It's like looking in a mirror...

Most writers would say that there's a little of us in every character we write, but how true is that? How similar to you are your characters really? Do you intentionally write reflections of yourself and your worldview? Or perhaps you do the opposite.

I don't write characters very often, but when I do I can't help but imbue them with a lot of my own personality traits or personal goals. It is hard for me to write personalities I am unfamiliar with...

It's certainly easier to write from what you know. It's fun to write characters that are opposite of how you might normally behave or that differ in the way that you might think about certain things. Most of my characters have a core that is at some level a way that I've personally felt, acted, or thought throughout my life, and then I build up from that. Sometimes what I build on ends up contradicting their core, and turns them into something else that doesn't exactly reflect back to the me I am or was, but personally I still see myself in each of my characters at least somewhat.

Very true for me! There's definitely a part of me in all of my characters, and I feel like that strikes a good balance with all the traits we do not share, too.
More often than not, what I and my characters have in common is certain struggles - but sometimes, I also mix it up with traits that I could only wish I'd have, or with different views of the world. Sometimes I do it intentionally, and find some nice combination of traits, but sometimes I don't, and usually I realize only later in which areas a certain character resembles me.
I may also add that so far, the things that my characters have in common with me are often different for each one of them, and I'm quite happy with that if I say so myself!

I think for my original characters and even characters from other sourced materials I put a little something of me in them. For instance Sandy from the Detroit After Human RP she's pretty much me in college, goody two shoes. With Sana in Foul Play she's much more sassy than me, which is intentional as I want to try to create characters different from me personality wise.

One thing a lot of my original characters will have in common is they'll resemble me look wise as I want to see more characters like me be represented in media.

I think a lot of writers take personalities from people they know in real world and assign those personalities to their characters

Ace864 said:

I think a lot of writers take personalities from people they know in real world and assign those personalities to their characters

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I can't say I've ever really done this myself, but I've definitely heard of people doing this when creating characters. I'm not really sure how I feel about is a process though.

Most often than not that's something you do without realizing, I think.

I mean, it's much more natural to be able to relate to a character and put yourself in their shoes when they have a piece of you or somebody you know!

Over the course of writing, I've seen and been told about many similarities of not just my characters, but also the style and world of the stories in my writings. Sometimes, it's intended, other times its just part of the natural writing process or even in line with the way I speak. Perhaps it's just me writing from what I know mixed with what I have thought about or seen in reflection.

While I won't claim my characters are a 1 on 1 match with me, there are plenty of similarities as well as differences. They are their own beings, after all, written in a way to be a part of a narrative I would never be a part of. Though, when it comes to SC specifically, I think most of the similarities the characters have to me is the mentality and perhaps development, as opposed to something like hobby, interests, speaking, or likes (Though it's probably obvious I and Dolly love puns).

It's actually a habit of mine, and one I'm trying to break. Usually it's without realising, but when I come back to that character after a couple of weeks, I can see just how much of myself I see in them. So I am trying to change that by making characters who are more opposite to me - it's hard though, because I struggle to relate to them, to the point of it giving me writer's block at times!

I suppose, for me, it's nice to share my beliefs and feelings with someone, even if they're fictional/my own creation. Like anyone I enjoy seeing characters like me being represented. So it's not necessarily a bad thing, unless it's an obvious self-insert, which can detract from the writing quite a bit!

Hyzenthlay said:

It's actually a habit of mine, and one I'm trying to break. Usually it's without realising, but when I come back to that character after a couple of weeks, I can see just how much of myself I see in them. So I am trying to change that by making characters who are more opposite to me - it's hard though, because I struggle to relate to them, to the point of it giving me writer's block at times!

I suppose, for me, it's nice to share my beliefs and feelings with someone, even if they're fictional/my own creation. Like anyone I enjoy seeing characters like me being represented. So it's not necessarily a bad thing, unless it's an obvious self-insert, which can detract from the writing quite a bit!

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Well! As I said in my previous post in this topic, I don't think it's bad to have characters that relate to you! Sometimes even putting yourself inside a world that is very different from your own can lead to very interesting outcomes, and I guess we all know how much a world can shape a character... that will likely let them blossom into who they really are, the more you roleplay as them - even if they start off pretty similar to you!

I suppose the best way to go about this, though, is to focus mostly on one trait that you want to expand on - maybe one you share with your character, one you wish to have, one you know very well from other characters you've seen! But then, instead of making that character more similar to yourself, change things up! Give them a different background, a different appearance, or just add some traits that don't match with yours. That also helps in all those situations where you'll have to think why a character is the way they are - there are many ways to get there, not just the one you may have experienced first hand.

Sorry if I bring Arianne up once again, but she's a good example here because while sharing many traits with me (like wanting people to think highly of her, or being a bit air-headed) she's also a very popular, outgoing, sporty and reckless girl! All things that... I can't really relate to although I sometimes may wish to be like that 🙃

Hope this helps, Clover!

Like Annie and Vray, I don't think it's something that's intentional on my part, but I can definitely see myself reflexively writing in a tone or style that is closer to mine than the characters' sometimes, so once I have the 'bones' of a chapter, I might go back and rewrite a lot of dialogue and inner thoughts to try and change it to something more characteristic of the speaker. I think especially when I am pressed for time or JPing with someone, I skip this process, which sometimes creates minor character inconsistencies.

As for the creation of characters themselves, I try to be varied in the kinds of people I make and to not make them resemble me (or each other), mostly just so I'm not bored of writing the same character/traits over and over. But like Alvey said, it's just easier to write from what you know, so even if it's not intentional, I probably do that.

For me personally, I'm one of those writers who thinks that there's definitely pieces of ourselves in every significant character we write. The vast majority of my characters are extremely different from me in terms of life experiences and personality, but even then I will often notice a core trait or something about their belief systems that very closely resembles my own. It's never done intentionally, I think it's just a biproduct of turning something that exists entirely in our heads into text.

That being said though, there's a big difference between a character that has similarities to parts of you and a self-insert. The former is almost unavoidable, the latter rarely leads to the best writing you could do.

I'd say some of the characters I write, not necessarily just the main protagonists, have at least one of my strange quirks injected into their personality.

That includes villains too; I think it's interesting to write a villain based on yourself, be it specifically your appearance, personality, or my most favorite trait to shift onto my villains: beliefs. It's an interesting way to self-reflect. Now, I'm not really sure how deranged I can sound before I get a warning from the forum staff, because a few of my villains have some pretty macabre methods, but I think basing an antagonist on those thoughts you keep inhibiting (but linger anyways, darn you nihilism) is a neat idea. Or just the less savory parts of your personality. That works too.

my characters? just exaggerated versions of me lol (even down to how they look like). like someone else here said, i have difficulty writing personalities that aren't my own, because i don't understand them that much.

my world has very little variety lmao.