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DesertRoseFallen Vice Captain
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 Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:06 am
Well, title says it all. smile
I would and could never base my characters on friends or family. Don't ask me why, it's just one of those things I would just find weird. I never look at a person and say okay, that is what I'm going to make so-and-so look like. They just come to my mind and their personalities are their own.
I reckon I gather more ideas for character's from books than real life smile
However, you might feel differently!
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:04 am
I have three characters who are based on real people.
I have your typical immature teenager who is unintentionally everything I hate about two of my sisters. I get the joy of forcing her to mature, then killing her off.
One character is based on a friend who had bad boyfriend issues. She even has the first name as my friend. However, I showed my friend this character, and she adored her. Probably because the character picked good men, just could not hold a steady relationship for reasons like they simply do not work out, they are better off as friends, or the guy she crushes on is in love with another girl. The character does get a happy ending, though.
The last one is based on the best guy pal (I am a girl in real life) I have, and the closest thing I ever had to an actual boyfriend (I made it through high school without one due to simply not being interested in relationships). The character based off of him does not fall in love, but he is the voice of reason, and he is gentle and kind. He is also probably the most powerful character I have, and one of the few who can handle some of the more insane personalities in my story.
It should be noted that while real life instances have helped shape these three characters, I also know when to not let it affect them. For example, I did try to start a relationship with my guy pal. It ended with a broken heart. Nonetheless, the character is still the same as he was, and the experience even helped better shape a scene I had with him. I have also been careful to not base any relationships the second character has off of my friend's real-life ones. One, it would not fit the character to begin with, and two, I want my friend to be able to read my story and continue to love the character and not feel any past hurt.
Any similarities to any other real person in my stories is entirely coincidence. I tend to base them (even if only slightly) off of existing characters that I love if I base at all (not often), or just straight make them up. Personalities and traits tend to come based on what I need for my story.
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:21 am
I don't ever base characters on real people. That would be... weird. I'd feel like I was writing about that person, not my own character.
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:14 am
Haha Nightmare, I like the fact you are basing one character on your sisters xD I have twins in my novel now, though you only really see one and I see what twins are really like through my brothers.
They don't dress the same, have their hair the same way, no 'telepathic connection' or finishing each other's sentences off. It hate it when writer's do that...
When I was young I wrote a main character that was like my boyfriend and I ended up ditching it because we broke up. Ugh haha!
Nomeira - I agree totally.
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DesertRoseFallen Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:02 pm
It did not start out that way, and it later hit me like a brick when I read something and pretty much went, "...This is exactly what [sister] does to piss me off."
I have two twin characters. Fraternal. Both start out immature, one grows out of it. The other ends up disowned while his twin thinks he had it coming. No "bestest best friends EVAR!" here, and none of the cliches you mentioned, either.
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:36 pm
Probably a bit unprofessional to admit it, but yes, I often do.
Not so much now as my older stories, but my main story was originally composed of my friends. Now that I've gone over the story more and more, they don't resemble those friends so much anymore, but I still know who they are, and my friends know who they are as well. So, I don't truly mind it, but I do make my own, completely original characters too, don't worry. biggrin
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DesertRoseFallen Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:02 am
Haha I like to see how we are all different as writer's. I used to get attached to my characters but now, I tend to take a step back.
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:44 am
I know you all think this is a bit weird, but yeah, I do base the characters on people I know. Some of the personality traits at the beginning of the book to characters sometimes par with how I am, although later in the book it normally changes radically. My latest story has two girls that at the beginning sound heavily based on me and a friend of mine (Similar friendships, play same instruments-ish, same age difference). But normally after about half way in, you don't really par the characters up with the person I originally base it on. I also use quotes from friends.
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:54 am
DesertRoseFallen Haha Nightmare, I like the fact you are basing one character on your sisters xD I have twins in my novel now, though you only really see one and I see what twins are really like through my brothers.
They don't dress the same, have their hair the same way, no 'telepathic connection' or finishing each other's sentences off. It hate it when writer's do that...
I put twins in one of my stories and one of them was closer to their older brother than their twin.
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:40 am
I've only bassed a chcarcter of a friend once, just to make it more intresting. But that was only the personality. All my other charcters came straight from my imagination.
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DesertRoseFallen Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:51 am
LoperDoper DesertRoseFallen Haha Nightmare, I like the fact you are basing one character on your sisters xD I have twins in my novel now, though you only really see one and I see what twins are really like through my brothers.
They don't dress the same, have their hair the same way, no 'telepathic connection' or finishing each other's sentences off. It hate it when writer's do that...
I put twins in one of my stories and one of them was closer to their older brother than their twin. Haha, yeah exactly. I do realise some twins do finish each other sentences and dress the same but it is just so overdone...
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:23 pm
Not intentially but I do think some of my characters have a little bit of my personality. But waht can you expceted, you write what you know. I know me. And it's just small little quirks here and there. Like constant mood swings or sarcasum. Sometimes I put in traits from a friend I admire or a trait from someone I dislike. I don't base a whole character on one person, but I admit I grab little thing here and there from people here an there and put it all together.
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Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 6:42 pm
I'm guilty of this, but it is so much easier to write those characters. I have a character right now that is based loosely on my girlfriend. I didn't make them look the same, but that have the same mind set.
This is even worse, and I hate to admit it, but on occasion my characters end up somewhat like me. redface This usually happens in my short stories, the kind I write to help with writers block, or out of boredom. They never look like me, but they go through similar problems. It's a terrible habit, but it helps to write like that when I have critters block.
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