Do your OC's reflect parts of your personality?

[Ellri]

If it's an alien, you consciously had to think about physical traits that were non-standard to you. Like asian-style eyes from a non-asian. So the answer is no, it doesn't count, but it does show that you thought about it.

Considering I was almost raped before in my childhood, I can write a rape scenario all fine and dandy, including and in great detail the actions of the rapist and the mindset of the victim, including the severe emotional and mental trauma afterwards. Do I think others whom weren't can do it justice? Yes. Do I think they can really and truly understand it? Fully?... I don't know. I haven't seen someone succeed at it yet.

Note: I have enough class to "black out" adult content for the sake of the forums and because, artistically, it's typically the tasteful thing to do.

Indeed. We just had to see your reaction to that (alien part). We did not really think it counted. (but we guess you figured that out)

Rape, if it is to be written about at all, should in our opinion be blacked out, with only a few words to indicate the harshness of it all. While not nice, it is a tool that pops up with less-than-nice characters in many fantasy settings.
Writing "his rape of her was harsh but not brutal" rather than going with "He ____ and then he ____ and..." (Without profane acts in spaces, naturally). The former is rather "clean", whereas the latter would be a detailed description that is far too much to write under most circumstances. If any of our characters should be in such a situation, we would go with the former, as the latter does not belong in polite society.

As a story tool, rape is a powerful means of portraying characters as cruel and evil.
But this discussion is starting to go away from the topic.

[Hellis]

Quick blurb opn the rape thing:
its something you should use with extree care. Some people have emotional traumas from it. Rape is a terrible crime, and is the definition of brutality. Few things are more violating. I say this a s afreind to no less then three women, all victims of the crime. That said, have I used it ina backstory. Once, I did not go into any detail, I did not describe it in any greater lenght. As bravo said, that would be distastefull, and I cannot myself fully comprehend the crime as the thought of it is alien to me. But I made sure to potray, as best as I could, the consequences and the scars it leaves. Becouse its important peopel understand that rape is truelly terrible. But I digress, that is not what the topic should be about.

I write characters at times, that extremely dark. Many times, these are based of some of my more depressive thought and ponderings. Many times, I try to challenge tried concpets or twist things so that they feel distinct from the fold. The balance here is not to make a magical, special Sue character, and a actually intersting character.

[Holeypaladin]

Some of my characters have a lot in common with me, and some of them are very, very different.

I've noticed, however, that it is much easier to keep the ones who have more in common with me as recurring characters in the same universe, as primary characters in a story, etc. and to use the ones who are very different from me more as secondary characters, as I have more difficulty writing things that I don't understand so well.

I will almost never use a female character as my primary character, as I cannot understand the mentality of women. They're just so completely alien and incomprehensible that when I do write them, which I must at times, especially as a GM, they tend to fill a more secondary nature and don't have the sort of complex personality I would prefer to shoot for with my main guys.

[makiaka]

A lot of my characters have personality traits of me or people i kmow well. For example i have two characters very similar to freind of mine yet totally different then me. There the exrreme ends juatify the means type character. While IRL i'd rather be beaten to a pulp theh have to hit someome, but there are also some characters similar to me like a electrid preistess who literally ask every so often if you wan'r to stop.

So i think it's more personalities you have experience with.

[realisticenamel]

I feel like I sometimes base characters off not who I am, but who I always wanted to be. The childhood ideal, tempered with an adult's knowledge and flaws. Taking that view of perfection and altering it into something both unrecognizable and yet fundamentally sound.

[Foster]

Um, yes.

Though sometimes I mask personality with a damaged past, awesome powers, or straight-up-wrong circumstances.

[Hound55]

I do find myself writing a large quantity of dirtbags, jerks and scumbuckets...


...so, yes.

[Nenha]

Eh, personally I do blend with my main characters quite a bit. I can't make them perfect for I am not. I also base them off people I meet and see. I like to base characters off certain core emotions as well and see where it will go. But for the most part if it is a character I will be using then I find it easier to write with said character if I have an interest. I don't have an interest in strangers. He/she doesn't need to be just like me. But it helps if they are similar. But flaws are my favorite thing to blend into a character.

[TheDesperado]

Just certain characters. Like my hero I created him from part of myself. I used to get bullied alot(Don't let the badass bandana fool you!) and never told anyone until it was too late. After hearing a lot of these kids getting bullied to death. It just made me so angry to see something like that. It reminded me just how bad it was. When I was in school. I just felt like I had to create a hero and put all these feelings hate, sadness, into one character. The memories just killing me inside. I guess kids getting bullied in school is the same as someone getting robbed or beat up. On the streets. Just hate seeing stuff like that.

[Jannah]

Some do, some don't. I suppose it's natural for people to find it easier writing about traits they themselves process since they would know from personal experience how it would affect them.