Can writers base their characters off of themselves?

That's fine, and many stories have been based on the writer's personal experiences and many characters have been based on the writer's own personality and background.

Here is what the publishing world cares about:

1. Making money; finding stories that will sell a lot of books.

2. Great stories!

3. Not getting sued. So when you write about yourself, be careful to disguise and other people you're writing about.

It's not really bad, nor is it good. It's said nowadays that authors that base characters off of themselves have created " Mary-Sues," and that basically that writer has inserted themselves into the story. Now, in some cases that can be true. Especially in certain fan fiction and one "popular" book known as Twilight. Bella was basically Meyer, ( I believe that Stephanie confessed this herself.) The thing is, if you want to base the character off yourself you have to be careful not to make the whole book a Mary-Sue fantasy with amazing things happening to the main character. Although, it can be at the same time a good thing too. A person has flaws. If you somehow incorporate these flaws into your character, you won't get a Mary-Sue most likely. No ones perfect. I have some characters based off of others and I have enjoyed the large amounts of flaws I can add. BQ: Yes. A lot of the people I base characters off of are close and personal to me. Even if we've fell out, I still keep the characters the same, as I don't stop and hate people. It' s hard to base a character off of someone who is still living because if the two of you fall out then you may not want to write about that character anymore. I based one angel off of my deceased Grandfather. If it wasn't for him, the story wouldn't exist at all.

Yes, writers do it all the time. The only problem is that if they make the character perfect, the character is called a Mary Sue and that is frowned upon.

It depends on how exactly one goes about doing that.

For instance, when an author does that and makes themselves out to be godlike and/or irreproachable, then there is a problem. Then you have a Mary Sue/Gary Stu self insert, and it ain't pretty. It's also risky; people tend not to like pointing out all of their flaws for all to see. People don't want to portray themselves badly, plain and simple, and this makes it hard not to fall into the Sue trap.

However, if you make a character well rounded and interesting, but with your personality, I can't see it being a huge problem. After all, very often the person someone understands the most is themselves. It can work.

Of course you can base a character on yourself that's fine. There is very little "frowned upon" where creativity comes in to play. Although I find it more fun to invent new people, to really test my writing abilities. It might be easier to keep in "character" when writing about myself, but as a writer it's fun to grow and breath life into new ideas.

Yes! It's probably a really good place to start. In fact, the characters of an authors novel all reflect some aspect on the writer.

Hope I helped and good luck!

It depends how you pull it off. Basing characters off of yourself can lead to having realistic, relatable characters. But be warned: it can also lead you to unknowingly write a mary-sue. Make sure your character shares your downfalls as well as your strengths. One more word of warning: don't make your character look like you but better, as that might be frowned upon.

Many authors not only base characters on themselves, but also people they know in order to convey their personal perception or opinion. For excample, Fitzgerald passes a clear judgement on women, (especially materialistic women,) and this shines through within many of his novels (such as The great Gatsby). In order to relay their own ideas, a past experience or to explore their own sense of self, an author will base a novel on themselves, but be careful.. as it may be based on what they percieve themselves to be , which is an entirely different thing in itself. :)

You can do it as long as the self-portrait isn't unrealistically flattering. Well - you can have a too-flattering portrait, but everybody will criticise you for it and call the character a Mary-Sue. The character has to have some (or all) of (what you consider) your bad points as well as some (or all) of (what you consider) your good ones.

No. Authors do that all the time. Look at Stephen King--tons of his characters are writers just like him.