You...in your characters.

[sunstruckdream]

My characters, on the surface, are nothing like me. They don't look like me, their life situtations are, for most of them, not like mine, and they manifest nothing the way I would.

And yet...

Character One has my bitter sarcasm and my knack for bumping into inanimate objects.

Character Two has my fear of being touched, and the same reason for it that I do - and my love for beauty.

Character Three has my self-worth problems. And my desire to be close to others.

And Character Four has my show-no-emotion defense mechanism and my hard-headed logical thought process.

Does this sounds familiar? Am I striking a chord with any of my fellow writers? I didn't mean to do this when I created my characters...but now, two years after I created them, I'm seeing all this stuff I didn't mean to do...that I love about them.

They're truly born of me.

Share your stories!!

 

[flying_kiwifruit]

Yeah I do this to.

Character One has my nothing will stop me attitude

Character Two has my low self worth and another problem of mine

Character Three has my belief that you stick by your friends no matter what.

Theres properly more that I havent seen yet.

 

[Tariel]

Oh yeah....this is VERY common among writers.

Tariel--she has my desire to be strong, my temper, my impatience , my anger problems, my fear of betrayal, my love of flame, my dislike of people who are controlling in nature, my depression issues, difficulty letting people see through the mask, and the list goes on. BTW, none of this was intentional, and it is a coincidence that her name is also my username here on CF.

Eliel--Like Tar, El embodies my quick temper and my desire to be strong. She also shows many of my deepest fears. She's sympathetic like I am, demands perfection from herself like I do, and enjoys sword fighting and hanging out in the woods....just like me. She has my rebellion, my bossiness, and several other traits.

There a definitely more, but I don't have time to get into them right now. But Tariel and Eliel have both been my characters for the past five+ years, and have developed along with me through my teenage years. I would be more concerned if these girls DIDN'T resemble me in some way.

 

[Twelve]

Tariel's right. This is much too common in writers, but it does contribute much to character development. As the character learns and grows, so does the writer. Otherwise, the book is probably not well-written, but I may be wrong.

I love creating names for my characters, but the names have to be perfect (I am very picky). When I see a name, I automatically create an image of a person in my mind, so the name for my character must match the character him/herself. Basically, I just put together some letters that look good together.

....

My apologies. I've sidetracked again....er hem....anyway.....

Aedir -- He possesses my stubborn will and love for storms. He thinks everything thing through....usually a little to much, as I do. And most of all, he has my amazing ability to sidetrack so far off track, that he doesn't even remember what he was talking about in the first place. He also has my sense of humor, and all that comes with it....which isn't necessarily a good thing all the time.

Daer -- He, like Aedir, has my stubborn will, only more so than Aedir, my desire to reach farther than most people attempt; to accomplish more, and my ability to make any and every conversation awkward and uncomfortable.

Ttag -- He possesses my good natured side, and all that comes with it. I have just created Ttag, so I don't know too much about him.

Narey -- She possesses great interest for all creation, and she has my desire to learn more about creation and discover how each living thing (and non-living thing) works.

Matt -- (Finally, a normal name) He has my quick-tempered side, my energetic nature, and my ability to not think things through.

Ayra -- (And, back to the weird names) She has a more stubborn will than I, where that came from, I don't know.

I fear that I have talked for too long, so I'll just end it there, at least for now. I don't have enough time anyway to tell you any more.

One significant difference between me and my characters is that my characters are powerful in a fantasy kind of way. One of them can walk on and manipulate water, another manipulates and creates storms. Another can breathe fire while another character has wings. And then there's one who's just a normal guy with a cool sword.

I can go on, but I don't have the time.

That was a fun post.

 

[Mabinogi]

A lot of my characters are like me. I think that it's inevitable to make it so that they are like me.

Yalena, from one of my stories (pronounced Ya-lena btw) looks a little like me even and has the same personality, but acts out on parts where I would not.

Tehkry, from another story (pronounced Tech-ree) is a lot like me in the shy, quiet, rebellious-but-not-enough sense.

So yeah, my characters are like me.

(not going to list them all lol)

 

[Ayaka]

yea there something about character that is a bit about the writer. I guess it because the writer wants to be part of the story at least that how it is to me.

Character one-has my look black hair dark eyes but it talkative

character two(guy)-is really shy like me and loves animals like me too

character three (guy also)- is not shy but doesn't like being with people and like to be mysterious

the 4th character is nothing like me O.O and it by least favorite person to write about

 

[sunstruckdream]

Character from another book has my sharp-but-not-too-biting-because-of-its-irresistable-delivery sarcasm. =)

 

[Tariel]

Tariel's right. This is much too common in writers, but it does contribute much to character development. As the character learns and grows, so does the writer. Otherwise, the book is probably not well-written, but I may be wrong.

I love creating names for my characters, but the names have to be perfect (I am very picky). When I see a name, I automatically create an image of a person in my mind, so the name for my character must match the character him/herself. Basically, I just put together some letters that look good together.

....

I wouldn't say that it's too common, just very common. No author can create characters completely separate from him/her. It's just the nature of the creative process.

