DANGER! Writing a Self-Insert in Your Novel
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- It's very common for writers to write a blatant self-insert character in your novel. Usually it's your first, and most don't get published. But some do! I'm covering the pros--& cons!--of that. It's best to move beyond self-inserts in order to level up as a writer.
I'm covering why self-inserts exist, how to stop writing them, and the pros and cons of them, as a concept!
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Note: This video isn't shade on any specific author, let alone any friends/peers of mine. It's a common writing issue, one that I've experienced myself, hence why I chose the topic. In the section about published books, I did have a few authors in mind, of course, and they are very well established, long-publishing authors (mostly outside YA). Please refrain from gossiping in the comments! Thank you :)
Didn't come across as shade to me, if it makes you feel any better! You are also very open about your own mistakes/habits/quirks in your videos, so they tend to sound like "here's what I have experienced and some ideas and suggestions you might want to consider" and not "I am the one true writing voice, obey me mortals".
I needed this, thank you
@@averytroester7364 Or just disable comments, as many RUclipsrs do with a potentially controversial video.
Not an author but your words opened my 👀 to a lot of fanfics so 😊
See, the nice thing about self-loathing is you can write a self-insert and it'll have plenty of flaws lol.
This me.
Yeah, I wrote myself into a TV show I’m developing and the character is kind of an asshole. 😂 I’m working out my demons.
Me.
also helps with character flaws that actualy make sense and are not just added so no one can claim you wrote a mary sue ^^
it's not loathing, it's what makes us human
all my characters are versions of myself, in a broad sense
Same goes for me in a way. I have some characters in a story that’s been evolving for about three years. Not long ago I realised that in one way or another I see myself in them, yet they’re all very different, and highly flawed people. Made me think. 🤔
Everyone writes basicly about different facettes of themselfs, things that go through their minds and people and things they have encountered seen through their eyes . . . just in varying levels of subtility and complexity or lack thereof.
Samwell Tarly from GoT/asoiaf is very clearly an autobiographical character of the author grrm. But he is not just that, he playes a role, he fits into the story and most importendty he does not fall into the trap of powerfantasy wishfulfillment. Grrm also has a few events from his past you will find again and again in his works and that is not a bad thing in itself.
To write a convincing character, they need layers and to get layers that make sense, you need to be able to relate to said character. They do not need to be copies of you to have a strong trade you chare, you can up and down the intensity of certain traits shared, you can reshuffle them, go into what iff scenarios what ever. Parts you hide usualy, the little nagging voice inside your head personified . . . pretty much all my characters have aspects of me and compareing two or 5 you would not know . . .
I do not get jalousy, it is just a thing that makes no sense to me . . . but maybe my character needs to be jalouse. In that case I search for a related emotion I can relate to and use that one to approach the situation, maybe feeling protectiv over someone, the fear of lonelyness . . . with that lense, by adding or finding one of my traits in the character I can write them way more convincingly than just . . . try to copy what someone else wrote on jalousy
she said that
Dante's Inferno is a giant self insert.
Lemme have fun okay.
Dude wrote a 3 book series self-insert.
LET US LIVE.
I think I tend to unintentionally write self inserts that are people who I wish I was. Not necessarily who I am, but who I strive to be. It’s something I’m constantly working on!
Every video you call me out. Every single one. It's a welcome agony.
Thanks for making this! I'm 23 and working on my first novel, which is 1000% a self-insert, and I had taken a step away from it because it just felt too on-the-nose. I really appreciate your tip to change one defining characteristic and make it the opposite of mine. I think it'll help a lot and also make it more interesting for me to think "what would this character to?" as opposed to "what would I do?" and create new unexpected conflict.
I like the approach: take a trait from yourself. exaggerate it. make it the core. any other trait that contradicts the chosen trait must be removed, maybe with the exception of one so you may balance out a bit. no one is angry all the time even if the trait is "has anger issues". those people do have glimpse of happy and relaxed. after that, try to be friends/enemies with said character without changing the core. if chosen to be enemy, make sure to give something likable to character (no one is all evil). if chosen to be friends, make sure to give something unlikable (every friend have an annoying habit, including you).
This is actually pretty good. You should be the one making videos.
I think the problem does not necessarily arise when you base a character on yourself but when you inevitably write a fantasy wish-fulfillment version of yourself, without the necessary distance you'd have from another character. She's not just blond and blue eyed, she has golden hair and sapphire orbs (bonus points for purple prose here). You're a decent athlete, she won the Olympics. Everybody loves her, and people who disagree with her all turn out to be dead wrong. (Basically the problem with self insert is that they are a sub-category of Mary Sue who happen to be based directly on the author.)
Writing a character who's very much like you can produce good results... if you're honest about your flaws and mishaps. It's hard though, because it demands a lot of introspection, and accepting that criticism about the character will to some extent be about you as well. And of course, that's a stunt you'll be able to do only once, or you'll end up having identical characters in two novels.
Though I agree with Alexa's advice in general, I think it can be interesting to tweak your self-insert by making them *more* like yourself, flaws and all, instead of a perfect dream version of you.
absolutely agree with you. great points!
It’s true that this can be done even in a good way only once. But there is also a potential problem that an author might not be a very interesting person. I’m generalizing here a bit but I get an impression that we the authors are usually introverts who like to stay at home and read/write and that makes for a rather boring not proactive character, especially if it’s the main character.
I read a book that had a fantasy wish fulfillment self insert Mary Sue. The character had all of these accomplishments, including 9 academic degrees or something like that. The book also had some really nasty subtext, like that if a woman was sexually assaulted she brought on herself, same if people got sick. If the MC yelled at someone and lost her temper, the person she yelled at would come to her after and thank her for telling them something they needed to hear! The whole book came across as sociopathic and narcissistic. I was reading the book for a book club.
I honestly am debating, whenever I write my story, if I would do a self-insert because I would always think that it could be fun for me that I could interact with my ocs even if it's scripted and indirect.
