Viewpoint Importance of “Self” in Character Creation - How similar are you to your character?

[Abyss]

Write what you know is something that helped influenced my perspective on character creation and writing in general. That's not to say that I limit myself completely to my own experiences and temperament, but that when in doubt I tend to start with what I know of something and reflect on it from both my and the intended character's view. I put a bit of myself in every character and I also give them traits in order to make them their own entity as well. I don't want them to be me.

Some characters are very similar to myself or share elements of my life within their histories. Writing for me is always about exploration. I like to examine things from different perspectives. I like to give characters trauma and examine how it would have impacted their lives. What flaws do they have? What kind of influence do they have on the world and what is their justification for acting in such a way, etc. In order to better understand them, I start with what I know and diverge from there. I find the similarities and contrast them with differences in order to find where our mindsets diverge to build upon a unique train of thought that is not my own. It's helped me to understand how different characters perceive the world and also how they might relate to others.

I find writing therapeutic and I enjoy the challenge of developing alternate perspectives. I want my characters to feel like real people, even when they're aliens from outer space who've come to mess with humanity for the shits and giggles.

 

[coffee min]

Almost any character I write/make, has a piece of me in them It can be something as small as liking coffee as much as I do to something even more "deep," if you will. But I am also writing for fun and so I might explore something widely different from myself.

 

[PrinceChaikka]

I really enjoy writing from my experience with hobbies/skills that I know well, because it's a lot easier than researching, and I feel like it better carries over the actual feeling of the activities. As for emotional experiences, I tend to never write anything situationally similar to my own life? But I'll draw inspiration from how I've felt in certain circumstances to help write out the feelings of my characters.

That said,ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ I almost never write as someone with the same personality or morals as my own. I tend to gravitate towards either super cynical roles, or outgoing extrovert roles. I think it's a lot of fun to explore the thoughts of different people! That said, I'm sure that I come across in my characters in some way that I haven't even caught onto yet lol.

 

[smolfluffball]

Most if not all of my characters have some aspect of me in them, I think.

I moved around a lot as a kid and it made me really shy in my tweens/teens, but when I was younger I was super duper outgoing and extroverted - I knew everyone and was friends with pretty much all of my classmates. Then moving changed that and I developed a shell I could hide in, but I still did manage to make a few friends and have a small group I sat with at lunch. Since I've experienced both extroversion and introversion in my life I can usually play both of them pretty well (and I think it helps that I'm kind of an ambivert now, maybe??). To be honest, most of the characters I play now are extroverted to some extent, though I do miss playing the shy kids who need time to just open up and feel comfortable. Some of my favorite characters are introverts! But I also adore my extroverted cheerful idiots!

A trait I think most of my characters get is Stubborn. My mom and dad are both stubborn, which makes me about 4x stubborn, haha! I can't imagine really playing a character who isn't stubborn because I've just never experienced what it's like to not stand by what you believe in or be, like, passive? I have always and will always be incredibly stubborn pfff, so I don't think I'll ever be able to play a passive kind of character well. Perhaps curious also is a trait a lot of them have, and friendly too, but also I have social anxiety so some of them get that (sorry to those characters).

Most times when I'm working on likes/dislikes/hobbies then I give them something that I either like or dislike or am interested in. Sometimes I even flip it around! I don't like seafood, but some of my characters love it! I can't imagine liking seafood but honestly, more power to those kids of mine who do like it.

Something I really like to do to separate a character from myself is give them an aspect of myself but make it into a negative for them! It's a fun exercise and it can be hard to write but it's worth it because then you can explore how some part of yourself could be seen a different way.

In general though, I'd say that most if not all of my characters have at least one part of myself in them. I think it's just one of the most sensible things to do, honestly, because typically people write what they know and I think most people probably know themselves, just a little bit :')

 

[cuzn]

My characters are in general pretty different from myself, but there are a few characters that I use very often that draw directly from my own struggles and experiences in life. I don't stress myself over making my characters different from or similar to me, since they'll end up as individuals in the end anyway, but I find that I get far more empathetically attached to characters that share similar struggles and insecurities as myself. It's obvious to me in hindsight that creating these specific few characters has been both a therapeutic process and one that's dramatically improved my skill as a whole... And they're easily the most internally complex characters that I have.

With these characters, I feel for them in any story that they're in—when I'm not entirely focused on what I'm writing, I used to find that my character would spontaneously get tired IRP just because in real life, I'm in bed putting out a final reply before heading to sleep, lol.

