Sometimes when I’m hanging out with people I discover parts of them that would make a really good trait for a character. I never mean to take pieces of people, but they just happen. Either in something they say, or something they do… I always end up taking from those around me.
When I started writing the easiest way for me to write was from my own pov (point of view). My characters were based on me or my friends in certain situations that in no way would ever happen in reality. As my writing improved so did my character development and my ability to hide the traits I took from those around me into my characters.
Now each character is a unique person in the worlds I create. Liora is a girl that is ever changing and learning in a world that has people who accept her and those that don’t. Caldor has people he finds worth his time and others he will ignore for the sake of keeping his sanity.
But, there are some… and I won’t say who among my characters share traits with people I know. They aren’t obviously that person, but there are qualities like the way they react to bad news or how they departmentalize the situations they’re in that make them part of the person I know in real life.
Where I take most from reality is conversations I hear between people, or descriptions people make about certain environmental details or emotions. These add a human touch and also helps to expand the description to something the readers may understand.
Writing for me is like a puzzle in the sense you have to take all these elements (pieces) from reality and fantasy, mix them together and see if they work. You tweak a character here. Add description over there… and eventually you get something that works.
Writing is escapism from the world around you… but in every story there are hints of reality.
December 3, 2015 at 2:45 pm
Your insight here is so well expressed! I follow the same pattern in writing, grasping at reality through my lens and finding a way to feed them into my fantasy stories 🙂 Your last line especially…beautifully said 🙂
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December 3, 2015 at 3:41 pm
Thanks you. 🙂
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December 3, 2015 at 3:51 pm
I find this post to be so fascinating! I know other people who write in this way, where their characters are fully, or loosely, based off of real people whom they know. It’s fun when you read their work and determine who a character is based off. (and a smidge creepy, too. :p)
Either way, I mainly find it fascinating because I have never done this. I don’t see people who I want to make characters. My characters are simply… themselves. I’m not sure if that makes sense or not… I suppose that I likely put pieces of conversations, characteristics, and myself into each of my characters, but I can’t honestly say that I base any of my characters on people I know.
I’m not entirely sure that I could even do that. It would be creepy for me. I’d never be able to look at the real person the same way again. :p
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December 3, 2015 at 4:04 pm
I did the copy character when I was learning to write. It was easier to copy a person I know to learn the basics of dialogue and interactions. It was good practice to test knew styles and then I’d know if the character was in character or not. Now I’ve moved pass that. I rarely use people I know, but there are things certain people do that I use only because it is human or funny.
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December 3, 2015 at 4:19 pm
Ah! In that regard I can totally understand: finding a base line on how character interactions should go. Definitely makes sense. ^.^ I’m glad that it worked for you and that you’ve gotten a grasp of it. That’s great progress!
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