Yes, I often get inspiration from real people. One person in the story is in fact always me, since I use writing as an outlet for whatever's going on. My world is drag, transgender things, character gender studies, lgbtq community, etc. I have a lot of people who I admire who are involved with these things. So, I base characters on their personalities or things they're interested in, etc. The character opposite mine is always my favorite person irl who I've loved for over twenty years. He's a professional drag queen, and I'm this pathetic femboy lol (he was nice to me irl, though. So very nice). I choose to represent Japan, because I am Japanese-American and we need good representation in the Western world. Even my daily conversations with people are full of such ignorance (often mean hearted, such as asking if what I'm eating is dog "as a joke" or boiling down my religion to new age peace philosophy, as if Buddhism isn't an ancient complex religion). I try to turn those situations into learning moments. The best way to do this is to write about my culture. I was raised immersed in Japanese culture much more than American, but I am still Western enough to know how to write so that a Western audience will understand. I also use it to teach about LGBTQ culture and our nuances in a very relatable way. My aim is to get the reader to feel like we are their best friends, and feel for us when we are in trouble. This way, I can gain us real life friends and allies. A good way to do this is to make it as real as possible, so lifting from real life is perfect. A lot of situations in my books really happened in my life, even stuff you wouldn't have thought. So many characters are based on real people, therefore.
