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

[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.