#ISWG: Am I My Own Fictional Character?

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the October 4 posting of the IWSG are Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Jennifer Hawes, and Tamara Narayan!

Click here to view everyone in the Blog Hop.

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Thank you for dropping in for this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group post from a member of the Pee Dee Writers! Today, we will hear from Pee Dee Writer, Charlene McDonnough.

The optional question for October 4th: Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?

Keep reading to see what Charlene has to say!

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Am I My Own Fictional Character?

This question was recently asked and it had me stumped on how to answer. “Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?” To be honest I am still stumped on how to answer this. Since I am a pantser by nature, here I go.

When you write something whether it is a poem, short story or novel you are giving a part of yourself away for others to see. This isn’t necessarily your own characteristics, but it is a piece of your heart, thoughts, emotions, etc.

Several years ago, I wrote a novel titled “Innocent Dreams and Forgotten Memories”. I based the main character Emily’s feature description on how I would have loved to look myself. She had red hair, green eyes, and a delicate dancer’s body. This was totally different than me as a blonde, blue-eyed, plump ex-athlete. In the story she had to make a lot of decisions that would be hard to do if you had not been in the same situation at one point or another.

In this story Emily made the difficult decision to give her baby daughter up for adoption three months after she was born. In my life, at one point I was a single mom with several people pressuring me while I was pregnant to give my own baby up for adoption. I decided to keep him, but when he was 4 months old I had to make the difficult decision on if I were going to get out of the military or accept orders to a foreign base and give temporary custody of my son to my mom for a year. At that time I decided, that the military provided a guaranteed job, paycheck, medical service, and a place to live. I also made the difficult decision to give my baby up, but I had the full knowledge that I would get him back. My character Emily did not. When she gave her baby up, she came to regret it and this affected her whole life and the decisions she made after that.

I included other pieces of me in there as well. I made Emily’s daughter Sarah Elizabeth a strong willed, stubborn child, very much like I was growing up. Sarah made decisions at a young age that gave her a maturity while also emphasizing her youth that makes her an amazing young lady. In Sarah’s story, she ran away quite often, but always to what she considered her safe place. I also had dreams of running away as a child and did run away once, but my mom knew where I was the whole time. This kind of defeated the purpose of running away.

I’ve written other stories since then and bits and pieces of me are scattered throughout, but not quite as obvious. I have used the locations of places I lived, but with fake street names. I have used the first names of people I know, but always with their permission. I have always let them know that their name is the only thing I am using. This is my way of letting them know I care and am thinking about them without giving away their characteristics.

I think in every writer’s life, they write a bit of what they know, who they are, what they believe. It is a part of the fabric of their life. Will I share bits and pieces of my own characteristics in the future? Oh most definitely. This is who I am, of all the people in the world I know myself the best, and I would love to think that I share the best parts of me in my characters. However, I also have negative characteristics and bad things that have happened to me, which may find their way in to stories as well. Only time and the next story will see which way I go.

Keep on writing my fellow writing friends. Just like running, where you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, in writing you have to keep putting one letter after the other.

Charlene McDonnough is the branch manager for a library in Darlington County. She currently has two children's books available for purchase following Gemma the Sweater Loving Giraffe. Find out more about Charlene here.