Putting yourself in stories

[veronica_rich]

For anyone who writes fiction, it's nigh impossible not to put yourself or people you know - or personality traits of yours or theirs - into a story. Whether you intend to or not, it probably happens subconsciously, either directly or in direct opposition to such traits (as in, writing someone who hates jazz music just to prove you're NOT writing your own jazz-loving self).

I'm wondering how much successful writers consciously decide to put into a fictional story, of themselves or close others. (By successful, let's say "published" off the Internet, since there are many definitions of success and it's easier to just pick a broad, yet categorical, one.) You'd think it'd be easy - you have an interesting story to tell about something that happened to you. Just change the names, maybe an appearance or two, and voila! But I have found over the years it doesn't quite work that way, at least for me - it's uncomfortable, and while I understand art isn't about comfort all the time, I'm not sure it necessarily has to lay someone completely bare for the rest of the world (most of whom don't admit THEIR problems to everyone else). Whereas, I know plenty of people who use writing fiction as therapy for their own problems - I just can't seem to do it. Even when I want to sit down and write something purely selfish to make myself feel better ... I can't, not if that's its only purpose.

So how much of your own reality DO you write into your stories, and is it a good idea to include too much? What is too much? Is there such a thing as too much?

Comments

[golden-helikaon.livejournal.com]

In my original fiction I do tend to put some of my own traits and interests into the main character (always a male), like have him love musical theatre or be a trainee archaeologist (which is what I want to be), etc. I'm not sure I could create a story and character exactly like me without a few embellishments and making the character a bit too perfect, etc. Fic writing is just fun for me, I'd rather not use it as a form of therapy for my own problems, unless something that has happened to me or someone I know makes for a good story.

As for fan fiction... I think there's definitely a line that should be drawn if you're going to put some of your own traits into a character. I mean, the more the character resembles you the more of a self-insertion it becomes, especially if you start to take away from the canon character's personality.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

As for fan fiction...

Oh, I was actually just referring to original fiction, for once. I'm curious how people make up stories and characters that veer just far enough away from their own, if they decide to write about their own experiences - or if they veer very much at all. I mean, I know how I do it, the times I've written original ... but mine surely isn't the only way or the best (or I'd have something longer *done* by now).

[biggelois.livejournal.com]

I'm using writing as therapy. Not the fan fiction stuff though. But when I've had a really pissy day, pupils have been awful and everybody hates me, I tend to kill people. It's a sandbag thing. Would however never put it out on the net because that stuff is bad. I ususally feel very good after.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I've written my nasty shit at the end of a bad period of time or event, and felt better for it. But to publish it? NO. Helz no.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking lately about that 'write what you know' saying. I used to think it meant write about yourself, your environment, etc., which really did not appeal to me at all. How boring, I thought! And I'd still be bored doing that -- I'm just not that fond of stories that are set in contemporary times. I don't want to write about contemporary suburbia, I like historical fiction, and fantasy. Always have.

I expect a good writer can put a lot of their own physical reality into a story and have it come out fine, and that may be satisfying to them. But 'write what you know' for me means using my own experiences and observations in developing themes to which I hope many readers can relate. I think one of the main jobs of a writer is to be an observer, of oneself, and of others, and everything around one, and the older I get, the more I realize everyone is and always has been the same in many ways. So yes, in that sense there is a lot of me in what I write, even though I use more interesting (to me) settings and characters to convey the stories. I'd do the same in writing original fic, I'm sure.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I would say that I use a lot of me in that I self-examine to see what I would do in a particular situation, and then I tweak that result depending on how different the character's traits are from mine. If I share a trait with a character, then I feel sure I know what it's like to have that trait and how it would make them act. (John's over-literal evangelicalism? been there, done it, got the T-shirt. But I'm not like that any more.) So I guess I'm saying that I use myself as a thought experiment a lot, but I would be bored and rather repelled by writing about someone just like me in a situation just like mine. I write to escape myself and become someone else - the further away the better.

[vejiicakes.livejournal.com]

It's been said of artists who do character design that they almost always draw them as kinda self portraits. Unintentionally so, of course. But I've seen it happen, and I've been told it was true of me in more than one instance. I think that in creative pursuits, artists and writers alike, really unconsciously rely on self-reflection as a means of getting stuff down on paper, or on the computer screen. I think that's just how it is.

What I think is probably "too much" is when you've never, ever seen the writer before, you've never met them, you have no clue what their personality or interests are, and yet you can read a character and think, ".. wow, that's probably exactly what the writer is like." An example comes to mind with a fic I read once that used an OC as an ancillary figure to the main characters--she wasn't especially intrusive or important to the story, she certainly wasn't a romantic figure for either of the characters. She was just there, and seemed full justified in her presence. But something about the way she was written just seemed, well, "too much." She wore such-and-such, she had a particular air about her, she carried a sketchbook around with her everywhere and she wanted to be an artist like [blank] when she grew up. Like I said, nothing offensively intrusive, but.. I guess nothing in the rest of her writing would suggest the degree of detail that the author was putting into this particular character.

