THE PACK Message Boards

To all those here at the Pack who are writing a book, movie, pilot or comic strip: here's a simple question, one I'm only asking because I'm curious but will nevertheless ask for your utmost honesty.

In your project, do you have a character that is in any way shape or form based on yourself?

In truth, all of my characters have some of my characteristics in some shape or form, OR are based upon the characteristics of people I know. As a writer, I tend to draw from my own experiences. While I might have never had the situations they might go through, I try to find areas where I can relate.

The closest character that I created that had my persona, and looks for that matter is Kale from HOD. The only thing I don't unfortunately share with him is the ability to turn into an awesome world saving werewolf... but hey. :p

alphanubilus wrote:In truth, all of my characters have some of my characteristics in some shape or form, OR are based upon the characteristics of people I know. As a writer, I tend to draw from my own experiences. While I might have never had the situations they might go through, I try to find areas where I can relate.

I feel very much the same. Theres one particular character who has a similar appearance to me, several who are different parts of me incarnate, and the rest all are at least a little bit me.

This also applies to my villians. A lot of people don't like to resonate with the darker parts of their psychy, but ultimately this is what makes a villian truly a bad person, becuase it makes them real. We all have the ability to do bad things.

alphanubilus wrote:This also applies to my villians. A lot of people don't like to resonate with the darker parts of their psychy, but ultimately this is what makes a villian truly a bad person, becuase it makes them real. We all have the ability to do bad things.

Same here. There are a couple of people that really do just ascribe to "might makes right" and think the world revolves around them, but those are all one-shots that I don't really plan on having amount to anything. The ones that I plan on having stick around for a while, you should be able to at least understand why they did what they did.

The character that most closely resembles myself would definitely be one of the supporting characters, Todd Lie. He isn't necessarily a villain in the literal sense, but I'm trying to write it so that you always think he either is one or is about to become one. He starts off coming across as tightly wound, antisocial and obsessive with a definite hidden agenda; I'm trying to convey a feeling that the protagonist is in deep trouble as long as he's with him. What both he and the pack eventually find out, however, is that there is not only a perfectly good explanation as to why Todd is the way he is, but that his demeanor masks a calmness and a true dedication to the pack.

The problem is that, around the same time the pack starts to understand and appreciate Todd, bad things start to happen to him that he is convinced were deliberate. So once it's clear that he wasn't on the edge in the first place, he starts getting pushed closer and closer to the edge as the plot develops.

So he could easily become an antagonist. . . But for all intents and purposes, he's presently a supporting character.

I really can't answer this, because I'd say all of the above and none of the above simultaneously.
I paint my characters from things I've experieniced in real life, so there's a bit of me in all of them; yet I've never actually placed myself in one of my stories as me (in everything but name).
There are several of my characters that I'd like to be; such as Harry DeWitt Wolfe or maybe Gregory Massey, but no, I haven't appeared as a simulacrum in any of the stuff I've written.

yet.

Yes... Painfully guilty.

Some 22 years ago I started daydreaming after watching of all bloody things, Teen Wolf, and seventy drafts and a billion minor revisions later, I've got a manuscript that is completely different, but there's no denying that Scott Gardener is based a lot on me. (By the way, my real name isn't "Scott Gardener"; that's my manuscript character's name. Great, though, for redirecting Nigerian scams, unless some poor guy out there named Gardener really did die and leave a multimillion dollar estate in limbo.)

I know now that as a writer, one is really, really not supposed to do this, unless your target audience is just you. But, I've already done it, and I'm not going to hack apart any further the original story. Still, if the manuscript turns out to be crap in spite of my emotional ties, I've still got this great universe in which to put other stories about other characters.

MoonKit wrote:I feel very much the same. Theres one particular character who has a similar appearance to me, several who are different parts of me incarnate, and the rest all are at least a little bit me.

Ditto. But the ones that are a little bit of me have a personality trait that's similar to myself.

If you want a perfect example of Simulacra, try Robert Heinlein. He put himself in every story he wrote. At the end of his life, his last stories had him as the main character (Lazarus Long).

And, as per my last post; I've started a treatment with myself as the protagonist and many of my characters will interact with me.
Now,if I can just stop laughing at each page I finish, I may post it here...

Hint: If you try this, try to be honest about yourself. Then try keeping a straight face while you do it.
Then again; Mercedes Lackey included herself in the last two stories in her Valdemar cycle, as a main (not major) character.
Then she abandoned it...

I suppose that on some level the majority of writers include themselves in their stories, unless they have another specific model in mind while writing that character. I know I'm well and truly guilty of this, but I'm trying to overcome it. To me, the mark of a great writer is not just the ability to create a captivating story, but to get inside the heads of other people and see things from their perspectives. When you can do that, even the most mundane of stories can be enthralling.

I don't have a single 'project' (because I never get around to finishing anything) but yes, one piece of writing I did was an intentional representation of myself. I think, among the many aspects of writing, one of them is highly egocentric, about self-exploration and self-expression.

Scott Gardener wrote:I know now that as a writer, one is really, really not supposed to do this, unless your target audience is just you.

*shrugs* Write what you know, as they say.

If you want another example, Kurt Vonnegut inserted himself into Slaughterhouse V. . . Twice. He inserted his real life self as a witness / cameo, but he also included his pen name / alter ego, Kilgore Trout, as a supporting character.

Also, if Stephen King can employ a writer as the protagonist in nine out of ten of everything he's ever written and still maintain his title as a master of horror, I don't see why anyone can't just start off that way.

And of course, there's the protagonist in Red Victoria. I think at least the majority of us will agree that turned out pretty well.

The only time I think it's a problem to include a close representation of yourself in a story or script is if the character either A) is only based on you in appearance, and/or B) greatly exaggerates your virtues and downplays your faults (if it even acknowledges them at all). If you end up depicting yourself as this square-chinned superhero-esque character, it'll just end up reading like a really bad fanfic.

Tina Fey's depiction of herself in 30 Rock, for example, absolutely pisses me off. It always strikes me that she's using the show to rant about how she's the only true genius in Hollywood and that nobody else on Saturday Night Live ever recognized her as such because they were all a bunch of ****ing morons.

I'm not proud to have Todd so closely resembling myself either, but. . . Well, for obvious reasons, I relate really well with him. He did kind of drift a little into square-chinned territory at first, but I brought him back down to reality by giving him some additional, more selfish reasons to be so loyal to the pack to balance him out. Just like with the villains, I'm trying to make it hard for you to actually like Todd as a person, but easy for you to understand how he wound up the way he did (I made him even more angry-uber-liberal than I am in RL to make sure he's disliked in the beginning, for example, but I'll eventually write out some flashbacks that explain how he got that way).