Accentuate Writers Forum - Has anyone written a real person into a character?

Has anyone written a real person into a character?

ms_valentina - 3/9/2010 at 03:25 PM

I love when my characters are based on people that I know. It's also fun to update them on how their character is doing. Has anyone else done this?

Skwerly - 3/9/2010 at 06:40 PM

Almost ALL my characters appear from folks I either know or have seen. Everything is based on something, though, right?

:lol:

Thomas Forthe (Tom) - 3/9/2010 at 06:41 PM

That is something I haven't tried, except for one true story.

boatkicker - 3/9/2010 at 06:43 PM

I was always told not to, so I avoided it.

And then I read part of the first draft of The Circle and realized my narrator is my best friend Chelsea.

Kiro - 3/9/2010 at 06:56 PM

Oh yes. That's a quite efficient way to make a character. When I was doing acting I based one of my roles on my father + my history teacher and the combination came out really good. From my book Eliza is based loosely on a girl I used to date and Ramon is a mirror of my own physical appearance.

Here is one exercise I found on characters: You can look in the mirror and describe the person you see there. Hair, eyes, skin, movements, gestures, voice tone and timbre etc. Then, make them one of your characters, whether they are important or not doesn't matter.

LaurieM - 3/9/2010 at 07:56 PM

Yes there are pieces of people I know in many of my characters.

Melanie - 3/9/2010 at 08:21 PM

Everything, or everyone, I write comes from bits and snippets of everything I've ever known or experienced, of course, but I've never taken the bulk of any one person and turned them into a character. For example, I've written multiple abusive husbands in short stories, but none of them are my ex-husband... or maybe they're all him... but weren't intended to be.

Nancy G. - 3/9/2010 at 10:21 PM

The couple in my story "Angelo's" in Elements of Time are friends of mine. Some of the events happened as in the story.

Skwerly - 3/10/2010 at 12:21 AM

Quote: Originally posted by boatkicker

I was always told not to, so I avoided it.

And then I read part of the first draft of The Circle and realized my narrator is my best friend Chelsea.

Really? Who told you not to? Teachers, I am assuming? Ouch. Without that, I'd be lost.

Ditchdoctor - 3/10/2010 at 06:41 AM

Most, if not all of the leading characters in my book are people that I know, friends or family.

boatkicker - 3/10/2010 at 10:30 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Skwerly

Quote: Originally posted by boatkicker

I was always told not to, so I avoided it.

And then I read part of the first draft of The Circle and realized my narrator is my best friend Chelsea.

Really? Who told you not to? Teachers, I am assuming? Ouch. Without that, I'd be lost.

Two teachers, and a friend who was probably told by one of the same teachers that told me.

Michy - 3/10/2010 at 01:08 PM

In my novel, What Brothers Do, I have loosely (very loosely) based the three lead characters on myself, Ryan and Gregg (twin brothers, who are the leads in the story)...When I started off, it was easier to develop the boys around my boys (grown men, not sons)... because that's what I knew and could see and know was real. But as the characters began to 'live' in the story, they diverged from my boys and became their own men. A lot of the beginning of the book was cut during editing, so the big parts that were based off my boys get killed... which is great, really, since the story really wasn't about them.

In my book Adventures of the Amazing Brat Boy, that is entirely based off my son and his many zany issues. This book has a unique concept I can't go into, but let's just say there are multiple POVs here, so we see the same scene told several different ways. While the reactions to the scenes and the other POVs are all fiction and while the 'thoughts' inside Brat Boy's head are all fiction, the events are true stories about my son's life.

In my manuscript Reluctantly Human, Turner is the main character, a musician and single father, and he is patterned on Gregg, a musician and single father, though the story itself isn't at all Gregg's life, many of the events in the book are take offs of things that have happened to him when he was on the road doing the Chelsea's circuit, or when he went away to conservatory, etc. The stories are just so good, I couldn't help but string them together into a book that tells an amazing and touching story about what's really important to a man like him.

