You ever become your character

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erika

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I became my character in some strange, warped, and marginally psychotic ways. I finally snapped out of it and finished the book for good. Anyone else felt themselves being transformed? Or am I the only nutcase out there? (don't really tell me if I am)

My husband didn't mind though. It was as close to a menage a trois as he's ever gonna get.
 

JenNipps

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If you're nuts, I am too.

Er....

Nevermind. I freely admit to being a bit out there. Sometimes more than a bit. *s*

OK, seriously, yeah, I do that. I think that's one reason why it takes me so long to finish anything more than a short story. It kind of ... spooks me so I back off.
 

erika

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You may be doing it right. In my situation, I was writing in first-person and actually started to love my character's scathing wit. One thing led to another and I think I started to fashion myself after her. It was partially cathartic but I started to become irrational. I decided that after this book, I'm not writing this character anymore. She's too addictive.
 

erika

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kpmcneil22 said:
I think that is one of the great joys to reading and writing - the ability to become immersed. I think if you can become addicted to the character you're writing, there's a good chance your readers will become addicted as well. And that can't be a bad thing..
Unless your character's a psychotic *****. Then, it can negatively impact your life.
 

popmuze

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erika said:
You may be doing it right. In my situation, I was writing in first-person and actually started to love my character's scathing wit. One thing led to another and I think I started to fashion myself after her. It was partially cathartic but I started to become irrational. I decided that after this book, I'm not writing this character anymore. She's too addictive.

I always wonder how come actors and actresses don't get stuck in their characters; I heard sometimes they're "in character" during the entire filming of the movie. But can they just then snap out of it? Probably you need to be psychotic to succeed in that profession.

As far as writing, this definitely happens to me and it's a big negative. Sometimes I'm writing about a character who has gotten past some problems I might have had--and I wind up slipping back into those problems.

Like say I used to have a fear of answering the phone. If I'm writing about a character who has a fear of answering the phone, I may wind up not answering the phone for a few weeks. Does that make any sense?
 

JenNipps

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It actually does make sense.

I think we assign certain problems/issues we have had (or currently have) to our characters and this can sometimes impede us from moving forward ourselves for the time we carry that character around in our head.
 

FergieC

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I usually find it's the other way around. I create characters who I think are original, or based on other people - and often they're pretty screwed up, depressed or psychotic. It's only later on, or often on re-writes that I start to realise they are parts of me, or that their conflicts are really mine.

I don't mind this, except when it's a really screwed up character, then I get a bit worried :e2hammer: But on the whole, I reckon the writing is doing a good job of keeping me away from those traits in real life, by working them all through on paper, using fictional characters.

It's interesting what you can find lurking around the darker recesses of your own mind...
 

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I don't become my characters, but I find myself sympathizing with them so much that it affects me. For instance, today I was plotting out a confrontation scene between my heroine and her friend, and I felt myself becoming physically ill.
 

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Some actors and actresses do get "taken over" by their parts - like Vivien Leigh, after starring in A Streetcar Named Desire. Playing a mad character can be dangerous to your own mental health.

On a more trivial level, Jon Pertwee, best known for his work as Doctor Who, also starred in the children's TV series Worzel Gummidge, where he played a living scarecrow. He found himself sidling up to his wife and begging for tea and cake without realising his normal behaviour had changed.
 

dancingandflying

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let's just say... you're not the only one. when i fully flesh out my main character, i become her. that also happens when i'm doing a play and then get what the character is about.
maybe it makes sense, maybe not.
dancingandflying.
 

Scarlett_156

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Every character I create is me in some way, shape, or form. Yes, I know this is a weakness. I'm hoping that getting published will help me sort of grow out of it.
 

JenNipps

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Mod Note: I copied this thread over to the AW Roundtable because it applies to more than MCL. Don't be surprised if/when you get notifications from more than one thread on this.
 

Jongfan

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Oh if only !!! I think I could be arrested in some states if I were to become a character of mine
 

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Scarlett_156 said:
Every character I create is me in some way, shape, or form. Yes, I know this is a weakness. I'm hoping that getting published will help me sort of grow out of it.
I just have to differ here. I've heard this said before, but I don't think it's a weakness. On the contrary, I don't think it's possible to write a character that is not you "in some way, shape, or form." We write through the filter of the mind, always.
 

Nakhlasmoke

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Scarlett_156 said:
Every character I create is me in some way, shape, or form. Yes, I know this is a weakness. I'm hoping that getting published will help me sort of grow out of it.

Hasn't hurt Neil Gaiman much, he mentioned before that characters start based on a part of his personality, and grow from there.
 

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Tell me this isn't freakish...

My characters are often an exaggerated portion of my own psyche-- my insecurities, fears, fantasies, etc.

However the weirdest thing is that I wrote a book where the main character was male (I'm female), and he was utterly unlike me in every physical/practical way, although emotionally we are similar. But I liked him a lot and I had a lot of fun writing him.

Then I met a guy. Who I ended up marrying. And then realized... The man who is now my husband shares the same physical characteristics of my character, has the same (unusual) job, and likes the same things. All qualities which, I might add, I had put on a "NO" list for potential mates. My husband is basically the complete opposite of the "mental image" I had in mind for who I would eventually marry.

Don't get me wrong-- I'm completely happy with him! However sometimes I get freaked out... like, did I write about this guy, develop a crush on him, and then unconsciously go looking for someone like him in the real world???

Then again, I guess not everyone can say they married someone right out of a storybook.
 

Gary

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I was thinking about this very subject before I signed in today.

Because my novel is a highly fictionalized version of events in my life, mostly when I was young, I couldn't help but think and become even more like the character. He is what I was, not what I am, yet I often find myself thinking the same way he does. It's almost scary, because it may come to a point where memories of events as written in the book become more real than those I actually lived.

What's even more scary is the idea that since part of my story takes place in the future, maybe it's a premonition!

Welcome to the Twilight Zone......
 

WerenCole

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Gee. . . I don't have any characters named Weren Cole (and he doesn't have any named after Me. . . )


Weren is my Buddy Glass (from Salinger). We are good buddies, we are the same person. It is like having an invisible friend who uses my fingers to tell stories.

I kind of like him, but he can be a little annoying at times. ;)
 

mooncars

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Not at all. It's fiction. I did try to write erotica once. How anyone can do that without going into sexual meltdown is beyond me.

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I never become my characters. My characters always becomes me. ;)
 

AnnieColleen

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janetbellinger said:
I've dreamt about my characters and my novel in general. Does that count?

I played cards with my friend's characters once.

I was bored and playing Hearts in the college computer lab. Didn't like the player names someone had left on it, so I changed them to the characters' names.

They played in character the whole time!
 

kct webber

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I've had dreams about my characters many times.

And I always become my characters. A couple of people mentioned actors staying in character--I write in character. That has become a bit odd at times when I'm writing a female, as I am a guy. I am, however, always able to 'snap out of it' when I finish writing.

Well, almost always. Once, I was writing a character who had been drugged and describing, in detail, what effect it was having on her. I succeeded in really getting inside her head, evidently, 'cause I couldn't write anymore. I felt as if I had taken a handful of downers--sweating, shaking, lightheaded, dizzy, etc. I had to go to bed (and stumbled all the way). I slept for an hour then got up and felt fine. That was a bit strange.
 
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