Cast of Characters -- Using real people in fictional stories  |
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 For anyone here who writes fiction, do you ever "borrow" people you know as characters? Not directly of course, but I'm writing a short historical romance and I've given a few of my characters the personalities of some people I know. Does anyone else do this?
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| | Write Great Characters - U Wisc Course Learn from writer Laurel Yourke in her online course at U Wisconsin. www.dcs.wisc.edu
| Get It Written - Fiction Writing Get It Written. Start it, finish it. Know how. Be comfortable with plot, structure, more. Powerful, personal help. Expensive, worth it. Endorsed by new and bestselling authors. www.getitwritten.com
| A Workbook that Teaches Fiction Writing Take your writing to a whole new level with this Fiction Writing workbook. It teaches how to develop characters, scenes and plot. Explore the 5 ingredients of the scene in Fiction Writing. www.thefictionwritersjourney.com
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1.  SamQuinn (708) | 3 months ago |  I do base some of my characters on people I know, especially minor ones. I base it on someone then really enhance either their good or bad qualities to make them fit my needs.
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 Ishtara (466) | 3 months ago | I usually try not to go too far one way or the other in terms of good or bad. More commonly, I think of it as "If this person were a (pirate, magician, axe murderer, etc), what would they do?" | |
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Write Great Characters - U Wisc Course Learn from writer Laurel Yourke in her online course at U Wisconsin. www.dcs.wisc.edu | add comment |
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| Ishtara (466) | 3 months ago | Mine have previously not known they were the basis for characters either. One in particular for the story I'm currently writing -- I don't really think he'd mind, but I'd be mortified to admit I had him in mind when I wrote it! I'm planning a new project however in which they will know. I'm going to set a series of stories around a group I'm involved with, not using real people as such but the alter egos they have created for themselves. | |
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 Johnnypenn (174) | 3 months ago |  Most of my characters are based off of someone I know or inadvertantly know. My main "motherly" character in my newest book is mostly based off of my Mum. You have no clue how bloody patient that woman can be.
And somehow, I tried to base my main guy charactger off of my best friend, but when Mum was reading through the manuscript, she said he was a lot like me...I think its the bullheadedness he takes on everyonce in a while. But, I did try to make him lame to counteract that behavior.
He also happens to be a writter. I love to write about my own profession!*lol*
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Get It Written - Fiction Writing Get It Written. Start it, finish it. Know how. Be comfortable with plot, structure, more. Powerful, personal help. Expensive, worth it. Endorsed by new and bestselling authors. www.getitwritten.com | add comment |
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| 3. edgyk8inmomma (1084) | 3 months ago |  I do not write fiction very often, but when I do it is usually a children's story or something similar. So, yes, I almost always use the kids I know to form my characters. This helps me to bring my characters to life, and make them seem real to the kids hearing or reading the story. I've never had any of my work published, never tried, so the kkids that hear the stories always think they know the character, but can never really figure it out.
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| Johnnypenn (174) | 3 months ago | That's amusing.
My own childrens book was rather hard to write because I had to think more like a kid than an adult. And then when I needed to think like an adult it was kidish in a way and that annoyed me! | |
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| edgyk8inmomma (1084) | 3 months ago | It can be difficult to get your mind into the right frame. Going from a children's story, to an adult one would be challenging. My mom just wrote a children's story after many adult magazenine articles. She had to go back through and take her main character down a notch, because she sounded 36 instead of 6. | |
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| Johnnypenn (174) | 3 months ago | *lol*
I tried to make my kid character smart, but do some dumb stuff as well. I don't think it bad to make kids smart. Because, really, they are. | |
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A Workbook that Teaches Fiction Writing Take your writing to a whole new level with this Fiction Writing workbook. It teaches how to develop characters, scenes and plot. Explore the 5 ingredients of the scene in Fiction Writing. www.thefictionwritersjourney.com | add comment |
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| 4. coolimrose (217) | 3 months ago |  Thanks a million for the best response.
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Pursue Your Writing Dream Create manuscripts that will sell. Train with a Pro Author. Free Test. www.breakintoprint.com | add comment |
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| 5. patgalca (5063) | 2 months ago |  My first novel was originally written about me and my best friend and a fantasy life with some television idols (we were teenagers). She told me the story was so good I should write a real novel out of it. I tried to just change the names but ended out moving the story to a city I am familiar with which kind of changed the whole storyline. The basics are still there, the male characters are different, but the two female leads still bear the resemblences of my friend and me.
In the novel I am working on now my characters don't resemble anyone I know. I had a story in mind and I really couldn't use the characteristics of people I know for this particular story because there's a bad guy and a naive gal. I think one of the minor characters may resemble me just a tad.
A short story I wrote is based on something that happened to me personally so the characters are "real" for me. We write what we know and a lot of times that is incidents that happen in our own lives.
It is said to be a good idea to cut out pictures of people in magazines and use them as your characters so you have a visual to work with. I have yet to do that though.
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| Ishtara (466) | 2 months ago | The magazine thing is a really good idea, I'll remember that one. | |
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Write Science Fiction - Learn How Online Study with the pros of Gotham Writers Worskhop. "Best of Web" -Forbes. www.writingclasses.com | add comment |
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