And I enjoy naming my characters, and the ideas come from all over the place. Tariel and Eliel have have their names for a l-o-n-g time....(pretty much since the beginning) Kayhin's a new arrival into the story (but a very important one). Avuran, Rautt, and Tarill all jumped from another story I was writing....and the list goes on. Eventually they all just sort of settled into this world I was working on....and that's where they live today

 

[sunstruckdream]

Ahhh, naming...I'm hesitant to say it's the best part, but without it, the best part wouldn't feel complete =D

 

[Tariel]

Ahhh, naming...I'm hesitant to say it's the best part, but without it, the best part wouldn't feel complete =D

I agree.

 

[Twelve]

I agree.

As do I.

 

[Twelve]

' Suppose you're right, Tariel. It isn't too common, just very common. Another flaw discovered and fixed! (I didn't change the post)

Naming characters is extremely important (at least in my mind). If the name isn't right, I can't get into the character's personality or understand his/her nature. I knew what I wanted to write, but I didn't have a name for Aedir yet because I needed the perfect name, and it took me a year before I found one. I had to put so many letter combinations together; it was very irritating. Since then, I've been able to come up with the right names in the matter of a few minutes, but it probably took longer for Aedir's name to be created because he has such an odd nature.

There I go; off topic again. I really need to fix that habit.

In order to stay a little more on topic, I'll mention one more character of mine.

Sajudd is nothing like me whatsoever. He sorta appeared with a nature all his own. So did his name.

 

[Tariel]

' Suppose you're right, Tariel. It isn't too common, just very common. Another flaw discovered and fixed! (I didn't change the post)

Naming characters is extremely important (at least in my mind). If the name isn't right, I can't get into the character's personality or understand his/her nature. I knew what I wanted to write, but I didn't have a name for Aedir yet because I needed the perfect name, and it took me a year before I found one. I had to put so many letter combinations together; it was very irritating. Since then, I've been able to come up with the right names in the matter of a few minutes, but it probably took longer for Aedir's name to be created because he has such an odd nature.

There I go; off topic again. I really need to fix that habit.

In order to stay a little more on topic, I'll mention one more character of mine.

Sajudd is nothing like me whatsoever. He sorta appeared with a nature all his own. So did his name.

I've found the game of scrabble to be quite useful in coming up with names. Avuran, Rautt, Tarill, Arek....most of my minor characters too.

 

[Rossiter]

I don't usually completely make up names, even for fantasy. There are so many weird ones already out there.

I suppose my characters are sometimes a little of me, but a lot of the time they're completely different. In the story I'm planning, my main character has a few similar traits, but overall we're very different. And the other characters are even more so.

I'd rather get into the head of someone I'm nothing like than someone very similar. It's more interesting. And anyway, if you go by the tests, I'm a Mary Sue.

 

[Twelve]

I've found the game of scrabble to be quite useful in coming up with names. Avuran, Rautt, Tarill, Arek....most of my minor characters too.

lol. I wouldn't think of that.

We might need to make another thread just for this discussion. It'd be interesting to know how other writers get their characters' names.

 

[Tariel]

lol. I wouldn't think of that.

We might need to make another thread just for this discussion. It'd be interesting to know how other writers get their characters' names.

will do

 

[sunstruckdream]

And now the thread exists =) Nice!

 

[MrBF1V3]

My characters are like me sometimes, and sometimes not so much. I work to make them not obviously me, because I want them to be interesting.

I have a character who is like me about fifteen years ago, but more outgoing. There is one who has my delicious sense of irony ... and the list goes on. If you want to see a character who is more like me, though, you have to look in the background. Sometimes I am one of the secondary players.

B5

 

[MrBF1V3]

Um ... okay ... I have been corrected. There was a story in which the main character is a lot like me, that's what everyone tells me. You can see it here.

http://www.sffworld.com/community/story/2174p0.html

There is some resemblence.

B5

 

[Paladin Dave]

I can think of a few.

Sir Manfred von Gottenkrieger: Originally created to be... well, me as a Paladin. One of my first characters, but I managed to make him different enough by changing a few things around, but in the end he and I are still very much alike. We have a VERY hard time forgiving ourselves for some of our more memorable sins, we both generally dislike Elves(I'm not the racist he can be at times, though), we're fervent believers but sometimes focus more on helping people's earthly needs than trying to evangelize and proselytize. We both also tend to alternate between crazy and fun to grumpy and legalistic.

Siegfried Dactus(Yes, I know, I'm a Germanophile. Don't make fun of my characters' names.): He's one of my characters that's not so much like me, but he's still a romantic. A character in a Starwars RP, he's an Imperial loyalist, since I'm kind of pro-Empire. We believe in law and order, and that most problems in society come from people not following them. (IE, people wouldn't have to snitch to the police if other people didn't commit crimes to snitch. God wouldn't need to punish people if we didn't rebel. The Emperor wouldn't need to smash rebellions with brutal force if people would do their part for society)

Burzghash: A half Orc who's definitely more human than orc in heart and mind. We both don't generally make the best impression, and we don't fit in well with most, but we click instantly with those we're compatable with.