My only problem is once I make a self-insert, I would usually put her as a background character if the SI is very flesh out from myself (I, more or less, have self-awareness) or the main lead if the story is based on my what-if imaginations (especially "another world" genre). And if my SI is one of the main characters but not the lead, I tend to separate the SI from myself and make the SI into a different OC, like my SI Corentine that later became a different character after some realizations.
a handbook for mortals
This video is 100% NEEDED. A book just came out that I was so excited for, and it was just a self insert and it felt so... unnerving that I felt I knew the author bc of their booktube when they should be a stranger to me bc I never met them and I felt reading it was like me stalking them? It didn't sit well with me :( Thank you for this video! I've been writing since 2005 and self publishing since 2012 and I have been greatly enjoying your videos!
I think you’re talking about the same book that I’m thinking of and I feel the EXACT SAME WAY. I was so disappointed because I expected much better coming from a booktuber...
I don’t mind self inserts as long as it doesn’t become wish fulfillment. Once it becomes clear to me that the author is living their best life through their character I give up. But I think self inserts are good for exploration. I wrote my own to help cope with somethings in life.
sgree, aso basieng characters on trits you have can be a great benifit for writeing characters that are naturaly flowed, for with things you do and experienced youself, you know how they work. What problems arise, where they get missunderstood, what the pitfalls are . . . those little details that make it feel real, you can not write something compleatly foreign to you or even observed the same way
When you said "You are Cady" I was like O_O but then you finished your sentence and I realized you weren't suddenly taking specifically to me lol
One of the two main characters of my first novel was a total self-insert, and I agree it was really important to my development as a writer! I kind of knew that that's what I was doing (I had written a "how to write a Mary Sue" for a specific fandom on FF.N a year or two before haha), so I made the other main character a total foil to her; where she was naïve and honest and confident he was jaded, a compulsive liar, and shy/hesitant--someone I was pretty sure I couldn't get along with in real life. And to make it even more complicated, I made them childhood best friends, so they had had a hand in shaping each other into who they were. That gave the self-insert character something to bounce off of (soooo many misunderstandingsss), and me a nice headache trying to write the foil. It uh...actually influenced me into befriending someone like the male main character, which led to a whole lot of life experience (good and not so good).
"You are katie" *snaps to attention* "At the end of Mean Girls."
Every time.
I think self-inserts can be really cathartic and help the writer understand themselves better but I agree. I think if you want to write a character that keeps you, the writer, interested, you have to challenge yourself and try to write about someone you don’t know. It can help you build an intriguing plot and you might come up with unpredictable plot twist that even shocks you.
Self inserts are like a diary. They’re fun, they let you live your dream but they’ll probably be too embarrassing and too private to let everyone read.
This video is more than educational, it's therapeutic. Yes, therapeutic. I love that you refer to the self-insert as something that writers need to *get out of their system* as opposed to being a total fail and not being worthy of calling myself a writer. I have been really hung up on this project I've been working on for years. It's my first fiction project ever and it's fanfic and you've given me a feeling of validation about my writing and being a writer.
If a writer manages to write a good self-insert, then more power to them. I don't really care if it's a self-insert as long as the character is well written, nuanced, and just as deep and three dimensional as the writer is as a person. Given the long and time honored tradition of mediocre white men writing self inserts and then being buried to death in publishing money, I think literally everyone else is basically entitled to as much self insert-y goodness as they want. As long as it's done WELL. I think a person with a LOT of self-awareness and dedication to confronting their own flaws can write a really quality self-insert -- but then, at that point it should be difficult to tell that it is in fact a self-insert, and discovering that the character is based on the author should be a small surprise.
But if you write a bad self-insert that's just self-aggrandizing nonsense (and get it published), you deserve a little mockery for putting yourself in that position.
Same for casting someone you know or admire as the love interest. Don't care. If that character is nuanced and interesting and also really sexy in a way that's specific to the author's taste, then... good! Yes! Write all the hot people! I like when hot people do stuff for my entertainment, like stand in front of cameras and be in books. I kinda like it when I can tell who a character's appearance is based on in real life, because I feel like it's a charming easter egg that connects me to the author. (Plus, I have a hard time visualizing people sometimes without a reference, so if I can tell that your main character is based on, like, Oscar Isaac or something, that makes MY life easier and my experience better.) As long as that character is also A CHARACTER and fits in the world, I'm cool with it.
Buuuut if you based the romantic lead on your husband and it feels like you gave up on characterization in favor of giving me a window into some personal stuff that you probably shouldn't be sharing with me, then that's... much. It's much.
Agree! And where the husband/partner as LI thing can backfire is there are a few famous cases where authors clearly did this... and then the relationship soured and suddenly the romance in the books changed haha.
agree, salfaware use of the biggest resource you got, yourself, can be actualy a big benifit to your writeing. Like giveing the character realistic flawes that actualy arise from their stengths and other traits instead of beeing chosen randomly or out of convinieance.
You know how it feel, you know what is the motivation behind an action that might not be bvious from the outside, but will make sense if explained. You know the drawbacks of a trait and how it will impact ones life, what problems it causes and all those little details add layers that make a character feel real. You know what could have lead to a certain scenario, how one feels in this or that situation . . .just play around with different aspecst to prevent it form beeing to repetativ and do not glorefy them or warp the whole world for some wishfulfilment.
Every novel already has a cryptic self-insert: reality. You control the causality and logic. You fabricate coincidences. You punish mistakes.
So if you add a(nother) self-insert, you now have a character who is completely aligned with reality, and that ends up being a kind of plot armor on steroids.
I'm in the planning stages of a Fiction Novel and this video was very helpful.
Q: describe yourself in three words!
A: "A deranged alcoholic?" -)))
Like in Disco Elysium: basically, you know from the get-go that the story is going to F-ckland, never therefrom to return. ))
The most blatant self-insert I've ever seen is Bella Swan, from the way she looks to where she lived in Arizona and went to ballet school. SMeyer is open about Twilight being inspired by a fantasy dream she had with a teen vampire in a field who wanted to kill her. A lot of people say that Bella is so very bland so that the reader can insert themselves, but I think the reason she's so bland is because SMeyer knows herself and didn't think about making sure everyone else knew her as well. It's also clear that some of Bella's friends are based on people SMeyer knew in real life. There's info missing on why this person is treated well in the book, and that one gets dumped on. She knows that stuff, but didn't make sure we even had vague reasons.