In my seven-book series, the Sienna Series, the character is loosely based on my life, but fictionalized - the events are mostly real, but the outcomes changed some to either be what I wanted it to be or feared it would be. I'm not sure what I'm ever going to do with this series of books - but for now, I bill them as "Loosely autobiographical...."

Missing File was written about a particular case I managed when I worked in criminal justice advocacy... the events aren't true, but the case is, and the character, instead of being me, is patterned off my best friend from a few years back, Rebecca. She is such a dynamic person, and I used to think I always wanted to be a bit more like her... so in this story, I write my events, her attitude and charisma... I really ended up liking the character, whom I named Rebecca after her, a whole lot. Becky and I always made a good team, and though she's moved far away from me, I still consider her one of my best friends, so merging the two of us together into a character just - worked.

In the Firestarter Fantasy Series I have four main characters, and they are all very, very loosely based on people I know. It's not that they ARE these people, but I wanted to get a feel for them beforehand, before writing, so I infused them with the personality and 'feel' of people I know who fit what I wanted these characters to be.

In Accepting Aimee the mother is loosely based off my own mother, and while Aimee started off being an amalgam of myself and a friend of mine, she has really taken on a life and personality and attitude that is all her own, very unique and quirky, and I love her! She's amazing, and now that she's found her voice, I have gone back and edited out the parts that were 'me' and let her have her own voice throughout.

But there are many characters I write who are sheer fantasy. Charles Truncy, a man who was a victim in the MIssing File story, was a real man in real life, but I hardly knew him at all, so I had to 'make up' things about him. He isn't based off anyone I know. He's based off what I think it might have really been like. I'm likely way off base too.

So yeah... I use real people in my writing all the time. I think we have no choice but to do that, since people are, in general, all pretty much the same at the core. All we have to go on is our own experiences and voices and friendships and rivalries and and and.... so we infuse our experience and our life into our works. It couldn't be any other way. But I do get so attached to my work and my writing that these people become real to me. My little brother once told me I needed to get out more and do things with people. I told him I had too many people in my life already.... he said I needed to get out of the house more, and I said, "Why? I like it here with all my friends...." LOL

I meant my characters, and I do mean it. I'm not crazy, not in a non-functioning sort of going to hurt you or myself or anyone else and can't pay the bills or take care of myself kind of way.... BUT I am... how can I say this? Hummm... I'm delicate. Fragile, perhaps. easily broken and wounded, and when that happens, I am not able to function. The people inside my head, they are real to me, and I write their stories. Sometimes I can set them aside after and sometimes I can't. So I'm not normal. I wouldn't say I'm crazy, but I'm definitely not normal. These characters in my books - they are very real to me. They talk to me, they haunt me, they whisper in my ear, the laugh at and with me, they cry for and with me. So it only makes sense that I would want them to be like people in my life I've trusted and known.

Then the ones like Charles Truncy... when they start to irritate me, get on my nerves, when carrying them around inside me gets to be too much and they will push me over that fine line of sanity vs. reality - I kill 'em.

Melissahuie - 3/10/2010 at 09:33 PM

I'm not basing it off just people per se - but more like the what ifs. ..

Kiro - 3/11/2010 at 04:04 PM

Quote: Originally posted by boatkicker

Quote: Originally posted by Skwerly

Quote: Originally posted by boatkicker

I was always told not to, so I avoided it.

And then I read part of the first draft of The Circle and realized my narrator is my best friend Chelsea.

Really? Who told you not to? Teachers, I am assuming? Ouch. Without that, I'd be lost.

Two teachers, and a friend who was probably told by one of the same teachers that told me.

You should always filter the kind of advice through your own mind and consider benefits and drawbacks. Don't just take it for granted. We write what we see and what surrounds us. If someone told you not to get inspired from real life it would be like blindfolding someone then asking him to paint a portrait of a person.

