Do you resemble your protagonist?

[shapeshiftingmel]

Hello, lovely and super talented people!

So, here's the thing: I was sitting in class today, questioning my plot and I asked myself "Wait, how much do I actually resemble the protagonist of my story?". There must be a reason even I was not aware of that lead me to write the main character the way I do and I mean, an author's books do reveal a lot of things about them and we subconsciously or intentionally base off our characters on real life people. I think this is a quite interesting topic and I would absolutely enjoy reading your thoughts on that.

After some super concentrated thinking process, I established that, yes, my protagonist and I are similar in some aspects, though he definitely has more confidence. (I could NOT speak loudly in front of a crowd without stuttering and fainting on the spot.) Zian (surprise, surprise, that's the main character of my novel) has many ambitions and because of the fact that he's the youngest heir he constantly feels like he has to prove himself. That's why he is so set on challenging others and their views. He doesn't want to lose to his siblings or anyone. He might be a prince but he is basically still a teenager, his title hold little meaning as the other nobles have actual achievements to back up their words and actions. I can TOTALLY relate to that. I feel the same way in school. There are so many brilliant and smart people that I have come across, my best friends always happened to be on top of their classes and who was always second? Of course, me. I do not like admitting it at all and I learned to play it cool, but that actually hurt like hell. I felt like I was worth nothing until the day that I surpassed them and therefore proved my worth - which is absolutely stupid but it takes time to see that. (Thank goodness, I have gained confidence since then.)

Alright, enough about me. I am looking forward to your replies (please, don't leave me hanging). Oh, and don't forget to share your novel/comic, let's support one another

CYAN | Tapas

Stay healthy, ma lovely and talented human beings.

xoxo
Gossip Girl

...

Ha. Ha. Ha. I'm so funny. Byeeee.

[DualDragons]

No, not at all

My protagonist has turquouse eyes, red hair and a optimistic rash attitude. I'm the complete opposite of that

[Random_Guy]

Let me check...

Well, the protagonist of my current story has short brown hair, is taller than me, has somewhat tanned skin from spending so much time outside, stands up straight, is decently toned and has pointy ears.

I have long brown hair, I'm shorter than them, my skin is pale at best, I slouch really badly, I don't look out of shape but I'm definitely not toned and my ears are rounded.

What do you think?

[shapeshiftingmel]

Aiii, turquoise eyes with red hair is a great combination though and damn, am I the only one who thinks writing characters with an optimistic rash attitude is one of the most difficult things? I feel like it's so easy for them to become annoying at some point, so huge respect to anyone who does a good job :o

[shapeshiftingmel]

I don't know what you mean, you sound like total twins.
OK THOUGH honestly - same.
Mine has long silver hair, about 25cm taller, chocolate brown skin and is by far prettier than me. That's the harsh reality.

[Random_Guy]

Oftentimes our protagonists do not resemble what we look like, but what we want to look like.

[shapeshiftingmel]

You know, that's actually very deep and often times very true. Though I doubt I could pull off silver hair. Definitely not in this lifetime.

[C_o]

My main protagonist has all of the worst qualities of my personality/behaviours, while a supporting character actually ended up physically looking like me unintentionally (and he's supposed to be sketchy). I don't love myself.

The Drowning | Tapas

[LadyN]

Though my character looks NOTHING like me, she’s a self insert and I’m not afraid to show it. She actually originated from a project I had to do where I was placed into a survival story. The main character had to be me or a character like me. So that’s how she was made.

Personality wise I made her mature for her age as she lived a life of hardship but can easily break out of that “I’m so mature for me age uwu” state.

She has my fears and suffers from emotional trauma (not like me)

I wouldn’t call her a Mary Sue but she might need some adjustments as her past seems a little too cliche (not really)

I would go into more detail but not many want to hear that.

[shapeshiftingmel]

The same thing actually happened to me a lot a few years prior when I was still completely lost in low self-esteem. People might consider it sad, but I honestly think, in one way or the other, it's how some of us face the qualities we don't like about ourselves. I can only speak from my own experience, but writing characters who are basically some version of me genuinely helped. That was my way of communicating with myself as my writing acted as a mirror for me.

(BTW, your work sounds interesting, I'll definitely check it out in my free time.)

I wish you the best

[KillianRain]

Hey Marielseibert.

Appearance wise... maybe a little, but it's more like you said. I guess everyone puts some of their qualities inside their characters, or attributes they admire or aspire to achieve along with their experiences.