I intentionally avoid self-inserts. My life has had a lot of things I'd rather not think about. An extraordinary large part of my life, including all my teen and pre-teen years, were in hospitals, and before that, I was bullied to the point of being suicidal. The drama of my adult life is worse, and includes witnessing suicide. So I intentionally avoid making characters like me. Looks, personality, life story, etc. To be frank, I avoid writing characters anything like me or my life because there is far too much trauma, and part of why I write is to step out of my life for a while. I've got as far as going to Europe alone for a couple months so I could go write on the subways. As far out of my life as possible.
The one parallel there will likely always be is no close relationships between a female protag and her parents, at least that's seen much on camera.
i'm sorry about that and i hope you are doing well now... maybe this website can provide comfort jw.org
book becoming a best seller
Hey Alys! your comment struck a chord with me. I just started writing again after being on an almost 10 year hiatus. I’m actually doing the exact opposite. I’m writing a modern character driven tragedy. And I find pulling experiences, trama, and general life knowledge from my own life and experiences make my characters feel more real. Also, a side note. As morbid as it sounds your story would be great on paper. The synopsis you gave of your life intrigued me.
"The reason she's so bland is because SMeyer knows herself and didn't think about making sure everyone else knew her as well." Whoa. You're so right.
The first chapter was one of the worst I have ever seen. I have seen better first chapters in first drafts
I’d been binge watching writing tips videos from your channel recently, and all of them (at least the ones I checked) were from one or two years ago.
You can imagine how pumped I was when I realised you were still uploading, and pretty frequently too.
This channel is fantastic.
*coughs loudly in the direction of Handbook for Mortals* ;)
Emily McCosh yesss I’m living for this comment
@@briaresterline5008 *takes a bow*
I was like "Gee, I hope no one name calls in the comments" and then this happened and I was like "never mind, this was 1000% deserved."
@@amy-suewisniewski6451 Yeah I'd apologize except I'm not sorry. Not even a little. :D
There's a fine line between writing a self insert and writing about your own experiences. I want to write a story similar to mine. I want the themes to be the same but I don't want the character to be me. I have to consciously decide what parts of me I want to share in my novel. It's super difficult but this video helped me understand how I can do it.
I never thought about giving all my characters a piece of myself, that's really good advice.
Most blatant self-inserts are super cringy. A few ones were hugely successful though like Bella in Twilight, Clary in Mortal instruments, Louis and later Lestat in the Vampire chronicles (Anne Rice freely admits it) and nonetheless Lestat is my favourite male fictional character of all times
It really stands and falls on how you do it. To some degree, every author writes selfinsert, our characters are formed from our thoughts aso of cause that fact shapes them with what qualities they get and all just out of what we know and can relate too.
Samwell Tarly is a very clear authobiografical character of the author grrm and he is great. He fits into the story, the world does not warp around him, he deals with issues that feel real, because they where . . . there is nothing wrong with knowingly working with your own feelings and experiences as long as you do it in a way that is selfaware and not blantant wishfullfilment and do not write the exact same character again and again without change
tbh that’s what i defo would do, it’s so hard to make other people, so make all your characters a part of you then stretch them out and build them around that trait until it eventually becomes another person
Something one of my favorite authors said is that every character needs something that _she_ can connect to, there’s a background character in her series who later became a POV, and at first she really struggled because the character was too different. So she added a strong paranoia to the character, caused by:
The death/murder of her mother
Another kingdom attacking their own
Her inheriting the throne (as a teenager)
An enchanted crown that causes hate and paranoia towards certain things (a bit cheap in the story, but she wrote it during the pandemic so I forgive the book’s flaws)
So she became very paranoid and scared, and that was something the author could relate to, even while the rest of the character would disagree with her on many things.
i always put a piece of me in very thing. But it feels natural because if I'm writing a book my beliefs and ideas are going to be on display without me even trying.
I avoid this but I do sometimes give experiences of mine to other characters.
I think Self inserts can also be a powerful tool. If you do them right. Focus on your weaknesses, your internal conflict and maybe also trauma. The emotions buried, that you are afraid to express. And than write them, honestly. Your books become therapeutic to yourself and they become more true. Because that is what fiction is about for me- expressing a truth.
agree
11:41 Great tip. It gives you a reason to expand the character as well as learning something new for yourself.
I am working on the 2nd draft of my first novel and it's a story based on events I actually experienced - altered into an actual storyline with arcs and structure. The main character is in many ways a self-insert. However, the story's pretty dark and dramatic and she doesn't get a whole lot of wish fulfillment.
I found this video helpful as I have been brainstorming ways to set her apart from me (other than physical appearance) so that she's not blantantly "me."
I may be the only one thinking like that, but when the story comes to portray actual events, even if with some changes, it's okay for it to be just you. My friend also told me she wants to write about her experience, not something documentary, but more a story like. If that's what you're aiming for, maybe you shouldn't change it. It's your life, after all. If you just take these experiences as references... that's a bit different.
@@sharonefee1426 Thank you! :) I feel like many aspects of my personality contributed to the events that inspired the story, so she has to be at least mostly like me or the story would make less sense. So I'm trying to think outside the box on little aspects I can change, so this video was interesting to me.
in most cases, readers do not know enough about an author to notice a selfinsert, you just need to be comfortable with what you putout there for people will definitly critique it no matter waht you do. If it will hurt you, keep it safe!
All my characters are in one way or anlother based on at least aspects of me, but with rearrangeing most people would not notice or compareing 2 to 5 characters . . . but compareing all of them one probaby could very well tell who I am, but who does that ^^
@@SingingSealRiana Exactly what I've been doing writing my first story. I take these flaws I notice in me or people complain about(too many, honestly) and give one or two to each character. Idk, just helps me feel confident that the characters at least somewhat feel like real people
List of historical authors who used self-inserts in their novels (though not *blatantly*)
Jean Paul Sartre - Nausea
Herman Hesse- Steppenwolf (along with his many other novels)
Dostoevsky- Notes from Underground
Emily Brontë- Wuthering heights (which also included minor wish fulfillment through Catherine’s toxic romance with Heathcliff)
Of course there are many other authors who use self inserts, but IMO it’s ok to have a self insert so long as the character isn’t blatantly you, and he/she is used to convey a great story and idea.
