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That's interesting... Hmmm.

On one hand, I feel like the idea of telling amateur writers to "write what they know" is a good foothold - a crutch for them to get on their feet when they feel pressure from inventing something out of thin air. It's a bit like learning to draw. It is expected that you observe and record what you can actually tangibly see (often drawings for life), which is much like writing from your own experiences, before you can convincingly portray fantasy or imagined settings and characters. Drawing from life and pulling ideas from life creates more realistic (and often more personal) pieces for novices of both trades. If you start off writing about a character who is an American high-schooler and you are an American high-schooler, you'll have more success than portraying a 30 year-old Russian spy-- until you get more experience and understand how to research and write that particular part convincingly.

A downside is that sometimes novice writers get caught in their comfort zone... Their spy acts like a high-schooler, which is the cause of distress for many in the roleplaying community. They might not realize it, which is fortunately an easy fix, usually writing experience and maturity.

Then there's the folks that completely insert themselves into characters (and then amp up the Sue)-- I often see this with people who only make one character and reuse them again and again. :I I am not a fan of that sort of writing style.

As for me, I don't typically think of putting myself into a character intentionally, unless they're actually a self-insert character. I'd have to think about that further, because when characters share (or do not share) my characteristics I will compare how I would react to situations to how they would.

██████name. green || skype. fox.tricks || age. 21 || gender. male || alignment. chaotic good

As Cylem said, there's a difference between RPing what you know and a self-insert. On a completely unrelated note, I had no idea that insertation is not a real word, at least not by Chrome's spell-checker.

Sypon brought up a very good point with his spy/student example. If I were a beginning RPer it would be far easier to play someone close to my own age in a similar economic and social environment. Say, I'm a sixteen year old student in high school, coming from a middle-class family. All of these things I can implement well in my RP character because I am familiar with them and know many of the ins and outs. However, even though my character may have all these traits in common with me, this does not make the character a self-insert. It is not until I start applying my personality traits and possibly background (though usually such characters have backgrounds full of melodramatic bullshit) that it becomes an insert.

I relate with all my characters on some level. I don't agree with them but I can get inside their head well-enough to understand their motivations. And sometimes when I get stuck I'll ask myself "what would I do in this situation?". That's not a bad thing. Our characters come from ourselves after all. Relating them back to yourself only enhances a character's level of realism. At the same time however, it is important to maintain a certain distance from your character. While a character might not be an insert, it is still entirely possible to grow to close and become defensive of them.

Everyone has basically said what I wanted to about the dangers of self insertion in writing. I agree with the points made about it being frustrating to read and RP with because of the writer's personal attachment to said characters (the ones that are projections of themselves).

The new point I will bring up is that I'm not a big fan of 'write what you know'. I agree that it's a good way to start and a helpful idea but personally I enjoy researching about things that I don't know and writing about them. I wouldn't say that this kind of writing is always going to come out good but I certainly think it's a lot more fun to look into new things and write about them, even if you get it wrong.

I know that it's probably much easier to write from a familiar point of view or about something that the writer's already well versed in but I think that sets the author up in the problem of writing for themselves. By that I mean that they would write based around their current knowledge and leave out a lot of things that seem like common sense to them that the audience might not catch on to.

So, I believe that 'write what you know' has its merits and its place but I feel like it's important for writers to feel comfortable branching out into the unknown and taking risks even early on in their writing career. The best way to improve is to just keep writing and reading without worrying if it's wrong. It's much easier to learn what mistakes you made and fix them than to write perfection from the start. I think there's a lot of pressure from society today to get things right the first time (no matter what the hobby or talent) that stops people from trying something out of embarrassment that they'll suck.

In short, I guess I think it's best to 'write what interests you' and learn how to research/edit your stuff into something you'd feel comfortable sharing with others.

Yes. I was assuming that the term author projection was a broader reflection of the circumstances around the author - the author's state of living, occupations, social circles, etc - rather than just focusing on the character itself. And obviously using most aspects of your life is a poor facade and would absolutely be more "writing yourself". I separated it from the term "self-insert", but I suppose the amplitude also contributes to those lines being blurred.



That's what I was attempting to get at in my first post. I like being separated from my characters personality-wise, like what Doutei was mentioning. Roleplaying gives me a chance to break from who I am. But at the same time, I find that I reflect upon myself in order to make the characters work. Getting in a character's head that's so unlike me is a huge challenge and something that I love about roleplaying. I wish more novices would take that challenge instead of taking the easy route -- there's a lot of badasses, villains, and wild personality types that eventually just slip back into the RPer's personality and make teenage-caliber decisions.



BRING BACK NAOKI. 100% BADASS LIL PIMP.



I concur! I have a hard time with playing myself because I have to deal with myself all day, every day. wink I love getting sucked into research, but sometimes I don't know where to stop!

It's interesting how different personality types need to approach the subject in different ways. In my last school year, I took an English class based around fiction and storytelling. It was pretty Joseph Campbell-y, and I didn't learn much, but it made me realize how differently people's brains function.

There was a student in the class who simply could not grasp story techniques for the life of him, and without writing with an anchor from his life, he simply did not know how to get into character's heads or imagine anything from an abstract point of view. He also had a hard time grasping other simple literary concepts (and in other classes he was often equally oblivious), but that's what stuck out to me in that class particularly. He was so linear that he could research the surrounding elements of setting and time period, but simply couldn't put the pen to the paper when it came to fleshing out characters in a narrative. He pulled through when he connected it to something in life, and even though the it wasn't necessarily a self-insert handicap, he pulled through alright and learned something. At least I hope he did. I was on the other side of the room doodling scary men in party hats.

One long-winded anecdote later: I am with you on this one!

seekingCylem
I suppose what drives a lot of noobie RPers to do what they do is they write with a specific outcome in mind... like how it's SUPER OBVIOUS when someone wants their character to be romanced in a roleplay regardless of the plot or genre, or when someone wants to be the badass antihero.

Most quality roleplayers are more invested in character growth/interactions than vicarious anime neko yaoi.


I agree that this is a common problem with RPers these days. In the past pre-planning out relationships and plots was not as common so it wasn't as big an issue now. I have nothing against pre-planning some ideas (like decided to make your RPC be childhood friends with someone else's) but I've noticed that people are starting to pre-plan out the entire journey of their RPC before even getting to post! The reason I think this is bad is that it usually blocks out other opportunities because they feel the need to stay on their rigid path. Plus, I've noticed that it makes people less inclined to post because it will be a lot of work to cram what they want into their posts now (as opposed to feeling inspired and writing something out that wasn't planned). Thanks for bringing that point up, Cylem! Sorry that it unleashed my rambling mouth. XD;

As for the new question, for me it varies by character. I think most of mine have a touch of my playfulness but not all of them do. I could probably try and make claims that all of my characters have a little dab of what I'm like when I'm serious and what not but I think I'd be stretching it in many cases.

Characters most like me: Hm, this is a hard one. I really do play characters that differ from me most of the time. I guess... Valence Terwilliger (a Shugo Chara RP) he was pretty relaxed, thought about a lot of things, and was not aspiring to anything big (it'd be nice but I don't expect to get a high paying job). Urgh I'm not really happy with that choice either though, since he's not that similar to me either. Sorry I'm pulling a blank on this one.

Characters least like me: Macaroni and Cheese (private 1x1) - a crazy b***h who fangirls over boys a lot, has lots of issues in her past, tries to be overly sexual, and is actually in shape. Magnolia (from Spheres of Eclipse) - racist cold military woman, doesn't like to talk, and is organized/takes care of things quickly.