Comments on: Hey, That Character Reminds Me of Someone!

By: Daryl Gregory

Daryl Gregory — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 03:47:16 +0000

Roger on that button your wife was thinking of buying, David. I had a short story in F&SF in which a man with terrible allergies talks about preferring to have sex doggie style, so his sinuses can drain (yes, Gordon Van Gelder actually published this). Anyway, my wife had to put up with a few questions. I mean, just because _I_ have terrible allergies doesn’t mean the characters had anything to do with us.

But people will always be a bit skittish around writers. For Christmas this year my sisters bought me a sweatshirt that says, “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel.”

By: David B. Coe

David B. Coe — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:05:59 +0000

Right, Karen. If I believed everything that all my many protagonists do, I’d be schizophrenic; and if my protagonists only believed the things I do, they’d be too boring for words.

By: Karen Wester Newton

Karen Wester Newton — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:53:43 +0000

I think more insidious than readers thinking a character is someone the writer knows is the reader who assumes the writer espouses all his/her protagonist’s values. Just because a fictional character acts a certain way doesn’t mean the author thinks that’s a good thing. For one thing, people with flaws are more interesting than those without, so writers often give their protagonists a lot of emotional baggage they don’t have themselves. That’s the great thing about fiction—you get to make it up.

By: David B. Coe

David B. Coe — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:42:22 +0000

And yes, Di, there certainly is some pleasure in giving red shirts to the people who bother me, and then picking them off one by one….

By: David B. Coe

David B. Coe — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:40:28 +0000

I think my wife feels much the same way. My kids on the other hand would LOVE to be able to tell their friends that they’re characters in my books.

By: Diana Pharaoh Francis

Diana Pharaoh Francis — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:36:01 +0000

I do like to kill/irritate/torment and so forth people who annoy me in my real life. I admit that. But the rest . . . I simply cannot have the face or personality of a real person attached to my character or it comes out very very wrong.

By: Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:03:31 +0000

Yep. My wife is thinking about getting a button made up that says “Still not Cerice” (the lead female character of the first two WebMage books). She is somewhat concerned that the buttons thing will get cumbersome as more books in this and other series come out and the range of characters she’s forced to deny being the model for grows.