As an example, one of my main characters has a bit of my most cold feelings about humanity, as he despises certain attitudes the same way I do.

On the other hand, my second main character has a more debauchery approach, like the other half of my personality.

Either way, I guess each character we create is an attempt to demonstrate how we face certain attitudes through different scopes. It is certainly an interesting way to tell more about your inner self than anything else.

Anyway, here's my inner self (novel):

Empty Land | Tapas

[Leverance]

My protagonist Tyrell Wellick is nothing like me. He is violent (it will be shown later in the story), more impulsive than I'm. He won't hesitate to cut anyone off if they don't fit his ideals of perfections. Though, Tyrell has the tendency to lace on to a single person and become close to obsessed.

He has the idea that he is a "god" and is allowed to do anything he wants for his mission.

Of course, he isn't an original character of mine but an interpretation to who he is on the television show Mr Robot.

[neardrive]

Hi, oh!

As for mine... I'm sure I put part of myself into her, mostly at the beggining, but as she lived experiences, she got her own personality, and i now can't barelly see me in her. I liked that, though.

I have more than 350 pages wrote (not in english though...) and we are triying our best to transform that into a comic here I'd like to let you enjoy all the tranformation of Nayla (the protagonist)

Project AT | Tapas

[C_o]

Oh absolutely. This is my first comic, I work professionally as an artist but have never really written anything in my adult life, so ultimately I ended up gravitating towards writing what I know (myself and my own experiences). It is through the filter of a weird horror story, but yeah, it is cathartic because it's part of me working through my own baggage.

Thanks for the sub by the way, that just unlocked ad revenue for me apparently.

[DiegoPalacios]

Hmmmmm........probably not XD

[shapeshiftingmel]

Oh, the way she came to be is really interesting. I love that. Do you know the book "Lord of the flies"? It's a survival story that shows the negative qualities of humans that resurfaces when faced by near death. I just had to think about that when I read your reply.

Yeah, it's difficult to avoid some cliches, but they aren't the worst thing - a lot of authors manage to own them which is super cool. From what I have read from you about your protagonist, the only thing that came to mind was how that fits into our reality. There are many people like her. Persons who suffered through hardships early on grow up faster than they should and it definitely leaves them scarred. They act mature most of the time, as if comforting themselves, but it's even easier for those people to break out of that state. Simply because they have been strong for too long and everyone is bound to break down at some point as everyone has their limits.

I don't mind hearing more. It's interesting to know how and why other authors created their characters - especially their protagonist.

[shapeshiftingmel]

Huh? I can totally see the resemblance. Super gorgeous.

[Kura]

Physically no, my main character is white and has manageable hair, sooooo that's already a huge 'I absolutely do not resemble my protagonist' in that aspect there.

Personality wise is a miss too. Andrew is absolutely not a people pleaser (which I am to a horrifying and often self damaging degree) he is far better at telling off someone that is making him uncomfortable while I'm the type to just, silently put up with everything bad around me because I don't want to make people uncomfortable with me. He hates video games, comics and cartoons, which are all of my hobbies, be he does have similar taste in music as me, (songs with themes that are anti-authority) though he's a lot more streamlined and less open to pop songs than I am. His favourite colour is black, mind is blue, but I make him wear blue / dye his hair blue a lot cause it was his mom's fav colour and it's his way of remembering her. While me, you could not get me to dress myself in a colour I did not like or even worse yet hated.

Uhh, he's bisexual, which is something we have in common, but I'm also ace and he is very much not so that's where the similarities end on that spectrum.

Though kind of outside of the character. A lot of the social experiences I had growing up though, are similar to him as well as other characters. We just deal with them / react to them very differently. (but some of the side characters are more likely to react in ways I would or have)

https://tapas.io/series/NoFuture

[DiegoPalacios]

"as a rock person i can say we struggle a lot with skin care, glad the effort is paying of" XD

[shapeshiftingmel]

I don't even know what to add to that since you put it into the right words. Now that I think about that, it makes me realise how intimate showing your work in progress actually is. Like you said, you are constantly revealing your inner self to total strangers. Some of these thoughts have never even been heard by anyone besides yourself. It's kind of scary, exposing yourself like that - that's what I always think before posting another poem of mine on Instagram - but at the same time it's a beautiful and nearly secretive way of showing your true self. To me, it sounds like freedom.