DANGER! Writing a Self-Insert in Your Novel

hello everyone Alexa done here and today we are going to be talking about self inserts in fiction I tend to think that every writer gets one good juicy self insert in their novels most often but not always their first and I want to talk about kind of the need for writing self inserts the good things about writing self inserts the bad things about writing self inserts and then some tips for how to not write self inserts which kind of brings us to well clearly it's not so great but I don't want a rag completely on self inserts because I really do think they have their place especially with newer writers this came up in my advice for teen writers video which is why I decided to do a whole discussion topic on it because I do think it is an essential kind of learning phase that a writer has to go through which is inserting their whole self into a POV main character in their novel because the thing is all writers insert pieces of themselves into their writing that's the point writing part of writing a huge part of writing is putting ourselves on the page putting aspects of our lives our perspectives things that interest us in to books but then the danger was something that's 100 percent of self insert like a single character or the POV character is that it becomes an exercise in wish fulfillment and it can lead to some real downsides over all in the rest of the narrative now usually self insert fiction doesn't ever get published and we get to kind of get that self insert out of our system and no one has to read that tome of embarrassment but not always sometimes self inserts actually do get published and I just wanted to share what I think are some funny kind of anecdotes of like why it could actually be a bad thing and sometimes the best thing you can hope for is that your beautiful self insert book doesn't get published one of the reasons most self insert books thankfully don't get published is that it is most common for an author to do this in their first ever completed novel I think it's partly instinct because so many of us want to rate books to tell stories but to tell stories that we want to read to go on adventures that we would want to take part in to explore situations that we could never do or would never actually want to do in real life and so there's kind of this gut instinct it's it's the easiest well to draw on the first time that you're writing a novel to write someone who's just like you because you're writing the story and viewing it through a lens that's super familiar to you because it's literally you one of the reasons these books so often don't work is that as I mentioned self inserts are essentially it's about wish fulfillment it's about putting a version of yourself on the page usually the best version of yourself when we create self inserts they're usually an idealized version of ourselves it's the way we both are but also the way that we want to be and so one huge pitfall is that most often these self insert characters don't have any real flaws and we don't take any actual risks with these characters we don't let anything bad happen to them we don't let them make any real mistakes which can lead to a novel that doesn't have enough conflict you can also sometimes say that a self insert is like a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu and boy have we been having such fun pop culture conversations about Mary Sue's lightly and I do not want to derail and go into a whole conversation about Mary Sue's but it is true that very often in fandom from whence I hail when we would say oh it's a Mary Sue it was it was definitely code for blatant authorial self-insert it is really common and the good news is that many of us get this out of our system when we do write fanfic but it still beats through the novel essentially the idea of a Mary Sue Kerry stew is this kind of larger-than-life character who has no flaws and is perfect in every single way it is wonderful and enters the narrative and then is like all the good things happen to them and everyone loves them and that can definitely be the wish fulfillment that you get from a self insert as well though not all self inserts don't have floods and actually some of the most interesting ones that do end up getting published they do have flaws though it's fascinating to me is that very often I can tell those authors don't see the flaws they wrote someone so much like them but then they're gobsmacked when people say oh that pert that character was really unlikable and they're like how could you just like them and I'm like oh no it's them I actually have some legit stories where I realized the author wrote themselves and it was super duper awkward which I'll come back to you in just a second but the final kind of reason or con why so many self insert books don't get published those first books especially is that because we are so close to the source material we feel so close to that main character and their feelings that we aren't able to effectively edit it becomes a real barrier to critically engaging with the work and doing the editorial work that is often needed to make the characters more kind of fleshed out to give them better arcs to add more conflict etc so most self inserts that people rate especially in their first books are ultimately harmless exercises they are learning experiences I I think we all have to vomit that self insert out onto the page into a book and then as we work on subsequent works we have to work harder to pull away from that because it would be really freaking boring if every single book you wrote the main character was exactly like you even if you're not aware of having written the self insert and many authors aren't until much later my first main character was definitely a self insert and I