# Personal intergral character development. Writers first stories. :)



## Toothpik444 (Apr 19, 2010)

I've always heard that the first story a writer makes is the one most similiar to themsleves. I couldn't ever confirm my hypothosis but with myself it's been true. The way the story is structured, adjectives selected, and most importantly character development reflects the writers personality. My question is this true to any extent? Do you included your own form of youself as a character? Or make one similiar? Or possibily a loved one?

Does the first story reflect a writers true innerds more that any other piece? I believe so but let's see...


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## darkr3x (Apr 19, 2010)

I was playing Rex in RPs long before i started on Fourfold so it's more hes a part of me more than a reflection. I'm sure at some point he was more of a reflection, he and i share a number of personality traits after all. But he has grown so much as a character that i don't really know any more. >.<


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## Sadgeo (Apr 19, 2010)

It is said (don't ask me by who) that all writers put a little bit of themselves into all the characters they create.  Granted, some may be a better reflection of others, but I like to think that most of the characters I create represent a piece of my own psyche.  As for the first story I ever wrote....  No, I wouldn't say it reflects more than any other piece of work I've ever worked on.  But that's just my opinion.


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## sunandshadow (Apr 19, 2010)

My first attempt at a novel was about a mary-sue main character named Sunandshadow (which became my online username).

The insight into me personally that someone could gather from this first story of mine would probably be about my difficulties with female characters in general and specifically as the main character of a romance.  I love romance; fantasy or science-fiction romance is the genre I instinctively write.  But although I'm female, in general female characters don't interest me  because I have a lot of difficulty identifying with them or  understanding why men consider them attractive.  A beautiful woman is a  skirt and heels is NOT me.  Anyone attracted to an alpha male is NOT me.   The weepy flutterhead, innocent virgin, and female action hero are all  NOT me.

So, when I first started writing, I put my mary-sue main character in  positions that were basically asexual: manager, adoptive parent,  scientist, scholar, politician.  Romances were happening all around her,  I seriously think I had a new pair of secondary characters falling in  love every chapter, but the MC did not get a love interest - instead she  made a pen-pal who was basically the male version of her.  They never  met in person - the main character (as the only single person) and all  the paired-up secondary characters left on a spaceship, in coldsleep,  and went through a genetic reshaping procedure that turned them all into  hermaphrodite aliens.  Their mission at their destination was to  convincingly pretend to be actual aliens and hide all evidence of their  human origins.  The space trip took hundreds of years, so the pen-pal  died of old age in the meanwhile.

But somehow, turning the main character into a hermaphrodite made it  okay for her to get a love interest.  I'm not really sure why - maybe  because instead of failing at being an attractive feminine woman she  could now succeed at being an interestingly exotic alien.  So when other  humans 'discovered the aliens', as the only single adult the MC  volunteered to go back to the humans' ship because she was expendable.   And the human male captain of the ship happened to be single and the  great-grandson of the previous pen-pal character.  So finally the MC got  romance and sex and bore the first human-alien hybrid child.


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## jinxtigr (Apr 19, 2010)

Yup. This is what saved my first novel, Kings of Rainmoor- the protagonist is a simplified version of my feelings about the world, but I'm a freak 

Hopefully I've eventually gotten to be cool enough that I can't be in my own stories anymore  I have to have extremely broken people in my stories. Again, that's what sort of saves my first book- the hero doesn't really win and certainly isn't often right. His flailing incapacity at dealing with life causes the sense of uncertainty I needed


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## Atrak (Apr 19, 2010)

A few people posted links to their first stories on this thread.

Most stated that they didn't want to remember how much they sucked back then.


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## Scarborough (Apr 19, 2010)

Well, my earliest story that I can recall (but cannot locate, unfortunately) involved my being kidnapped. And I have a thing for bondage. So, I suppose that first story is accurate.


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## Alexis (Apr 20, 2010)

Considering that its the author thats writing the story and nobody else (Normally), then I would say _every_ story is a reflection of yourself, thats what storywriting is at the end of the day


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## panzergulo (Apr 20, 2010)

I would say every character of mine has a little bit of me in them. I would say every story of mine reflects a little bit of me in themselves. I would say it's impossible for a writer to erase all traces of themselves from a story; If they could do that, the story wouldn't be their own anymore, but somebody else's. Also, wouldn't writing be a tad pointless if you couldn't reflect your own opinions and values in your stories? Many of my own stories come with a morale. And all those morales are something I can personally get behind, I support them, I believe in them. It explains also why I write so many tragedies.

But that's just me.


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## Fere (Apr 20, 2010)

My first story was a non-anthro piece that followed the life of a male fox, and this was purely based on what I could remember of physically being one all those years ago. So ultimately, all the characters were very real in that respect, as closely tied to what I'd seen and experienced. My first character *was* me.

With regards to later stories, my main anthro work in progress features a fox (Fere) who I've based upon my self; my own hang-ups, maneurisms, ways of speaking, my personality. His wants, needs, dreams and desires... all reflect my own in some way.
The others, including his lover, are loosely based on people I've met or people I know or have known. For example, Fere's father in the story is very closely modelled on my own Dad.

I've always thought that taking bases for characters from real-life experiences and/or people can make a story seem a lot more realistic, and gives it a lot more feeling/heart.

I write what I know. I write what I've been through.


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## Scarborough (Apr 20, 2010)

Fere said:


> I write what I know. I write what I've been through.



On a serious note, I tend to write what I "know" as well.

More accurately, I tend to write out emotions that I have experienced, but I don't tend to write my experiences in the same situations. I have experience at loss, solidarity, contentment, confusion, love, animus, irrational fears.

Which still doesn't fit in with the first story I remember writing, but it fits in with what I write now.


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## reian (Apr 20, 2010)

Mia, my first consistently used character, I'm not sure is related very much to me.  I think the only similar feelings we have were our feelings of loneliness and distrust.  Everything else is completely different, I feel.  But, I suppose, those two pieces are a very large part of her, so that pulls her closer to me.


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## Atrak (Apr 20, 2010)

Most of my main characters have a bit of me in them.

But then, I have a wide range of emotions and thoughts, so that's not hard to do.

My main human protagonist for one series is literally me.


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## Sovhiel (Apr 20, 2010)

My first story that I can recall was about a pair of hunters and a squirrel, beginning from the squirrel's perspective and shifting to the hunters. I suppose that situation reflects the (at the time hidden) furriness in me, but I don't feel that any significant parts of myself were invested in any of those characters.



Alexis said:


> Considering that its the author thats writing the story and nobody else (Normally), then I would say _every_ story is a reflection of yourself, thats what storywriting is at the end of the day


I think every story is a reflection of how the author views the world, that each piece of writing displays the issues and qualities the author thinks are most salient from his perspective, but I don't think this necessarily means that the author invests his own qualities into his characters or sets out to make his identity felt. In fact, the whole movement around the time of T.S. Eliot revolved around getting the reader to ignore the author's identity as much as possible. I think your expression is close in that authors want to express a _part_ of themselves to their audiences, but I don't think that part has to be a reflection of their entirety as a person.


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