In my stories, almost all of my main characters have elements of me. I can’t help but make them somewhat similar.
Some of them have a lot in common. But others just have tiny little opinions or annoyances that I share.
I have one story about a fast food worker who shrinks an obnoxious customer. The worker’s a cis man, a second generation immigrant, and he’s vindictive in ways that I’m not.
But, he shares a complete impatience with rude customers that I have.
I have another story about a woman who works in a media company that’s attacked by a giant business owner. She’s very similar to me, if I had just gone into media, the field I wanted to go into. (But I ended up stumbling into another field.)
The building she’s in is based on the building I worked in for a long time. And her CEO is based on my company’s CEO. That story largely came from years of fantasizing while looking out over the cityscape from a high story.
My story characters always have a mental separation from me, though. I never actually put myself in a story or a roleplay. It’s too intimate to do that with The Internet. That’s what my pen and paper journal is for.