realized it later and was like that's hilarious I was like oh I wrote me in high school I see it now but it is an essential learning process and most authors tend to organically pull away from this because they don't want to repeat themselves when they write another book they want to write characters who are different every time so that's a different challenge writing and kind of a new reading experience so most of us are gonna clean move away from this but I'm gonna hit you with some practical tips but I want to give you some of the downsides of having a self insert published I have seen this with my own eyes the first one is you end up taking criticism of the main character super-super personally I have seen authors really fall apart and not being able to handle negative criticism of a character things that people didn't like about the character because they are so similar to them that it does legitimately feel like a personal attack and we always say that you know reviews aren't for authors they're for readers that reviews aren't personal and they're not they're not supposed to be 99.9% every reviewers follow the rules and reviews are not personal attacks they're about the book but if you are the book that character is you it feels personal but it's and it's and it's this messy thing where it's not the reviewers fault but the character is you they don't they don't know that they think they're responding independently to a piece of artwork so can be really dangerous and then the other pit bull is ridicule I've seen this as well when readers have copped to the fact that the main character is very blatantly I'm clearly a self-insert well they tease that author usually not to their face it's behind the scenes but there are certain authors where we do snicker kind of in the background of like well you know they wrote their little self-insert there and they're going on their sexy romantic adventures ooh or like the dude who clearly put himself in the book and gets all the hot chicks in the book like we all raise our eyebrows at this and go hmm wish fulfillment right and then the third like real con that I don't think people think of is that it can legit change the way that people see you if a reader meets you in person or gets enough of you from like personal interactions and reads the book and doesn't like the character and realize is that there are self-insert that they are you they might like you less I have legit had my opinion of a couple of authors alter slightly because I read something that was so clearly a self-insert and I was appalled the wish fulfillment I thought it was just ridiculous and I was like if you're really like this I don't know how I feel solvent ins can actually reveal very interesting personality tics and especially like streaks of narcissism so just be careful of how much of yourself you pour into any single character I do know there are a few pros to self inserts and they're the same pros that you can get from generally injecting parts of yourself into your book which you should be doing just not unilaterally into one character all the time as I mentioned self inserts are actually a good writing crutch for newer or less experienced writers and I really do actually advocate I think getting a self insert out of your system is a good thing because it does kind of remove a lot of barriers to writing especially the first book because you know yourself really well and it's easy to rate how you would react to things and what you would do the other pro is that it really can lead to a super authentic greeting experience it's going to be very authentic for whatever you are authentic for and many readers can then relate really strongly to whomever that self insert character is if they kind of align with the type of person you are in your worldview the flip of that again though is that if they don't and they say so you're gonna be really hurt but it can definitely lead to some real authenticity in the reading experience and finally I'm going to give you some tips on how to not such avoid writing self inserts but just some practical tips for you once you have written your fun blatant self insert on steps you can take on the next work to kind of spread the love and kind of avoid that blatant self insert again and to level up your fiction writing level up your character development skills so the first tip is to give your character whoever it is especially your main character at least one trait that is the polar opposite of you something that you don't directly relate to something that you cannot fathom experiencing or doing yourself give that to the character because then it's going to challenge you and push you as a writer to really think about well what would this character what would a person with this trait do in this situation I wouldn't react this way but they would probably do this it's essentially expanding your kind of empathy powers of observation of other people psychology etc to create a character who is nothing like you in many ways so this can mean maybe they're reckless you're not a risk-taker but you decide to write a risk-taking character which can actually be very great for conflict and plot progression it could be let's maybe you have a super thick skin about something well maybe you write your character super sensitive they they cry more than you do which can also lead to some conflict or vice versa maybe you are more sensitive but you decide to go with the toughest nails character though probably out there always make sure they have vulnerabilities because you don't want them to be OneNote whatever the thing is giving that to your character is going to challenge you as a writer and even if you don't nail it perfectly right out the gate you can continue to refine and challenge yourself in revision to make it