I shared your video on my fanfiction Tumblr, and that sucker took off. Your words are reaching us. Thank you for all the advice.
Thank you for sharing!!! Fanfic writers are my people ha.
I like that you allowed for getting one out of your system. We I was younger, I totally did this, but thankfully I've seen the cons of it as I got older. This is all really great advice!
When I read the title my muscles tensed up reflexively. The times i've thought of putting a self-insert into something I beat myself up for even thinking of it.
I think there's always going to be pieces of the author in a character. We write about what we know and through the lens of our own experiences. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. However, I did learn about how to tell an "emotional truth" in fiction versus the truth, which would probably get me sued. :) I try to express ideas that are close to my heart, but in a way that doesn't scream "this literally happened to me!"
. . . I am kind of pissed at how demonised solid writing from own experience got over bad examples of wishfullfilling writing. As long as you do not warp reality around an autobiographical character and they actualy have a role to play, there is nothing wrong with writeing them. A good example of a selfincert character is Samwell Tarley from A song of ice and fire
@@bunnyrose9525 true, everyone does it, just more or less subtil and it is actualy a great tool to write layered and realistic characters if you base them on real feelings, traits you understand and therefor also know what flawes and problems naturaly arise from it.
@@SingingSealRiana , right. I think that, in some cases, it's a matter of the author's personality playing a part in determining her writing voice. I don't see a problem with it. Different authors have a different vibe, and I think some jealousy plays a role in that demonization. Not everyone looks great in green. :)
I really love the positive outlook you have on things like this! It is a step I think every writer goes through. It's all part of the process, right? 📚❤
self insert done right: the shack. it wasn't a vanity wish fulfillment project, but as a way to explain his screwed up past/journey to forgiveness to his family in a metaphor format. finding out his story made it so much more meaningful
I love your videos just because you tend to give the less talked about tips!
Alexa, you are so bright. I’ve learned so much from you in the last six months or so. Thank you !!!
She is bright, and her points are on fire! In fact, you could say she's, Brightly Burning!!!!
I'm sorry, I'll show myself out...
@@amy-suewisniewski6451 I wish she commented more {replying} in the comment section of her videos. 😪💬👩🏫🧠
I think my way of getting self-insert out of my system every now and then is to do it in fanfic rather than my original works. Kind of like a stress relief where I can be interacting with some of my favourite characters and whatnot.
interessting, I would not ever add a selfinsert into an ff, for there they totaly will warp reality around them. In my own work the world growes with them in mind so they fit in and do not push someone else out of their spot.
@@SingingSealRiana Some ff self-inserts don't take anyone's specific roles, it's more so like a comfort escapism tactic where you're in a world where you can be whoever you want and you get to meet your favourite characters whilst doing so. Everyone's self-inserts in ff work differently; some want to be a part of the story itself, others just want to hang out with their faves. Some people have very difficult parts of their lives where self-insert is about the only freedom they can give or allow themselves, and not every ff writer wants to go off and do their own original works either.
My main characters aren't self-inserts, I've never been a fan and if I did it when I was a kid, it wasn't intentional, but I don't remember any of my protagonists being just like me. At most, a little bit of me will go into every character. But sometimes when I get feedback, the assumption is that the protagonists ARE self-inserts and sometimes people are surprised I think a certain way and I'm like, "But it's not me, it's my character. My character's world views, personality and desires are not necessarily my own." This is frustrating because I don't want readers to assume I am my main characters, especially when it comes to their flaws or when they make a choice that I never would. If I'm going to do a blatant self-insert character, it's probably going to be a side character, like the main character's best friend or something but I haven't done that yet. But I have written characters blatantly based on people I know or have known.
Hi
Thanks for being you. I listened to your channel on the treadmill yesterday during a break in writing. I could figure out what I was doing wrong, and you figured it out for me. Writing like crazy now!
My self-insert was a guy, and it was through him I discovered that I'm more comfortable with non-female pronouns! Glad I got that out of my system, though.
I have a question, too, and you seem like the best person to ask. I live in Norway, but I write in English and would like to publish in the US or UK. Do I just query like usual in this case and add that I live in Norway? Thank you for always making me itch to write!
I also tend to write about gu characters despite... not being one. And sometimes I see verbs of female in their speech (and in Hebrew there's so much difference!).
I realized years later that the first fantasy series I wrote was a self-insert. It took me like 4 books before I realized I was doing it and I scrapped the entire series before it got published (thank goodness)
But but... isn't it a bit too sad to just get rid of all of it? Maybe there's a chance of saving it. At least in some way... 4 books are a lot!
@@sharonefee1426 yeah . . . also, as long as it is done well, there is nothing wrong with writing an authobiografical character
Great video. I loved the advice and the positive words about teens and young women in the end. I am so happy that i subscribed to your channel!
Have you ever considered making podcasts? I love listening to this stuff, especially since you explain it in such a good way.
She has a podcast! It's with 2 other authortube writers, and is called NovelTea (and imo it's really quite great ^_^ )
It's also the place where she does live shows, here's a link to their last one: ruclips.net/video/5CxQ-IMpRP0/видео.html
(Unrelated, but I kind of love that the YT sharelink looks like it ends in "I'm Pro" lol)
I'm designing a character that I can relate to, but he's one of two main POV's.
The first thing I asked myself was how I wanted them to develop as people. I thought of key events where they change, asked myself what I wanted them to become from then on, and designed their earlier versions based on that. Kind of a retrospective character development.
I definitely see similarities in all the characters I make, but I wanted them to feel like people nobody had ever met before.
Oddly enough, I wanted the two main POV's to have little choice in what they do, and express their character and development in how they react to it. I figured that forcing them to react would be more expressive than just letting them make too many choices, considering people tend to avoid problems.
Love your series, you've got a great down to earth approach which is lovely when you've got so many 'artsy' writers. Thinking back to my first novel there is a DEFINITE self insert that I don't think I even realised I'd put in there. Love the idea of flipping the personality traits or interests to make you consider characters more empathetically.
