Usually, people write the characters into a box, and that's just not true to life.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Every character a writer creates has some of themselves in it somewhere.
In real life, people are constantly saying one thing and doing another, but if you write your characters that way, the story becomes too hard to follow.
I think all characters are facets of the writer. In a way, they have to be if you're going to write them convincingly.
Unlike life, you've got more or less complete control over what's going on in your stories. That's not to say you can make characters do whatever you want them to - they usually have a life of their own if you've done your job properly.
Definitely they write themselves. It's an amazing experience. It's like the characters have come alive and are sitting on my shoulder talking to me, telling me their tales.
When we don't have all the details about our characters, we have to make it up to fill in all the details. So, for me, writing and acting go hand in hand.
Writers often say that characters begin to write themselves, and I never used to believe that. I always thought that was complete hogwash.
I really believe that when you're playing a character that everything is contained in the script. If I'm pulling from things from my own life, then I think I'm being disingenuous to the character and the story.
Writing is a mysterious process, and many ideas come from deep within the imagination, so it's very hard to say how characters come about. Mostly, they just happen.
Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.