Too Much of Myself

I have noticed that I am putting to much if myself into my main character. She does everything I do, the way that I do it. I want to give her her OWN personality. I don't want it to be TOO different from mine, just enough so when people read it, they won't think that I think of myself as HER, which I don't.

Any tips on how to give her her own life? And take mine back?

One of the best ways is to sit down, write down all of the characteristics that you have in common with your character, and then look at the ones that can be altered. Go back into your writings, find examples of these and delete them or change them.

Also, I think you should probably take the time to really hear your character. Take the time to listen to what your character wants to say and ignore the parts of you that are there.

Of course, its not all bad if some of your character traits are found within your character. I often translate what a close friend of mine, and one of the few people who I trust the opinion of, says is my cute, goofy quality.

What I'm really trying to say is that you and your character are connected. Don't break away every link. Just sever a couple of the ties.

thanks, does anybody else have any more tips?

I think you should think of a situation... any at all, and think about how that character would react to that situation. For example, put your cahracter in a situation where they fail all there exams... what happens? Do they throw a hissy fit? Do they immediately burst out crying, yelling about how unfair life is? Do they not care in the slightest about the importance of exams? Then do the same to yourself, try to make the two outcomes differ, and give your character his or her own personality. If someone is reading your book, and they read a part where your character throws a tantrum or something, you don't want them to go: the author must lose their temper really quickly!
If you still want to make the character like you... atleast overexagerates your personality in some way or another. Or give the character his/her own personality trait/like or dislike that makes them... them!
xxmimixx

Everyone makes characters like themselves at least a little because you need to be able to connect with them. One of the best ways to make sure your characters are different and unique, think about their background. What people go through makes them how they are, in a lot of ways. Don't rely only on that, because if someone is really optimistic, even if they go through tough things they could still be optimistic, but many times it changes a person. It's just something to think about.

They say "write what you know" so a lot of my characters are based heavily upon myself. I see no problem with it. Of course if you ever became a big time author and every single MC was exactly the same I am pretty sure Random House, S&S, or whomever your publisher is would drop you pretty quick. Short of that though its fine, IMHO.

Well, what I do, is I take some of my best traits, throw those into the character, then try to make the rest my polar opposite. But all your characters are going to be a reflection of yourself; otherwise, you wouldn't have even thought about characterizing them that way. But more often then not, I usually end up thinking/acting like my characters. xD

I think it's awesome that you've even been able to recognize this and want to do something to stop it. xD I find myself throwing bits of myself into my characters ALL THE TIME! I want to stop it though, because I'm afraid all the characters will end up being relatively the same. What I do to remedy this is to make the character have one specific quirk that I don't have and elaborate from that.

For example, you could make it so that your character has pink hair instead of whatever color you have. Well, pink hair comes along with a few personality traits that you may or may not have -- the will to change yourself, the will to rebel against social norms, the appreciation for the color pink.

The will to change can lead to a character that doesn't know who she is.
The will to rebel against social norms can lead to a character that is really active in refuting what is popular and tries to change the flow of society.
The appreciation for the color pink can lead to a character that is bubbly, optimistic, and interior-design-oriented.

Just from that, you see a bunch of different characters emerging. Just keep expanding on different facets and you'll be able to tear yourself away from a carbon copy.

Keep in mind, however, that most people share their personality traits with SOMEONE, so it's okay for similarities to be there!

Good luck! To both of us!

-Hannah-

Occasionally I do find that I put a lot of myself into the characters. The way that I try to make my characters unique is to take real people, and mix and match them, creating new characters. I find this to be a pretty fun exercise actually .

Give your main character a different gender to yours.

I did, but I was eight, so I think that's excusable. It's slightly easier knowing how the charecter will react, but you just hate their... familiarity. Where's the fun in writing something that presents no challenge? Well, if you put zombies in like I did, then it's kinda fun. I have to dig up those old stories one day...

*Sighs and dreams of the good old days*

I see different bits of myself in my characters. That's part of the fun of writing.

If you stay with her, she'll begin to gain her own personality; you'll see this when you want her to do something for the sake of your plot and she decides she's just not going to do it. What I'd do is stay with her as she is at the moment; as she gets into situations which you can't imagine yourself in, her personality will start to come out. Then, when you have your first draft done you can go back to the little details like what music she listens to or what cereal she eats and change as many things as you see fit. I wouldn't worry about it too much; my characters usually have a lot of myself in them, it makes it so much easier, but they're also very much themselves because of the choices they make. Maybe try listing out all the possible reactions to certain situations, look at what you'd choose, and look at what she'd choose, and also at which choices would work with your plot. Hopefully her choice will fall somewhere in between; if it doesn't, just follow her.

I have that problem too. It's one of the reasons I haven't posted any writing here yet. My writing is seems like it's all the same because I end up throwing my own personality into some of the characters.

I did that. I didn't realize it at first, but my friends kept saying, "She's just like you!" I finally noticed that we had many things in common, but some different. I'm too in love with her now to change her...