My favorite method of self insert is giving a character a flaw of mine that NEEDS to be addressed (or one I've already adressed), because those are the realest conflicts in and of myself-the first concept I often get of a new project is one of my own flaws blown up and stretched around to fit into a different person.
I'm writing my first novel. It is very intentionally a self-fulfillment self-insert. Now I'm thinking about going back and changing a few things. I'm glad I saw your video before I finished my book!
Great advice. It's advisable to have your character share aspects of your personality, which makes it easier to empathize as you write them, until you grow enough that you can write more fully outside your own experience. The MC of my first published novel shares a few of my characteristics, such as my love of reading, but she's physically the opposite of me and socially/emotionally a much more cautious and suspicious person. She's also more impulsive and prone to sarcasm, where my humor is on the goofy side.
It's actually really interesting when you sit down and make those comparisons and realize what a complex person you've created!
Hi, Alexa! I'm an aspiring author, and I love your videos. My earliest books were definitely massive self inserts. I wrote my me-based characters all through elementary school and middle school. In high school, I finally took a step back and made my characters different from myself. I think it is an important part to put something deeply personal into a character, like a question you ask yourself, a painful experience you've endured, or a dark thought that has been looming in the back of your mind. These types of characters always have the most weight in a book.
I love your channel and will definitely watch more!
My bestie/co-author and I were discussing a similar issue recently. As we've been going through round after round of edits, we have both become aware of the fact that we've idealized our favorite characters quite a bit, and I'm not talking about just our MCs. It probably has a lot to do with how we created them in the first place. (Most of them started out as fanfic characters.) We are now working to inject more reality into them, give them flaws, make them not get along with each other as well as they currently do, etc. The tips you give in this video apply in our situation as well. We've been in love with our characters for many, many years. They feel like family to us, and we both feel that we know them inside out. We just need to remember that our readers don't know them yet as well as we do, so we need to do a little looking from the outside in and see them through the reader's eyes a bit more. Thanks for this very helpful video! 😊
Thank you. This advice has helped so much. Recently started watching your videos and I love them. Thank you again for the advice.
Very helpful video. You convinced me to allow a self insert. I'm new to writing. So far character development has been the weakness in my short stories. Maybe by embracing an intentional self insert I can learn the process of creating a deep and believable character. i'm excited about this!
Even characters that are similar to yourself can be different from you. I have a character who is introverted, lacks a lot of self confidence, and is anxious, like myself. He also likes history, reading, and writing, like me. But he's not the same as me. His anxiety is a little different than mine, his self confidence is a lot worse, his personality is a LOT more sarcastic and generally snarky. He doesn't just LIKE history as I do, he's a total nerd about it and can spew all sorts of random facts. He reads more nonfiction and poetry than fiction, and writes poetry instead of novels. I can't write poetry, I hate trying, and it doesn't interest me that much anyways. I also don't like nonfiction. He likes school and enjoys learning, while I fricking hate school and would, no exaggeration, rather die than go through it again! He's a character that I relate to, but isn't the same as me. We're even opposites is a few ways.
Not to say that this is something you should do all the time, but writers wanting to go from self inserts to completely different characters can use this kind of thing as a bridge. This character was kind of a bridge for me. I was never writing characters that were super self inserty, but the very first ones were basically my ideal person, and were actually really bland imo.
This is really helpful, thank you! This video gives me a lot of ideas
I was a newspaper writer. The stories were as I saw them. It was hard to look at things through other eyes. I had great professors and old notebooks. Both were essential to break newspaper habits. Your advice is great. Thanks for all of your great work. You 're also an excellent speaker with a wonderful ability smile.
I love you. You're the only author I've found so far that doesn't shame fanfiction. I feel seen.
When you said "you are Katie" before you said at the end of mean girls, I kinda jumped a little, kinda like a fourth wall break cause that's actually my name 😆
I think to be able to write a self insert well you have to be accutely self aware, especoally when it comes to your flaws 💜 Great video!
Can you do a video on Wattpad? Submitting work, copywrite, and the process.
Wattpad is a pyramid scheme. Don't waste your time / put your content in danger. Listen to Alexa and try to get an agent, and after some time... try self publishing. Wattpad is a shady shady company.
@@Agentmg17 Really? So far I've only had good experiences with it. What's so shady about it? And it's not a pyramid (as in, you have to). Often people want read-for-read, but far from everyone.
@@SysterYster I've been on the app since 2012. I help run a fandom of 61k+ fans across multiple platforms, our writer gets 100k notifications a day. I personally know Ambassadors. I edit for writers on and off WP. I receive indie and trad books for review months before publishing. I'm in multiple writer grouos. So I know quite a few people in the industry, I know my way around WP. I have literal screenshots of internal conversations and training manuals. The shady shit that goes down with that company can fill an encyclopedic set
Just some of the shadiness:
- giving a Watty to an employee's mom
- the abnormally large percentage of the Watty winners are from Toronto
- the time they tried to force a Star to make her book an audio, even though it hadn't been edited
- the time the deleted thousands of votes so a Star could squeak into 3rd place
- the time they had a Star's plagiarist also win a Watty the same year she won
- Ambs caught harassing/intimidating a minor on FB
- the time Ambs made fun of reader questions left on their messageboard
- all the times they delete chapters, books, or accounts without warning, notification or explanation, before or after the fact. Something Ambs have even complained about. A lot of what I'm mentioning has been brought up by some "good" Ambs.
- the fact that they train Ambs to ignore rule breaking by Stars & other Ambs
- the lawsuit that's going up against them for denying DMCA takedown notices from photographers who's work is all over WP
- the fact that they could easily install anti-plagiarism software like colleges & grammarly have, but chose not to
- the times they've been caught looking at DMs
- taking away PRIVATE when it's one of the few protections against some piracy & mirror sites
- not implementing a BLOCK button like Twitter though we have begged for years
- the lack of notifying writers that their work has been posted on Amazon when they were notified
- taking accounts without permission or notification & making them a WP community account
- shadow blocking/rating books. That's when they flag your book without you knowledge & you basically get buried in the search menu. No one will find you unless they type in your name or sometimes only if they are following you already.
- the time a group of 8 Ambs said, "now the real judging begins" after the short list was made and the other ambs got upset. Now we all know the "algorithm" chooses the short list.
