Thursday 22 September 2011

The Character In Us

During revisions of my first novel I made lots of important notes that would help me with later books in the series. Some of the most important notes I made were about characters, and during the process I realised how much of myself I put into them.

I took time to think about all my stories, focusing on the heroines, and made a list of what I gave to them.

Now it might have been something like freckles, I have them in abundance so tend to give them to most of my characters too. Then I noticed that I had given away some of my personality traits, my likes and dislikes.

Examples; a whole world was created due to my love of snow; in another book my characters main trait is how tongue-tied she gets in situations.

This is probably why I am so connected to the people I create.

Of course I have characters who are nothing like me, and I love them all the same. My stories would be so boring otherwise, and they wouldn’t reflect this wonderful diverse world we live in.

As writers is it common for us to give our characters a piece of ourselves? JK Rowling gave Harry Potter her birthday. Is it a conscious decision? I know that for lots of mine I didn’t even realise I was doing it till later on.

Just an interesting thought that I’ve been left pondering over, and I wondered if anyone else thought it a good or bad thing?

Personally I like the idea because not only will I share my words with others who read my work, but aslo a piece of my soul.

6 comments:

  1. Most authors weave a little bit of themselves within their characters, I believe. I know I do and it's more personal, bringing you closer to the story.

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  2. I think we always stick a little piece of ourselves inside our characters. It's fun too when we're using pieces of our personality we don't often get to explore in real life. Great post!

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  3. A good thing, I think. You can't help but put a bit of yourself into your characters, and I think they're all the richer for it.

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  4. Parts of my personality definitely leak into my main characters, though I try to make them different from me in significant ways, too. But I feel more connected when I can relate to a character.

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  5. My mom was going to name me Brenna if she didn't name me Elizabeth...so Brenna is the name of my protagonist in my book, *Double Clutch.* I love sticking a little piece of myself into my characters! Excellent post!

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  6. I think you can't help but have parts of yourself creep into your characters, but I think that's fun as long as it's not overdone and he/she is not YOU. Also, you saying pieces of your soul so near to "Harry Potter" made me think of how the books we write are sorta like our horcruxes, haha.

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