Aside from that though, they all think and feel very differently from me in a lot of ways, although the one thing in common that I share with all of my characters (or, the ones I have an easier time writing) is that they're all very deep thinkers. It comes out in the narration too, with some characters stronger than others, that there might be paragraphs of philosophy or worldview, or psychological complexes that I like explaining in detail whenever appropriate. That's just one of the things I find fun about writing, though; finding new ways that words can convey a very complex train of thought or set of emotions in a way to move the reader as much as it moved the character who experiences it. (:

 

[Prince Lutin]

TBH, only RPing characters who are like you is extremely boring. It's fun to try to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to experiment. There's lots of character archetypes that are fun to RP as. I'm male, but I enjoy RPing as female characters. I also enjoy RPing as characters from different backgrounds, from different social classes (believe me, rich people are fun to RP as!), with different beliefs, and all sorts of things. I'm also autistic, but I don't feel compelled to only RP as autistic characters - RPing as neurotypical characters can be pretty fun too. I'm American, but I enjoy RPing as characters from other countries, as well as other regions of the US (I'm from New York).

 

[Pretty Little Creature]

So, when studying literature in general, all characters and stories are a dialogue from writer to reader. If you read between the lines and the spaces that are not being said there still is a translation there. Actually, many writers wrote long winded coded letters in their writing. Like Virginia Wolf. Many writers will claim they don't interject anything about themselves into their work (this is literally impossible). Writing is personal and often one can only write about things they have truly experienced. It requires empathy. Even if its on the other side of the world or otherwise.

Those who often fail in roping others into a story don't base their characters on any aspect of themselves or their experiences. Hence, characters feel two dimensional and unrelatable.

So, yes, I place a lot of myself into each character I'm working on. I need to empathize with that character and others need to as well. It's a necessity to become connected to your characters in order to succeed.

Because I've gotten older and acquired more experiences in my life just in general. I feel like I can branch out into relating to all ages of characters that have gone through all sorts of experienced. Compared to the past characters which were a little less experienced. My characters have aged as I have and matured and grown too. It's sort of interesting to watch if you keep old work and read it. I tend not to stray into characters too opposite to how I am because if I can't relate to them as a writer no one will relate to them as a reader haha

My stories are heavily character based and that drives the story. It's early so I'm not sure this is making sense but there it is

 

[Cresion Breezes]

My characters are constantly having existential crisises and so am I

 

[BestHelicopter]

I tend to focus on the story and create a character that fits the need. However, I can only think of one time i've done a character that's nothing like men (i did enjoy it to be fair) but i wouldn't enjoy it all the time.bI like the connection and attachment. It makes it more realistic, engaging, and spurs me on to write. without that attachment I think I would struggle/get bored more easily

 

[Inno]

I focus on my characters and the worlds I put them in but they are nothing like me in the least. I personally don't want to write a character that has traits of me or other factors I would recognize. That's no fun for me at all.

 

[Edric Blight]

Simple answer from me, but I feel like putting myself in my character (to some degree) helps me write them better. Although sometimes, to spice it up a bit, I do tend to go a bit different from myself irl just so I'm not playing someone just like me every time I RP.

 

[sevyn]

i avoid making my character too similar to myself, i don’t want to fall into self insert territory, you know? but there are a few things that are commonly found in my characters, things i usually relate to. first and foremost, vast majority of my characters are either asian (typically japanese) or black. i’m blasian myself, and not only do i enjoy diversifying, but i obviously relate to them most — sometimes, if it’s not out of place, my characters relationship with their culture will be somewhat prevalent, whether it’s how they tend to act or just a significant part of their backstory. sometimes i’ll even base certain things in their life on things i’ve experienced; writing families is kinda my weak point so i feel like that happens most often when i’m writing family dynamics, unless their relatives are a significant part of their story.

sometimes i’ll include certain preferences of mine. like, some of my characters may have a fashion sense similar to mine, some of my characters might have a similar taste in music, or a favourite food, but usually minor details spread out between characters.

all of my characters are some flavour of gay. 90% of them are bisexual, i have a few asexual characters and a couple lesbian characters, with a good amount of them being nonbinary, whether they’re they/thems or he/theys or she/theys, etc.

mmm some of my older characters might share my mental health problems, which was a way to cope. to be fair though, for most of the fandoms i’m in… mental health problems are pretty much inevitable.

despite all of these things, i try to have some diversity when it comes to the behaviour/personality/backstory of my characters. like i said, i wanna avoid coming off as self-inserty. my characters share some key details about myself, but the character as a whole is usually pretty different from me.