I have to really develop characters and plots early on, especially if the main character is a girl. I have to make my characters very different from me so I don't make them author inserts or Mary Sues.
Yet again, doing my job as Para's less-knowledgeable, less-competent, less-creative, but great-with-bookmarking-pages assistant.
Author inserts, Mary Sues? What are those?
Pfff. Every single one of my main characters has been an author insert of some kind or another. It's kind of shameless how little I change them.