In short, I guess too much is never too much, AS LONG as you make certain it doesn't stand out from the rest of what you've been writing for the other characters. Nothing more jarring than reading something that feels like is has good flow, and suddenly being held up by a jumble of detail and random factoids that feels distinctly out of place.

[pigeongirl99.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't think I can say if I put myself and my traits in my orig fiction much- this is to do with not having much of a clear view on who I am and how I act. I presume that much of me, if not all of me is sublimated into the characters I write, either who I am or who I would like to be.

What I do know is that I work through issues in stories, it's a real cathartic thing for me, but I can only do so well after the event and by making it so distant from what happened that it doesn't affect me too much.

For example, my grandad had a very long (we're talking several years) death from emphysema. A few years after he'd died I wrote a modern-gothic story about a retired boxer, his young male lover, their new house, and the monster in him that was killing him.

Whilst both centre around death, the main character was nothing like my painfully shy 80 year old grandad, with a wife, 3 kids etc. But helped me work though my issues.

I cannot write about myself and what has happened to me in the literal sense, I find it hard just writing about little events in lj, and I've never managed to keep a diary- any even slightly autobiographical piece simply turns my brain to stone and I cannot get the words out.

[gobsmacked.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this fits, but a colleague loaned me a book she was reading about Anais Nin. Nin is famous for her diaries. Which are virtually the same as her stories, only with the names changed. (The book claimed that Nin's diaries were fictionalized as well, but that's a whole other topic). So she must represent the extreme of this trend, which I gather is widespread in print literature.

Another interesting example is Dorothy Sayers (my mother's favourite author), who is claimed to have fallen in love with Lord Peter Wimsey, her most famous character. To what degree the character of the great love she created for this fictional character was based on Sayers herself is open to debate.

The afore-mentioned colleague also is friends with or has met a bunch of authors, and they will often fess up to the inspiration for certain characters from their fiction. However, most of them try not to use themselves, although one or two admit to having written a character who is wish fulfillment.

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

I believe it's impossible to not put something of yourself-- your experiences, your beliefs, your personality-- into stories. The stories, after all, arise from who and what you are.

I try not to consciously use myself as a template, but there's invariably leakage, and the closer a character's personality is to mine, the more likely leakage is. The trick, I think, is to be aware of this and try not to let the leakage distort the character's personality.

Just as an example, I don't think caning a 12 year old is the best way to correct bad behavior. But James Norrington, being a man of his own time and place, believes that caning a midshipmen or flogging a seaman is not just the right thing to do in some circumstances, but the necessary thing to do, to insure that the mids grow up to be good officers and the crew stays the disciplined group-organism it needs to be to function efectively. So James canes his mids-- even young William Turner III, when that young man goes to sea in my MMW stories. He doesn't enjoy ordering (and watching) a man be flogged, or a boy caned, and would be perfectly happy if no mid or sailor ever required that particular discipline again, but he won't shirk his duty to his ship and his men by allowing his personal dislike of the practice to affect his judgment.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, I put nothing of myself in my fanfiction, but a lot in my real fiction. I think partly because I write in first person POV in my real fiction, and I was writing about a world I knew intimately. So it proved impossible not to comment on the pluses and minuses that characterize that world. In fanfiction, I will say that I identify profoundly with my protagonists, but I don't put myself into them.

[crevette.livejournal.com]

You and I discussed this once or twice, I think. I find myself putting a shocking amount of myself into my work, enough to make me wonder if I should simply stop writing.

[venusinchains.livejournal.com]

I've done a shockingly small amount of 'writing' overall, and I've wondered if that isn't why every one of my original fic pieces has a character - usually the viewpoint character - who is me. The names aren't mine and most of the backgrounds vary from mine considerably, but if I were to write a piece of 'creative non-fiction' about my life, it would contain that character. (EpicFail, thy name is VIC!)

I've written even less fan fic, but I've tried to keep those characters IC (and I have precious little in common with most of them). I'm going to say this means I need to write more fan fic. :-P (To avenge myself on my enemies, if nothing else. lol.)

But I think you have to start from somewhere, and all the best stories come out of strong characterization. If you don't have a strong character in mind, what are you left with? (If not yourself?)

[roguedemon.livejournal.com]

I'm not a writer, but whenever I read something by someone I either know personally or know something about, I can always spot the personal angle, whether it's a character or simply something to do with one's worldview. Some people take pains to create characters that are nothing like themselves, but their general take on the world is definitely worked in there somewhere. I've certainly read commentary by profic writers who talk about how they were working on expressing certain things through their writing at one time or another.

[roguedemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I also don't think it has anything to do with therapy, necessarily. You don't have to be grinding an ax or working through trauma for it to happen. However, I would think that unless you are using your own experinces/feelings/fantasies/take on the meaning of life as grist for the mill to a certain extent, it would be hard to write. Even if someone is writing science fiction and creating a fictional world, you can generally tell something about them from the type of world they choose to create.

[a-silver-rose.livejournal.com]

I somehow end up putting a little of myself (trait-wise and/or event-wise) into the major characters I write, whereas the "supporting" characters somehow end up (by accident or design) like people I know or am close to.