Creating a character based on someone you know...

I realised I might be in that situation with mine very early on beacause I based of the characters on my uber buff mate, Max and the other on me. I knew they needed to be close but not dating because that would be a bit weird in real life for the same reason as you so I made them twins. I thought this might be a draw back but it ended up working lodes better thn the first idea with lodes of plot twists coming from their new relationship that I couldnt do before.

jsando said:

I am finding that sometimes the non-fiction idea is getting in the way of the fictional idea... like, I am caught between how it really happened and how it could happen...

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Two things to keep close track of here. One, that your friends won't recognise themselves, even if they are close friends. They might not always be close. So base characters on several people you know. The second is more tricky, especially if you feel the facts are getting in the way of the fiction. This is voice. You need to make sure the story comes from your MC, and that your own voice doesn't break through. I'm always getting pulled up on this. It's quite hard to detect in your own writing, but easy in that of others.

Use reality as a basis, a starting point, or try to mix experiences. That's what I'd say.

Hi Jsando
I know exactly what you mean. I'm editing my third novel at the moment, but I have started a story plan for my fourth, and many of the characters are based on people i know. My lead character is based on my sister, who is a psychologist. I found that so many of the anonymous stories she told me were so funny that i couldn't pass up the opportunity to write about them.

I don't think the main character will end up easily recognisable as her, but i found it a good starting point. I find my characters just evolve and find a life of their own, until eventually they become their own people.

I don't know, My best freind uses the gang of pals we had when we were 10-12. Of course, the gang is only the template, because the characters are grown, but I quite enjoy the ones based on me, to see how she is different from me and how she is similar, and I kind of get to have another life. She does things I don't get to do. Only I know who all the other characters are based on, because we don't see those kids any more, but I wouldn't say "make sure they don't recognize themselves." Unless it is completely unflattering. There is the opposite problem of people who think you used them for a character and didn't. Rob Thomas of Matchbox twenty was sued by an exgirlfriend for a song; she said it was about her. He said it was about a person in his life, just not her.

Who knows?

jsando said:

I am finding that sometimes the non-fiction idea is getting in the way of the fictional idea... like, I am caught between how it really happened and how it could happen...

Does this happen to anyone else?

(Does this even make sense? I'll elaborate if necessary).

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Yes, I understand what you mean. I based a character on someone I know, and one problem I had was not just the fact that I had trouble separating him from my charater (thinking, "I'm not allowed to write that, because that never happened to him!"), but also that I was embarassed about people making the connection (thinking, "People are going to read this, and believe that this is what I think of him!").

One thing I did, as not to change the character too much, was to give the character one distinct quality that my friend did not have. I made him an art student. In real life, he is an artist, who never went to school. That way, I was able to make him do anything I wanted, because he wasn't really my friend anymore, he was my character. Yet he was similar enough to my friend that he filled the purpose in the story that my friend was meant to fill.

Whether or not it's a sane thing to do, I will do so as long as it doesn't put someone in a bad light. Since I'm doing Epic Fantasy, you can pretty much cover someone's identity with a code-name.

My editor said, "Add a strong female charachter, and I said, "I'm writing you into the story..."

Most of my characters start from someone I know, but as the story develops, so does the character. I have also written several short (one to two page) stories for fun and given them away to friends and family as a gift. (stories about them or starting with them but going from there)

None of my characters are based on anyone I know, and all are based on everyone I know and have known.

I have never had this problem with a character in a prose work -- that is, their personalities have all been blends of things, and not consciously modelled on any one person, same with plot elements (Nate's right that doing fantasy REALLY HELPS with that part of it!).

However, back when I was more active in comics I would occasionally have... imagination gaps, for lack of a better word, where I had trouble coming up with what a character looked like. It's funny how the mind works: if I just start in randomly drawing, a character will emerge and I will know everything I need to know about him or her. However, if the character details come to me first, it is damned hard to draw that person the way they need to be drawn. So I used to look around me for details of faces that I could "steal".

I was having terrible trouble with a character's mouth, and somehow the mouth was the key to the whole face. I looked up in class one day and realized that my teacher's mouth was perfect -- but when I went home and drew the face, I ended up stealing quite a lot of the rest of the teacher's face as well.

Long story short -- that teacher was one of my readers. I don't know if he recognized himself, but other people in the class did. Fortunately, it was a pretty good part (the character is kind of a jerk at one point, but he makes up for it), so I wasn't too scared that he'd be mad. But it did kind of reveal to the world that I thought this teacher quite handsome, so... that was just embarrassing for ME.

Characters

I not only base characters on people I know, I often use the people I know as characters. I use real names, real descriptions, and real personalities. The people I know ARE the characters, so there's no worry about trying to keep things separate.

It's all a matter of how this real person would react in this fictional situation.

I'd stay away from writing people in consciously...but that's me. I dont' want to base anyone consciously because people I know will sneak in and mesh together anyway. How could I create a character with attributes I've never once experienced? I couldn't, really. Just me, of course.

I know a lot of authors caution against this...people WILL recognize themselves, eventually, and even if it wasn't a comical or pejorative portrayal...they probably won't like it. Better to write a character based on many people you know and then have your friends fight about who you based the MC on.

