How Much Do You Draw on Your RL Experience?

[Kore 14]

It's a bit of a give and take for me. There are some things in my life that really shaped me and sometimes end up shaping my characters. Other times I play people or things that I've always wanted to experience but can't. I love being someone I'm not, but I feel like there is a genuine part of me in each of my characters. 

[Kiewbles 15]

In playing a lot of supernatural themes, there is of course a lot of content that can't be taken from real life experiences. I do hang onto a lot of physical sensory stuff to use in writing - the way a mountain looks in the sunshine, what water feels like, the way an old building "slouches." I have also recently had a lot of little life changes in which I am able to name and describe feelings with more ease, and that is pretty rewarding to apply to character thoughts and development.

[Liv 13]

I often give my characters traits or likes and dislikes that I have, and some of their experiences and skills may draw from mine. But at the end of the day, I don't want to roleplay as me, and part of the appeal in roleplaying (for me at least) is having your character experiencing things that you haven't necessarily gone through.

[Veino 26]

I don't draw on myself that much, but I will use skills and stuff that I've learned. Like, I've done a lot of backpacking and high altitude hiking/climbing, and other outdoor stuff. So especially with fantasy, I use my own skills to help add verisimilitude. Same with shooting skills, survival, and stuff like that. 

[min 5]

Mhm... I've pulled from myself a lot, particularly the emotional aspects!

[PixieMegs 107]

On 1/30/2020 at 3:27 PM, Kore said:

 I love being someone I'm not, but I feel like there is a genuine part of me in each of my characters. 

I feel the same way. I believe there is a bit of me in all of my characters, but they get to explore emotions and situations I may never be able to (or would want to, for that matter).

 

I do pull from past experiences sometimes to try to make something feel more real. For instance, if I have a character who is experiencing a lot of anxiety, I'll use what I know/have felt in order to be more accurate with how I'm writing it. But most of the time I ask "how would -character name- handle this situation?". Since some of my characters have vastly different personalities than me. 

[Limn 1]

I definitely draw on RL experience, not always in terms of what a character may go through, but how they act and speak. I love to people watch, which sort of goes hand in hand with commuting on public transport as I end up with plenty of time on my hands to just ... observe? Gestures, habits, mannerisms. Characters with an accent are almost always grounded in people I know IRL with that accent. So, small details like that definitely influence my writing. Tackling larger issues really does depend on the issue itself - I've no experience of living out of a van, for example, or camping, but you can bet your bottom dollar I spent hours upon hours watching instructional videos and youtube blogs on tiny living, van conversions, van life etc because I wanted to make a character who did just that.

[GERALT OF RIVIA 4]

I'm a paleontologist and I have written paleontology (usually different than what I study) characters before. Likewise, I write other fields of science like marine biologists or surgeons. But typically I write canon characters from fandoms, who I relate to on some level. 

[Miserable_Ghoul 3]

Every now and again I will use RL experiences to help aid cohesive dialogue. I think sometimes it adds a bit of genuine 'human' into your words--definitely adds to the story.

[lynncia 1]

It's more like I take different characteristics or funny moments to evolve the scenes and characters. Still, I try not to hold onto something or someone too closely, since that could end bad. For example, if you base a character off of a friend, when your friendship falls apart, I feel like that would also affect the character.