- the time the algorithms choose a bunch of books that did not fit the basic requirements. As in, one was a book with one sample page. Page riddled with mistakes & made no sense. Which leads most of us to think that they actually choose winners and then let the algorithm pick some to hide the actual winners they want.
- the lack of transparency on how monies are divided & who and how folks get paid. Who are all the Stars, Ambs, Futures, Paid people? Where is a list? What percent do they get from ads, premium, etc.
- Ambs don't necessarily work for free. Some get plane tickets & accommodations, depending on their status, some make money from running contests for companies like Target, Marvel, etc. I've heard some make $15/hr, paid by the companies & not WP, and they also get swag.
- did you know that during these Wattys, Paid stories (100?) will compete for 5 spots & everyone else (300k) will compete for 50? Do the math, the ratios aren't fair.
- how about the lawsuit from an ex-Amb about how she was called a derogatory term for being Irish by another Amb & instead of WP or stepping up... she was terminated for speaking up. Plus, her email was spammed so badly she couldn't use ther laptop, until she stated publically that she was working with the authorities.
- or all the other people deleted or threaned with deletion for speaking out, or making books explaining how users can protect themselves from bullying, plagiarism, etc
- that new open genre system, the ranking system, etc etc.... that's meant to bury everyone. Writers that used to be ranking daily, no longer can. Why? WP only wants you to see what's on their main page aka paid stories.
- did you know that many Stars, and Paid writers get help with editing, with covers, workshops, and even received pep talks via phone? Yeah, and behind the scenes many (not all) are asshat. They think they are self made & better than other WP writers. The reality is that if everyone else left... readers would too.
- glitching.... most glitching is done on purpose to get you to switch to premium.
- most employees do not even use the app
- they got rid of the "activity section" to jid the misdoings of their ambs, stars, etc. Also, to hide the inactivinty of accounts.
- WP has been caught making fake accounts to boost their numbers
- they lie on all books and in interviews, claiming that books like "Chasing Red" get millions of reads, but don't explain that reads are calculated by chapters & that's books can have as many as 200 chapters.
- every new user is asked to pick at least 3 books, and the lost usually has their chosen few, which is another thing they do to handicap competition.
- they've been known to black ball ex employees, Ambs, etc
- the time they were notifying someone that their book would be deleted if they didn't edit out a not very smutty scene........ From a chapter that wasn't even published. As in, the look inside your drafts.
- the times they told people that their timestamp meant nothing, because it could be altered, when they tried to take a plagiarist down.
- they way in which they trick young/naive writers to think that publishing with them equals copyright
- their complete and total disregard for trademarks, copyright, etc
- the ton of literal porn and creepy underage stuff that we all see, but for some reason WP doesn't
- the anti-bullying account that had kids begging for help.... that no one checked for months until I started posting screenshots on twitter
- the time a website (StoryDownloader) kept trying to get WPs attention for 3 years, because WP had a system that was open to piracy. They showed how they could download tons of stories on seconds and in different editable formats, and then took the website down when a shit load of writers contacted them to stop. WP then claimed they had been the ones to take down the website... no. And it can be proven that WP lied about knowing SD, about the flaw SD had pointed out, & that SD had in fact taken themselves down, because (again) internal conversations.
- slowly, writers are leaving, and if they are still on it's to promote themselves elsewhere. Or they were deleted and just decided not to come back again. There is an exodus.
- rare is there an Amb or Star that got to where they are on merit and good intentions. Most are climbers that mooched off others in one way or another. I remember one of them use to follow my fandom and as my writer to shout her out, but when WP turn their eyes towards her.... suddenly we were all unfollowed and she only followed WP accounts. Rarely talked to readers. She got a Watty later that year. Her series is a bloated mess.
- why can't writers get tips? Some claim that it's to avoid paying fanfic, but they have no problem having ads in fanfic or publishing fanfic.
- talking about ads.... most readers do not know that the vast majority of writers do not get paid from ads. It's like less than 150. And I believe they are phasing the Futures program out.
- Ambs have many powers like closing tickets, yet their identities aren't verified like an employee's would. They just have to be 18, been a user for 6 months, willing to work for 4 hours a week. So basically your bully can make a fake account, wait 6 months, apply, and delete your tickets, either directly or by influence get you or you book deleted. (Senior Ambs can delete.) Your plagiarist can look at your drafts and publish first.
I could keep going, but I'll leave it at this.
How is this a pyramid scheme/MLM? Only the ones at the top make any money. Everyone else is sold a lie and they waste time and effort. Time = money. Time we spend reading, writing, communing with fans, or even being Ambs. WP has outsourced it's business to us. They don't produce or sell anything. We do it for them.
@@SysterYster also..... if things were so great, why would people at the top leave? Why would they admit that their Watty award is a sham?
@@Agentmg17 I don't know. Why are you there if you know all this?
As someone who has based characters off myself a LOT, love your idea of giving them one trait that is your polar opposite. Challenge accepted!
This is why I hate Autobiographies. The genre is absolutely FULL of self-inserts.
I think that Sarah J. Maas ACOTAR series might be the most successful example of self-insert in modern fiction. I read the books first, then found out how much the heroine, her choices etc. were mirroring Sarah’s life. A bit scary😅
I think Jonh Green's Looking for Alaska is the most successful example. 😜
I like Samwell Tarly from asoiaf but suspect that dantes inferno might be the most sucsessful selfinsert story
Just watched the beginning of the video and had to think about Stephenie Meyer so much
Onision has joined the chat.
Careful, he will copy-strike your comment and take you to court. Gotta pay for those wetlands you know.
Hello, fellow DSA member.
Yes, my first novel was a self insert to help process trauma. It was very therapeutic 💗
I must have beef with myself because my self insert goes through HELLLL 😅😅
Thanks for posting this. It's been really helpful.
I appreciate this video and agree with the comments for the most part. I do think though that others judging the difference between you making a character opposite or unlike you and how that is being seen by the public is directly proportionate to your own self-awareness and how others may see you. If I make a character thinner than me is it wish fulfilment? Where we draw these distinctions is very complex and extremely nuanced I think. Perhaps it is simply not to be obvious about writing ourselves as the protagonist in great detail? Great video with lots of food for thought. Thank you.