Some characters start off inspired by real people, but end up nothing like them by the time the story is in its final draft. I think it's lazy to use real people in my writing - that's what my imagination is for.

scarletpeaches said:

Some characters start off inspired by real people, but end up nothing like them by the time the story is in its final draft. I think it's lazy to use real people in my writing - that's what my imagination is for.

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No, writing is to give readers real people they can identify with. Writing is about the reader, not the writer.The trouble with imaginary characters is that it often takes a LOT of imagination to believe in them.

Even if you make up characters, all the separate parts had better come from real people.

Jamesaritchie said:

No, writing is to give readers real people they can identify with. Writing is about the reader, not the writer.The trouble with imaginary characters is that it often takes a LOT of imagination to believe in them.

Even if you make up characters, all the separate parts had better come from real people.

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James, your last sentence really resonates with me, because that is precisely how I 'construct' my characters; blending characteristics from people I have known (or observed) untill I get the character I want. This applies to physical as well as behavioural 'pieces'. Of course there is some of 'me' in all my characters...
I find this helps me to know how my character would react to a given situation, or approach a problem, etc.

Have to agree that the characters must feel real to the reader, though how closely a character resembles any one person would vary according to how many 'parts' of other people they are composed of.

Perhaps this means I am a literary Viktor Frankenstein

Yes, I suppose it's more like that. Trouble with separating them. And if I do try to separate, sometimes I feel like I am not being true to the source...

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I think this is the reason I've never been any good with fiction. I fool around with short stories from time to time, sold one a lifetime ago, and I just push myself to keep writing past the urge to keep the person I'm basing the character on intact. Sometimes I'll write little two or three paragraph stories about the characters. I'll take events from my own life or from the lives of other people I know and map out how this particular character would have reacted.

One thing that helps me is writing elaborate, involved character sketches. I will write five or so pages, handwritten, about each main character. Sometimes it is less, often it is more. By the time I'm done, I don't even recognize the inspiration in the character. I use people I know as starting points but it never ends there.

I'm no master of fiction, but this is a technique that has helped me become more confident about what I do write.

That's precisely the reason I never use real people - I don't want to be tied to my image of the person in RL, so I might think, "Hmm, wonder what that sort of person would be like in THIS story?" Then I monkey about with them until they bear no resemblance to the original person who inspired the character, bar the ONE trait that first interested me. That's not to say they end up one-dimensional, just that one part is real, everything else is fictional. And I enjoy people trying to guess which part is real and from there, trying to work out WHO that character started off as, in real life.

I agree with Jim about the idea that to create real character you blend them from real people, even if you don't have a particular person in mind. My characters are often based off people I know, as I think most peoples are, in one way or another. But let me throw a couple of old cliches on the fire, variations of Twain-isms and see if they resonate.

Fiction, by definition is not true, thus to write fiction is to be constantly lying to the reader. So, with this in mind, even though you are basing characters on a certain someone, or a blend of someones, they are inherently not real people and thus there should be no guilt on the part of the writer of turning a friend into a character.

I am sure there have been instances of purported fiction that was taken from real life and relayed detail for detail exactly as the event happened, but if it is surrounded by events in the story are are genuinely fiction, does that not make the event fiction in itself?

Oh shucks, it's something to dwell upon at least. . .

Weren

werencole said:

Fiction, by definition is not true, thus to write fiction is to be constantly lying to the reader.

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I don't agree that it's lying--it's telling a story. And I think fiction can be true in the same sense that myth can.

In my first novel, I used the kid who was my best friend when I was twelve, as one of the juvenile MC's as well as his house, his mother and the town we all lived in circa 1964.

Now I mostly use people I've known as rough templates but they quickly take on a life of there own.

However, last night, the most incredible thing happened. (and it's not what you think, dirty minded person).

I had this amazingly vivid dream about this petty criminal robbing someone's apartment when the next of kin are at the former occupant's funeral. It wasn't like watching a movie though.

I was the guy, this dumpy late forties guy with a bland face about five foot eight dressed in a tired suit. I've conned the super into giving me the keys to the apartment saying I was the dead gentleman's son.


(I look nothing like this at all and I have never been involved in any sort of crime)

Just as I'm loading the last of my loot to take out to my acccomplise in his rusty '63 Mercury, the real son opens the door. He's a really tall mean looking guy. I say I'm the super, here's the key, drop it off in my mail box when you're done and I get the hell out of there.

The more I write, the more I think we're all just chanelling.

As of eight am I've written a thousand word outline for a crime novel based on this. I've never done a crime novel before and never wanted to do one. Go figure.

Anyone have anything similar happen?

brinkett said:

I don't agree that it's lying--it's telling a story. And I think fiction can be true in the same sense that myth can.

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I think it's lying. You're trying to get people to believe something that is not true, and in some cases, not possible.

Celia Cyanide said:

I think it's lying. You're trying to get people to believe something that is not true

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When I read fiction, I don't believe the people and places exist, or rather, I know they exist only in my imagination, with the author's help. Since I'm aware of this up front, the author can't lie to me.

brinkett said:

When I read fiction, I don't believe the people and places exist, or rather, I know they exist only in my imagination, with the author's help. Since I'm aware of this up front, the author can't lie to me.

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Yes, s/he can. Knowing the truth doesn't prevent someone else from lying to you. When I ask my little brother where his school clothes went, and he says a monster stole them, I'm aware that this is not true. It doesn't mean he did not just tell me a lie.

You don't have to think if it as lying if you don't want to, but I do.