creator-gods. And now I'm going off track, but this reminds me, have you read Bartles's slide show on being gods? I think you'd like it.
To conclude your conclusion, at the moment, I identify a lot with Will Zimmerman. Profiler with the curse of potential.
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