Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, I've never had the sense I was 'making up' a character. It feels more like watching people reveal themselves, ever more deeply, more intimately.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Exposing characters and their shortcomings gives me great comfort. It's always great to write about someone more mixed up than yourself.
It is so common to write autobiographical fiction in which your own experience is thinly disguised.
I think every writer will tell you that their characters are always partially themselves: who I am and what I've experienced. It's always there in part of my characters.
For me, the acting part - and I have to say it makes me a little worried about my own psychological make-up - is that I just love to hide in other characters. I don't like to get up in front of people and talk as Kathy Baker. But as soon as you say 'action,' I'm lost in that character.
I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down-the truth is much more bizarre.
I try to write characters that are as real, emotionally and psychologically, as I can make them; I feel the same way about setting. This often means that I'm drawing from my experiences and observations.
Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.
When I do a character, I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had.
It's how I express myself - through storytelling and characters. They often reveal very intimate, vulnerable sides of myself.
As a novelist, I tend to know significantly more about my characters than I do about my friends.
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