So I had a thought today about my main characters. How much of your own personality leaches into them?
For me, they typically have a great deal of my personality in them. No I’m not saying that I’m writing myself onto those pages just that they tend to pick up some of my more charming :) personality traits as they go.
Right now my MC is a snarky, butt-kicking, she-well, you know. I know…I know you are all saying that doesn’t sound anything like me! **cue the maniacal laughter** but honestly Jordan (my MC) seems to inhabit that tiny voice in the back of my head when people tick me off. Okay so maybe not so tiny. But her voice is everything I wish I could say to people. Talk about a therapeutic outlet huh?
In my previous story – THE PLAINS OF PURGATORY – my MC was compassionate and willing to do almost anything to help her friends. Despite how vein it sounds, also a big part of my personality.
So my question to you is how much of your own personality ends up in you main characters?
For me, they typically have a great deal of my personality in them. No I’m not saying that I’m writing myself onto those pages just that they tend to pick up some of my more charming :) personality traits as they go.
Right now my MC is a snarky, butt-kicking, she-well, you know. I know…I know you are all saying that doesn’t sound anything like me! **cue the maniacal laughter** but honestly Jordan (my MC) seems to inhabit that tiny voice in the back of my head when people tick me off. Okay so maybe not so tiny. But her voice is everything I wish I could say to people. Talk about a therapeutic outlet huh?
In my previous story – THE PLAINS OF PURGATORY – my MC was compassionate and willing to do almost anything to help her friends. Despite how vein it sounds, also a big part of my personality.
So my question to you is how much of your own personality ends up in you main characters?
8 comments:
Let's see, in my last mss my character was male, and a brilliant but awkward cynic. In my WIP, the protag is female, and with two warring sides of her personality.
I guess I can relate to both!??
Every character for me, has bits of me, and then of others who fascinate or frustrate me.
Mine is very much like me in speech and personality, and her appearance is based loosely on my ideal self with a few flaws through in. But it is my first attempt of a novel and they say your first main character is very autobiographical...I'd have to agree.
That's a very interesting question! I've never really thought about how similar I am to my main character in Before Ever After. Shelley is younger than me and quite impulsive - nothing like the person I am today. If I travelled back in time to my twenties, I might see a tiny bit of a resemblance.
See now this is interesting to me. I wonder if it is easier for us as writers to relate to our MC if she/he shares similar attributes with our own personalities? As in - do we know how that character would react or what he/she would say because that's what that part of us would want to do in that situation?
Sam - How long ago did you start writing Before Ever After? Have you changed much in the interum? And did you find it harder or easier to write because you are most seperated from her personality that Vinobaby, Catherine and I?
Just curious!
Hi, C.M.! I wrote the novel about two years ago and I think that I haven't changed much since then. I haven't had the opportunity to write about a character similar to myself (Before Ever After is my first attempt at writing, well, anything.) so I can't say if Shelley would have been easier to write if I had based her more closely on my personality. (But judging from how much harder I find writing for the blog than writing fiction, I'm guessing it would have been more difficult! LOL)
Hahaha. I hear you. Having to routinely think of different topics to blog about is a big time killer for me.
You'll have to let me know if it changes when you move on to a new story. :)
Hi CM. Just reading through on the SheWrites blog hop.
I actually noticed this the other day as I was editing my book. There is a little bit of me in pretty much all of my characters. Travis has my love for movies, Emily my strange sense of humor, Alana is the giggly girly side of me (rarely seen), and Jacob is the "responsible adult" (in a sense). I've always joked about having multiple personalities, and it seems they all get to come out in my characters. I think it's so much fun to see myself in them. It's a part of me that, through my book, I can share with others. :)
I totally know what you're talking about Roxanne! It kind of feels like a funny little inside joke for me when my different personality traits come out in some of my characters. :)
Anyway, thanks for stopping by!
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