It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means it's time to convene another meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group. Our leader Alex J. Cavanaugh has assembled another great group of co-hosts: Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Jennifer Hawes, and Tamara Narayan.
Be sure to visit the IWSG website!
The question for today is: Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?
I think it's common for bits and pieces of ourselves to slip into our characters. After all, they're born inside our heads. We build them piece by piece, and the ways they behave are informed by our own experiences with humanity.
For example, I find myself writing characters telling jokes that I'd tell. Or another character may share my love for reading. I do try not to make them too much like me, though. It would probably be boring if I denied myself the opportunity to look at the events of the story from the perspective of someone different from me.
Some authors may use their writing as a way to deal with a difficult event in their lives. Perhaps in giving their protagonist a struggle similar to their own, the author can work through their own feelings. I've done something like this before, though I never shared that story with anyone outside of a small group. It felt a bit too personal to put out there.
Have you ever injected personal information into your characters?
Hi, LG! I think your post nailed the answer to the question with the remark "After all they're born inside our heads." Happy writing in October!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I do incude aspects of my personality, but like you I wouldn't want to share a story which was actually about me and any issues I may have.
ReplyDeleteNone of my main characters have a lot in common with me and I've enjoyed writing from a different perspective.
ReplyDeleteI dealt with some stuff when writing my five book series.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoy writing about someone else's life. But I do have some of me show up now and then.
ReplyDeleteI've used past experiences to help write a scene where the character would be feeling the same emotion I had. I also like slipping in names of people I know.
ReplyDeleteYup, I agree: it's not really possible to write characters that don't contain at least some tiny trace of our own experiences, preferences, feelings, etc. They're our children, after all.
ReplyDeleteI share my personal events from time to time in my fiction, but the thing is: they change in the telling. I often take the event from my life and put it into a different time and situation (like a medieval world with magic or a spaceship) and see what comes out.
ReplyDeleteGreat answer! You've pointed out there are lots of ways in which we can crop up in our stories, as it were. Writing can definitely be a way of dealing with issues or some kind of therapy.
ReplyDeleteMy characters, while "born inside my head" aren't my clones. They change and grow during the story and become their own person.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think my characters reflect aspects of my personality. Some of them get to do things I only wish I could do, but the stuff they talk about is definitely stuff I'd talk about. I have also purposefully chosen little snippets of my own life to put into stories as a feature, on some occasions, I guess as plot devices. The characters are never ME through and through, though.
ReplyDeleteI published my novel that helped me deal with a difficult time in my life in June. So yeah, I get that one!
ReplyDeleteI often use past experiences and every book has at least one character based on a person I actually know.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
DB McNicol, author