Do you ever almost call real people in your life your characters’ names?!

[Maps]

Hahaha!!! I think you’re friends and fam would just think you’d given them some really great nicknames if you ever slipped up

[Maps]

Omg that’s hilarious. I swear I’ll see my brothers thumb moving sometimes like it’s tapping a controller button and I don’t even think he notices!

[Maps]

Well that just sounds stressful!

[echoeotto]

I tried to press X to gather the flowers for alchemy [...] That was when I realized I was playing Skyrim way too much

Big mood

Have you ever gotten close, or have you, ever called someone real in your life one of your characters names (friends, family, significant others)?

I've yet to call somebody close to me a character name, but this almost happened with a stranger.

I walked into a small café and immediately noticed that the only person behind the counter looked very much like how I imagined the main character of my sci-fi novel. On top of that, my character also works in a bakery-café—and the name on this woman's nametag even started with the same letter. (My character's name is Laeneth, and this person's name was something perfectly normal, like Lauren.) I had to watch myself to make sure I didn't call her the wrong thing.

I'd never seen her before in my life, so there's no way I could have based the character off her by accident or something. It was surreal. I almost wanted to take a picture of her, but didn't because that would be rude.

Edit: I live near that café, so I've been back there, but never saw her again. This totally means she was a ghost or something

[Maps]

Lol! An apparition of your very own character!
Ahhh I’m so waiting for the day I see someone who reminds me of my characters.

[echoeotto]

Ahhh I’m so waiting for the day I see someone who reminds me of my characters.

Hopefully it'll happen to you, too It's really weird.

[vothnthorvaldson]

At the time I was playing Skyrim a lot I :
- checked several times for dragons before opening my front door;
- cast a fireball spell at my utility bin that I took for a black bear during a snowstorm.

[DiegoPalacios]

i havent, but once someone in the forum called me Rocky

[Kura]

Only did it for my dog one time.

But that was because she was asking to go outside while I was writing so I called her the name of the character I was in the middle of typing the name of. So instead of saying "Ok Abaddon, lets go to the outside!!" it was "Ok Andrew, lets go to the outside!!"

[echoeotto]

So instead of saying "Ok Abaddon, lets go to the outside!!"

Your dog's name is Abaddon? Cool. Why'd you choose that name? (If you don't mind me asking)

[Maps]

Better safe than sorry!

[Pan]

I try to never base my characters after people I know in real life as a hard rule, and I only use names from people I know if I think it fits the character and nothing else does.

I did write a book eleven years ago (I was twelve) where all the characters looked like and had the names of my friends. Then I read a writing guide for novels that cautioned me to never, ever, ever do that because, even if the name is different, if that person reads your book THEY WILL KNOW IT'S THEM. No matter how flattering you make them, they could still be offended by it.

Soooooo, yeah, I try not to XD

[racarter]

Not that I can recall but I have called myself “Roxanne” before. Lol

[Maps]

Good call! I, too, made up names for my characters and avoided real names from my life.

[echoeotto]

even if the name is different, if that person reads your book THEY WILL KNOW IT'S THEM. No matter how flattering you make them, they could still be offended by it.

Never heard that before, but it sounds like solid advice. Makes me wonder if that happened to the person who wrote the guide.

[Karmillina]

I avoid it as much as possible. I don't want people I know to see themselves in my story lol I don't quite understand why

[kenmai]

nah
i do think of my chracters if someone happens to have a similar name though
i have a friend named Kai online who i met wayyyy after i made my character Kai

and other smaller things like having an oc named Theo and realizing my friends' brother is also named Theo so she feels weird whenever i bring my oc up hfkds

[cleo_san]

It actually happened with some of my RPG-co-players when I was younger, I've got to know them on the internet via our RPGs and the names just stuck - but I tried to reduce calling-a-friend-by-names-of-fictional-characters soon =)

Funnily though, I listen to my artist name "Cleo" as if it was my real name, which it isn't XD

[storytimebiondi]

Hasn't happened to me.

However, my wife and I are in 'kid' talks, and part of me, if we had a kid, wants to use my character names when trying to name them. Basically, I'm hooked on the name Noa.

[Maps]

Noa is a fantastic name!