The idea of putting myself into a story is so far away, I didn't even realize what a self-insert was for while. XD Now, of course, all my characters have something from me... it would be impossible to not have it that way. I can't get out of my own head after all. But not my full self.
"writing is ultimately an exercise in empathy" wow ❤
The best and only good example of a self insert character
Rohan
I LOVE the Mean Girls metaphor! I've actually noticed that I'm better at writing characters who are the opposite to me. Now I'm wondering what that means about my wish fulfillment, lol.
Self inserts can be done well but some times .... lol
So this video actually opened my eyes to something I had been doing. This will sound a bit depressing, but I realize if I were to be a character in a novel I would be the most boring thing to read. I've never been super happy with how I act or how anxious I get doing most things so in an attempt to constantly keep the readers attention my characters are basically anti-self inserts. I took a quick look over what I had so far and it wasn't horrible (I think? I'm biased of course!), but it felt almost plastic in a sense. I realize now that although they are surface level interesting they aren't realistic level interesting. I had been avoiding putting in any of my own personal traits so much, that I was missing out on a whole world of characterization that I could, and should, be using! The part where you compared breaking up the crown and throwing them at your characters really struck a chord with me. I never really understood what authors meant when they said characters write their own story because I had been forcing the story on them. Now that the characters are a little more fleshed out writing a scene which would have before been a simply brunch, ended up with someone dead. Once the scene was finished I had to stop, look at my hands, look at where their individual character note cards were, and just ask "what did y'all just do?".
I feel like it also depends on how you see yourself too. If you are strict with yourself or you have wisdom, but it is not suitable to be use in the modern world, by self inserting yourself, you can express what you cannot express in real life in your books. Self-inserting is a powerful tool if you do not use it just for a ridiculous wish fulfillment. You bare yourself to the readers, and they can get to know who you are without even spoken a word.
I find myself quite often using my own personal shame to flesh out my characters a bit more. Things I've done that I'm ashamed of, personal traits that I'd rather not possess (I'm the third one in three generations of raging narcissists in my family, so yeah) and various physical insecurities (the uglier the better). I don't use it as THE DEFINING TRAIT (mostly), but rather something that makes me relate better to the inner workings of my characters.
Honestly, I rarely give my characters any good traits that I think may be my own, I usually look at what I admire about other people and try to use that.
There are many aspects of myself in my MC, Lucy, and slightly more in her younger sister, Sarah. But I definitely believe that parts of ourselves should appear in various characters - and, in fact, almost inevitably will. As with including traits from other people we know, the trick is to mix it up. When I used to put real people into my early stories (when I was a kid, note), I would often use the real person's initial, or a name in some way connected to them in my mind, such as their middle name. Yes, well - maybe not advisable, for works you intend to publish. 😃💝
I loved your insights with this video. My first series looks at people who really lived, hundreds of years ago, though the history is filtered though my imagination making is absolutely fiction. However, these people not only lived, I have their DNA (beginning 10 generations back). For that reason I searched through physical traits, habits, talents of family I know and love for things I could add to my characters. It made it fun to search for ways that trait may have started. But now I want to go back and double check that no one is a blatant self-insert. You got me thinking! Thanks!
Having only read the reviews of a certain book tubers book the title made me chuckle. I'll believe you when you say no shade. The point still stands though, just don't do it, especially not when it's super obvious 😂
This is really interesting! I have definitely read a couple of debut novels that are obviously self-inserting and I can think of an example of one that made me think differently about the author and not necessarily in a positive way.
I used to call my younger sister and tell her about my writing journey when she was on the kidney transplant list.
She asked me to write a short story for her birthday.
Short stories have tons of action and plot, but little character development.
I purposely chose a self-insert of me, real name and all, as a teenager who meets a mentor.
I did this to skip character establishment and backstory. It was a Sci-Fi version of our talks.
She loved it but said she was really getting into it when the finale came and she wanted more.
She passed away a couple years ago and when I volunteered to be the Person of Responsibility for the Probate process, I came across it in her hope chest of personal things she gathered in her life.
The first draft of my first book was a complete self interest. I wrote it to get some things out of my system. Then I took a few months away and came back and was able to form the characters better. I do feel like we need to get that self insert out and then it can be shaped to a better story later on. Thanks for all of these videos. They help a lot.
This video is so helpful! Thank you so much, Alexa. (I still find it really funny - in a good way! - that you and I share a name.) Please keep up the awesome work! I'm not sure if you're open to random requests, but would you be able to do a video about the plotting process, please? Maybe some tips on where to start, how to do it, how to keep going (or start writing!) when you're stuck for pieces of the overall plot, and most importantly, how to develop a book idea into a fully-blown novel plot, please? (And maybe also a video about tropes and how to use them without falling into cliches?) I'm so sorry for the wall of text here! :)
I'm back to fiction writing after a really long break and the idea to give my characters at least one trait which is the total polar opposite to myself has been extremely useful. I'm afraid my female protagonist is about 90% self insert at the moment...but I'm pleased to say that I did know that myself! It is very much that useful writing crutch, as you phrased it in this video, for that first, full-length novel.
The original book I wrote was definitely a self insert, though she looked nothing like me. It was about a girl who's mother had cancer and I started writing it when my mom had cancer. My original intent was to write a book about every sibling, but ended up writing one about her sister and loved it. A lot of the second was a self insert, however I had an agent tell me to rewrite the first 1/3 of the book (because the original was 170,000 words - I know, I didn't know what I was doing) and when I rewrote it I think it is partly still a self insert, but there are so many risks this character takes that I wouldn't have taken at her age (and conflicts she experiences) - she is definitely a stronger, more risk taking person than I am. Over all this is very helpful as I write the second book in the series. I haven't found an agent yet, but there are other genres I have wanted to dip my foot in, so I will keep all these tips in mind. Thank you. PS it would be really weird if someone wrote their love interest as their husband (or boyfriend pre marriage) to read any sex scenes, LOL.
I am writing this self insert character as a way to teach myself a lesson xD Like, all the things that I don't like about myself or my own false beliefs, I have infused into this character. I'm not going to publish this book. I am taking this whole thing as a passion project to somehow psychologically heal myself through writing.
