When writing, do you find your characters become a part of you. if, say, you happen to be a 16-year-old girl who is writing about an adult male (or vice versa), do you feel you take on some of the characteristics of the people you're writing about?
When writing, do you find your characters become a part of you. if, say, you happen to be a 16-year-old girl who is writing about an adult male (or vice versa), do you feel you take on some of the characteristics of the people you're writing about?
I've never had that particular problem, however I don't always get 'unfamiliar characters' right, especially if I'm not quite comfortable with their personality and character traits. As noted, I generally base my characters on others I've known who share similar traits, so when I encounter a fictional character who is utterly unlike anyone I've ever personally known, there's very few familiar references to draw upon.
It doesn't happen often, yet when it does, it's a struggle overcoming it.
My first story ("A Charmed Life") is basically a George Lucas-rewrite of my life…
Kid who grows up and goes to a private school along with his sister because their mother teaches there? (Hello!)
It would take too long to list all the similarities…
95% of the time, the main charecter is how the author wishes life was for them, or how they see THEMSELVES..
ie, the 500# guy in the basement is the one writing about the 500$ guy getting a magic ring and banging 50 supermodels in his new palace.
The person doing the super action hero shit,, wants to be the sup action hero, or thinks they are from playing the latest batman game.
A lot depends on the author and story.
In my stories, I try to make my characters fit the story, not me. So if anything, my characters probably reflect my opinions and beliefs.
Again, those are known as wish-fulfillment or Mary Sue or Marty Stu stories (named for the first story which tried it, which continues to live in infamy despite never lasting very long (the author retired from writing soon after).
My MC is me a age 19, living an alternate life (if a few events and choices may have gone differently). Several lead characters have real life inspiration, but the love interest is a true composite of several women in my life.
I don't become my characters, except those based on me, but I definitely get wrapped up in some of them. I was writing today about a character who made her final appearance because of being ghosted, and I was crying. And she's totally fictional, but damn, I liked her as a character. I did her wrong.
I typically cry when I kill off my protagonists, not because they die (after all, I plan those endings) but because of how they perish, typically sacrificing themselves for others, who then mourn, so everyone's upset—even the bad guy who intended to kill the protagonist. (The "Sacrificial Protagonist" idiom.)
It's a similar sense of disappointed in romances where the other girl gets the guy or vice versa. There's the same sense of disappointment, even if it's for all the right reasons.