[Edited on 3/11/2010 by Kiro]

boatkicker - 3/11/2010 at 04:13 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Kiro

Quote: Originally posted by boatkicker

Quote: Originally posted by Skwerly

Quote: Originally posted by boatkicker

I was always told not to, so I avoided it.

And then I read part of the first draft of The Circle and realized my narrator is my best friend Chelsea.

Really? Who told you not to? Teachers, I am assuming? Ouch. Without that, I'd be lost.

Two teachers, and a friend who was probably told by one of the same teachers that told me.

I had an assignment like that in my 2D art class, in 8th grade. We only had to sketch though. Not paint it. (and I say 'it' because it came out not looking like a he or a she. or anything vaguely human. There was an eyeball in the hair.)

Anita M Shaw - 3/13/2010 at 10:19 AM

My characters are mostly based on people I know. The female cast is either based on me, or elements of me. But they also can be of any of my relatives and friends . . . people I've known . . . seen walking down the street or standing in line somewhere.

The guys are likewise based on men or boys I know or have seen somewhere. My dad is himself in All For The Love Of Thomi and any book in my DreamWynd Whispers Romance series. He plays a small part in Thomi, but may get to do more in other books. We'll see. Today marks the 12th anniversary of his passing. Tomorrow will mark my mom's. I know they wouldn't have minded being included in a story.

My sons appear (first names only for the obvious reason Thomi's last name isn't Shaw) in my romances. They also star in some of my kids' and ya novels. Sometimes under their own names, and sometimes not.

My best friend (and daughter I never had) wants to star in my books too. I have two books in mind for her. One will be a romance, and she'll be interested in one of Thomi's brothers who is based on my oldest son, Tristen. My friend's name is Melody, so the title of that will be something like A Melody on my Mind. The other is a young adult story based on her real life relationship with her daughter. Which will be a part of my young adult series called Marooned on Planet Earth. Haven't got a volume or sub title for that yet. The first book is called The Scoville Tragedies. Story based loosely on my high school days, and the break up of a family and how the main character feels about it. The break up events are loosely based on things that happened within my siblings' lives. This story will have two books to tell the tale. Maybe more . . . we'll see.

RaiscaraAvalon - 3/15/2010 at 08:56 AM

All my characters are based on real people. Most times the male main is based off my best friend, and the female myself...with bits of other people thrown in. My stories tend to be huge melting pots. :lol:

Then they develop their own sense of life, and do things neither of the original mold would do. And sometimes its fun...like when I let my best friend read it, and he gets all excited because I nailed him perfectly, or surprised at how the character ends up. In fact we tease each other all the time about it (he's a writer too).

The most well known writing cliche is "Write what you know."

Reprobate - 3/23/2010 at 05:24 PM

My main characters are different versions of myself.

If I don't like someone, I'll write them into my novels to die a horrible death at the hands of my protagonist, assassin Katla Sieltjes.

RobertArend - 3/23/2010 at 06:08 PM

I write under this warranty

“All persons described or not in this work are fictious, none based on anyone living, dead nor undead—especially if I have had or continue to be having sex with them….”

sharkbytes - 3/23/2010 at 06:16 PM

Robert- you are quite the tease. Is that a warranty or a warning?

RobertArend - 3/23/2010 at 07:06 PM

Quote: Originally posted by sharkbytes

Robert- you are quite the tease. Is that a warranty or a warning?

It is a warranty granted anyone who opts to buy any of my short stories... especially to include in an erotic anthology....

CDPA - 3/23/2010 at 11:04 PM

My instincts seem to lead me to create purely fictional characters; I think because the creative options are greater. The problem is, of course, that my characters lack depth and realistic personalities, and my stories tend to be confusing and esoteric. I should probably just concentrate on poetry.

jmkelley - 3/26/2010 at 01:18 PM

Every character I write is an absolutely bizarre mishmash of people I've known. I think my MC in my completed novel is more me than I intended him to be, which is weird considering I'm a woman. I have another work in progress that's in its infancy stage that has a character strongly based on my father. That one is quite deliberate this time.