In my case, even if I tend to make some self insert here and there it's reserved for secondary characters like "that guy is in the background and is only encountered twice, let's say he's like me" yeah kinda lazy I know. Maybe it comes from the fact that I write slice of life/adventure and that I'm a really sedentary and not talkative at all person so a self insert would be pointless in any kind of first role.
But there's still examples of known characters that really feel like self insert and are still awesome. For example Belgarath and Polgara from the Belgariad feels 100% like the Eddings couple, I'm almost sure they're self insert but their dynamic rocks.
Honestly I used zodiac signs as character templates and mix it up. I always felt too self conscious to even dare a self insert. But when I did I sort of hacked off and glued on traits we dont share and honestly shes been well received. She was better fleshed out than my first attempts at characters.
The mere THOUGHT of putting a full self-insert into a novel makes me cringe. There's no way I'm going to do that ever. I'd make a horrible character.
Honestly I think that most authors write self inserts without even realizing they are doing it until after the fact. But I also think a lot of readers and reviewers tend to over analyze the characters so much that they’re almost looking for any little thing to claim “self insert”. Even more so if the reader doesn’t like the author. People are petty Betty’s and like to rip each other down over the tiniest things. But that’s a different topic. Back to self inserts.
For example, I really want to write a red head as an MC but already know that would allow readers, right off the bat, to claim “self insert” because I have red hair. Which really sucks because I want a ginger lead in one of my books sooooooo bad. One day I’ll pull up my big girl undies and do it and to hell with what others think.
I personally don’t mind if the character is a little like the author but if it’s a carbon copy or the characters are straight up Mary Sues and Gary Stu’s then, as a reader and reviewer, I’m going to have a problem with it.
Katharine Francis I can relate with the ginger thing so much! I plan to do it eventually when I have a large cast of characters but not for my debut novel for sure. Also the way I try to approach characters now is to not have a clear appearance for them in mind, I mean if the hair color matters so much I probably put my efforts in the wrong place while developing that character xD
Here's my thoughts on this, I don't think there's anything wrong with writing a self insert, I don't even think there's anything wrong with writing a self insert in multiple books, hell that's something I'm thinking about doing. But if you're going to do that, you have to try your best to be honest with yourself. Include a nice balance of good and bad things about you, actually treat the bad things like they're bad things, think about how other characters would realistically feel about you and vice versa. Think about what you would realistically do in certain situations, and not what you would want to do, hell add a few things to this character that don't match up with you. Make this feel like a character inspired by you, not a character that's a complete copy of you. I don't know if that's really a self insert at that point but you get what I mean.
Lol. I had to be super careful with the MC in the last novel I was working on because we're both introverts with image problems, so that was great when it came to figuring out what would motivate her, but it also meant I had to question a lot of things to make sure I wasn't hitting too close to home.
I definitely have the issue of giving love interests traits from my spouse!!! Mostly, I make them super tall (my husband is over a foot taller than me). It's completely not intentional, it's just because of my own experience, but it is something I have to watch out for.
Lol. A friend and I were going to write a book together in high school and shortly after, and it wasn't so much self-inserts as we were the actual main characters, names and all. We never got around to the writing part, but it was so much fun to be so silly.
My first completed novel was a co-project with my sister and one of the main characters was a blatant self insert of her and then we killed her in a cultish ritual at the end, so idk what that means 🤷
I hope your sister is okay! :-D
@@bunnyrose9525 😂😂😂 she's doing very well, thanks for asking! Our writing wasn't at prophetic levels in middle school but we're getting there haha
I haven't really written a self-insert in any of my stories and novels. It's more like writing the complete opposite of me, although sometimes I catch my characters reacting to a situation the way I would. Don't know if that's good or bad, but it sounds okay :D I have included parts of my life and things that have made an impression in a way that fits the world and I think people wouldn't know it was a "self-insert" unless I told them it resembles a situation I've been in.
It's funny, because one of my favorite novel of all times was a self-insert one. The author was established, however. In the series, she wrote about a character who's past history made it pretty impossible for him to get a romantic partner in his time (historical romance), so she wrote a self-insert character from the present time traveling back in time to fall in love with him. The heroine was blatantly a self-insert because her name was a variation of the author's pen name, and her "present day" occupation was a novelist. Even her physical description matches the author. She totally did not try to hide her self-insert at all. But the story was so well written that it remains one of my favorite books of all times. I've read it over and over again at least 10x LoL
I wrote a self insert for a 30 page novella I worked on once. Weirdly enough, I didn't do it for wish fulfillment, and better yet, I had no idea I was doing it at the time. But, she basically was a pathologized version of me that I subconsciously wrote to sort out some life things. Also, to add to the conversation, I think it's important to add a little bit of ambiguity to your main protagonist so that other people can see themselves in them. It's why characters like Spiderman and Batman sell so well. Sure, they have fully fleshed out character arcs, but there's an heir of mystery to them. I dunno, that's all I've got to say.
Looks like you answered my question at the end there: (Thoughts on a self-insert split into 2 (or more) "parts" in order to compare/contrast philosophies/perspectives). Thanks again.
For me it truly depends. I've read self-inserts I like and others I hate. It depends on whether the author is aware of it or not.
I didn't realise my main character was like me until i finished the book. I don't have a problem with it because she does have insecurities and flaws and feels real.
It's said that the best authors inject themselves into their work. Their feelings are explored, their own moral questions are explored, their own beliefs are presented and their own world view irreparably colors the world itself. But this doesn't mean a self-insert is a part of this process. In fact when done right a self-insert is the least natural part of this process, assuming this is how you write; in fact I, as a white guy, tend to just subconsciously make all my characters women of color (don't ask me why!) and I actually had to make the conscious effort to make a protagonist that was male (due to story reasons lol).
Yup, this is the point. "Challenging" your own world view and your personal flaws is difficult when you insert yourself as a single character, that's why self insert stories suck.
But I personally also tend to write mostly male protagonists (I'm a girl) because it makes their world view different and more interesting than just plain ol' me, lol. But it doesn't necessarily mean that none of them are self-inserts, in fact, most of them might be.. :')