On Characters and Self

[ojouchan]

The Characters in my second novel are actually my oldest. I've been writing them for sooo long that they seem like old friends.

When I first conjured them up, I never realized how each one was a piece of my personality.

That brings up a question. As a writer can you ever make a character that does not in a way have a piece of you inside them?

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Comments

[idealforcolors]

I think writers also create characters who are unlike them on purpose: as experiments to explore what a different life might be like, or simply characters with personalities you wish you could get away with. Even if the characters are utterly unlike the writer, they definitely reflect on some mental questioning and figuring things out the writer's doing.

[osirusbrisbane]

It's hard to write characters entirely opposite from you, because to some extent, you have to write what you know. Which is not to say you can't make characters who exist largely in opposition to you, but they're bound to have some tiny pieces of you. If you work so hard to eliminate even that, you're letting your image of yourself dictate the characters much more than if you just write the character the way you were going to.