A couple weeks ago my first short story, Wishful Thinking, was published. When I first got the confirmation, I could not stop jumping up and down. My mom was the first person I called. I not only wanted to share it with her; I wanted to share it with the world. All of my friends and family. I was proud. I wanted them to see what I had done.
It is a first person story and the character does admittedly have many traits similar to my own. I never thought of the character as me. It’s fiction. It’s not me. After my mother-in-law read it and told me that it made her sad because of the way it ends, it struck me. Those close to me may think of the character as me. She did bring up an interesting point of how she read it differently because she knows the author. I found myself struggling to explain how to not think of the character as me. There’s magic in her world and just because she does something, doesn’t mean that I would.
This also got me thinking about the novel I’m working on which is historical fiction based on Judy Garland. Sometimes, I do notice that she sounds like me. I think it’s impossible to keep all of your personality out of your characters. It is their connection to you that makes them real. You do sort of become them while you write them, right? You form their thoughts and their actions. They are at the same time separate and a part of you.
Have you ever had someone read your fiction story and they connect you directly to your character? Do you worry that they will?
I did wonder about this with Running in the Dark, and my Grandma told me she thought I'd have the same fighting spirit as my character, but this isn't something I worry about when I write. Like you say, we create our characters, but we AREN'T our characters.
Congratulations on the story! That's always exciting. 🙂