Is it odd that my characters are far more 'animated' than I am?

[Naruzeldamaster]

I can be social and whatnot but I'm a naturally kinda docile guy in person. I CAN be animated, sometimes, but it's not my go to vibe. I also get very 'drained' in situations where people are very animated and/or hyper very easily. Though this is very dependent on the person I'm interacting with.

I put a bit of myself in all of my characters, not to an extreme amount, just one bit or bob here to use as a blueprint for their whole character.

A lot of the time this method works, especially when I combine it with archetypes that are very much NOT me.
Usually even if you knew me well, you wouldn't be able to tell what part of my self I had added to a character, at least that is the hope.

Often I'll take one of my personality bits and dial that up to 5, 7, or even eleven. And I do my best not to use the same bit in the same way or the same combination of bits.

 

[pmmg]

Well, since writing is kind of sedentary, I would not find this surprising at all. I am quite introverted, and many of my characters are not, so...those at least are far more animated than me.

I dont know that it is possible to write and not include part of yourself in your characters. It just doesn't seem to work that way. Even Mr. King, who says his characters kick dogs, but he doesn't... Yeah, but it was in you to think of it. You just have a mind for it.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Well, since writing is kind of sedentary, I would not find this surprising at all. I am quite introverted, and many of my characters are not, so...those at least are far more animated than me.

I dont know that it is possible to write and not include part of yourself in your characters. It just doesn't seem to work that way. Even Mr. King, who says his characters kick dogs, but he doesn't... Yeah, but it was in you to think of it. You just have a mind for it.

Yeah I just mean in general, my characters seem to be a lot more fit for anime or game than a book. (and granted some of my stories are intended for animations or games)

But then, I have to write the story first. I wouldn't class too many of my characters as like, hyper, hyper. (Probably due to me naturally feeling a bit uncomfy around those types. Nothing to do with that person usually, more of a social battery thing) But even the more mild ones have way more energy than I do. I have a Pokemon character who's the physical embodiment of my 'Squirrel!' side, and she is SUPER animated, but she has these moments where she's more down to earth and calm.

The one 'kind of stoic' character I write is the most 'like me' even though he's quite a bit different personality wise. More willing to swear when I wouldn't etc, things like that. He has short bursts of energy, mischievousness around people he's comfy with. Though that's because that's the part of 'me' I used for his blueprint.

 

[MSadiq]

Well, since writing is kind of sedentary, I would not find this surprising at all. I am quite introverted, and many of my characters are not, so...those at least are far more animated than me.

I dont know that it is possible to write and not include part of yourself in your characters. It just doesn't seem to work that way. Even Mr. King, who says his characters kick dogs, but he doesn't... Yeah, but it was in you to think of it. You just have a mind for it.

I don't think you can even separate who you are from whatever you do, and with something as personal as writing, it's bound to show, even if very little.

You're all way more experienced than me, as I'm still learning and haven't producing a novel, but in my worldbuilding, even the characters I make, I don't intend it—for the most part—but it parts of me show in them. My power system involves meaning of words, but that emerged as a natural, subconscious consequence for the main event that triggers the story and its development over 3-4 versions, and it very much aligns my interest in language and linguistics.

 

[Prince of Spires]

While I do think you always put something of yourself in all your writing, it's not necessarily in the way how most people see it.

Some of what you put into your characters is stuff you wish you could do but don't have the guts or the physical capabilities to do so. Sometimes what you put in isn't your own moral beliefs, but rather your darkest thoughts which haunt you in the night. Or everything you disbelief in. All those characters are still an extension of you, however, they're not an extension of how you act in the real world.

Just a simple example. I can have a character who's able to talk to anyone and walk up to a random girl in a bar and go home with her at the end of the night. It's not something I would be able to do in real life, but it is something a younger me would have admired (in a way) in a person. Through my own personal experiences, it's how I've come to view a popular, socially capable teenage guy. Which is how I'd use that trait in a story. It's how part of me ends up in this character without it actualy being me in real life.

Same with kicking a dog. It's not something I would consider doing in real life, which is exactly why it makes for a behavior I'd use to show a character with a penchant for violence or a lack of caring for others. Now, if I would regularly kick dogs in my real life, I would use that bit very differently.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

No, I think it's perfectly normal. I'm also autistic and am perfectly capable of writing a wide variety of ways of being. So, we do have some autists, but we also have neurotypicals and no few characters who aren't human, have never been human, and never will be. They think differently, as well.

Might even be a couple of straight white guys in here. There's no telling!

 

[Mad Swede]

To answer your question. No. It's not odd. The only time a character in a book should be an accurate reflection of you is if you write your autobiography. Otherwise the characters in the stories you write should be whatever you as the author want or need them to be. There's no right or wrong. Yes, you can put bits of yourself into some of your characters, but that doesn't mean those characters can or should be exactly like you.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

To answer your question. No. It's not odd. The only time a character in a book should be an accurate reflection of you is if you write your autobiography. Otherwise the characters in the stories you write should be whatever you as the author want or need them to be. There's no right or wrong. Yes, you can put bits of yourself into some of your characters, but that doesn't mean those characters can or should be exactly like you.

This is my line of thinking tbh.
There's a character archetype (I forget which, but it's one of the 'sue' ones) that people frown upon when used. It's the one where they are an 'idealized' version of the author and everything goes perfect for them. I did this exactly one time as a teen and felt weird after finishing the fanfiction he was involved in.

I don't think any of my current characters go quite that far as far as being 'like' me though, unless someone on here could verify that somehow haha.

Do they have bits and bobs of my personality and/or particular quirks? Absolutely, but what I love to do is add archetypes (not tropes) that act as a counterbalance for what makes them 'like me' and find a happy medium between the two. The only thing I don't do is write characters a Christian might frown upon (Well, unless they're villains, but in my mind villains are the exception and not the rule, otherwise, why call them villains?) and I try to find a balance between doing that and doing what I want with the character as well.