Very few of my characters are based on people I've known. It is too constricting.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I do have characters who are more well known than I am, which suits me fine.
I think people throughout the world identify with my characters.
My characters are all made up of pieces of people I have known, their backstories pieces of mine.
All of my characters tend to be montages of different people I've met: little bits and pieces of their personalities put together.
I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people.
I try to talk about things I know about. But my characters are more of a combination of people or how I imagine people would feel.
In one book, CACHALOT, just for my own amusement, every character is based directly on someone I have known.
I think every character I've ever come up with has been based on someone or something I've known.
All of my characters are a little bit based on people I know in real life. You know when you do that you have to change the character a little bit in case your friend or your relative reads the book, because you don't want them to know you wrote about them... They might get mad.
All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story.