feel more authentic the next tip is to give them a hobby or an interest that you do not have another thing that you see a lot in self inserts is that the reason they feel so self incerti is that they literally are just like the author they have all the same interests all the same habits and so again to kind of break away from that it's like okay I know nothing about sports they're gonna play a sport and you're gonna have to dig deep down inside of yourself to go okay what do them to that sport and how does the mechanics of like playing and practicing that sport impact their schedule in their life how does it change their personality so it forces you to do that character work to think outside of yourself to craft something fresh and different on the page next you're gonna want to watch out for the physical characteristics of your character characters so another place where people get authors and self inserts is when the characters particularly the main characters look exactly like them where it's like a checklist of physical characteristics and that character meets every single one of them so the author's blogs the characters blood the author has beautiful green eyes the character has beautiful green eyes the author is five foot six and women the character is five foot six and slim and so on so you're gonna want to think about the physical characteristics of that character and switch it up a bit give them a different hair color different eye color a different build from you though my note on bills to my lovely short shorter lady friends writing if you decide to write a tall character you should it's different you don't see it a lot um being a tall woman does impact how you walk through the world or being a larger woman and so on and so forth always be thoughtful and empathetic when you're writing something really far outside of your experience I mean this goes for anyone and just kind of all I mean ask a friend if you have a tall lady friend ask them how their height impacts them if you are a taller average height person write a really short character and think outside of your own experience to make it authentic there are lots of different things you can do but like just make sure they don't look exactly like you that's all I'm saying same goes for your love interest by the way I've definitely caught a few examples where the love interest in a book looks exactly like someone's husband or significant other or even an ex I've caught that once or twice that it's super awkward if you know the author so just generally be careful of striking resemblances to people that we know in real life and lastly the last tip is basically to take all of these aspects of yourself both your best and your worst acts aspects by the way gotta be a soul searcher when you're a writer think about all your strengths and your flaws and your hobbies and interests and ticks and spread them out to all your different characters you are Katy at the end of Mean Girls and you're breaking up the crown and you're throwing it to everyone everyone shares the spring fling crown give lots of different pieces of yourself to lots of different characters this is what writers do this is really just writing 101 this is what you should be doing when it comes to writing and character development pinning pieces of yourself to different characters but a single piece of yourself does not a whole character make and then it's bringing in the opposite traits the traits that compliment that but that you don't share the different hobbies and you are basically crafting all of these different characters who have a spark of familiarity from yourself but who require more development beyond just who you are that's how you create whole interesting characters and I will link you down below to my developing characters video but also got one coming up on character agency and growth which kind of factors in here but really the whole topic of self inserts it's a matter of kind of acknowledging that it is a necessary crutch for newer writers I feel but that to become a well-developed and good writer you have to learn to develop characters who exist outside of your specific thoughts feelings and experiences writing is ultimately an exercise in empathy and also just as a little note specifically I wish people would rag less on teenage girls on young women for writing blatant self inserts I think that's one of the beautiful things about fiction especially fan fiction that women get to have wish fulfillment fantasies I think they're healthy I think they're good and they stem from a place of so many women not seeing themselves in fiction and media as much so again this is why I support people writing self inserts but give yourself one go you get one blatant self insert in a novel and then move beyond that so those are my thoughts on self inserts and I'm curious to hear what you think because I think this is one where everyone's gonna have a slightly different opinion I also want to know have you guys gotten yourself insert out of your system give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and I will make more videos that are like part discussion part practical tips for topics in writing if you're not already subscribe to the channel go ahead and do that I've post new videos two to three times a week thank you so much for watching and as always guys happy writing

Channel: Alexa Donne

Views: 34,333

Rating: 4.9191289 out of 5

Keywords: alexa donne, author tube, writing advice, how to write a book, publishing advice, self insert, writing a self insert, writing mary sue, did i write a self insert, should you write self inserts, tips to avoid self inserts, fixing a self insert, bad writing, writing tips

Id: 6kuNATTT5Dw

Length: 16min 58sec (1018 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019