I know I’m a victim of this trend intentional and unintentional.
To be more specific, most of my characters seem to stem from my own personality as opposed to constructed archetypes.
So I was wondering if other people see or if they use themselves as a template for making their own characters?
Don’t mind my random curiosity jus had to ask 
I like to put one character that represents me - it allows me to have fun and concentrate on all the others properly.
Same here, I like to have a Single character that is similar to me. Lol
All my characters get a little bit of me, and there’s at least one ‘me’ character per fictional universe. In case I’m setting a story in one of my existing universes that ‘me’ character doesn’t necessarily have to make an appearance though.
I generally try not to put characters too similar to myself into stories… something I totally failed with Totem Force. Ironically, the character in question was never supposed to be any kind of “reflection” of me, he just ended up worryingly similar for completely arbitrary reasons.
Yes, though I agree that it usually isn’t intentional. I’ve never set out to make “me” in a story, though I might try to put relatable elements into the characters’ personalities. Funny enough, a lot of times characters that I first envision as having similar thoughts/motivations may end up, over the course of the writing, acting completely different than anything I would do or say. Other times, characters that I originally don’t think I have much in common with, later I may look back and think, “Oh, yep. That part is totally me.” 
It’s really random, though. Interesting to see what comes out and when.
I don’t know…I guess it’s a variation on the old question of exactly how far from yourself can you get within the confines of your own imagination, anyway?
When I first start building characters from the start, I tend to base certain key aspects of them on people I know, myself included, and let them develop dynamically from there, based on what their backstory is, the world they live in, and what the plot requires of them. Sometimes, these characters develop in ways that I would never have expected, and seemingly without any input from me… Which is odd, cause, you know… I created them and all.
That aside, I end up with at least one of “me” in every story I write (sometimes more. One story I’m working on has a whooping 4 different iterations of myself, since I pilfered characters from various incomplete works to fill in the gaps). Usually, they evolve in a similar way as those above, but I’ll start them off with exaggerated traits to set them apart from actual me. For example, in my futuristic sci-fi survival horror project I’m working on (not an IF/CS story), the “me” character has the worst qualities of my dark side amplified to extremes in order to facilitate surviving the plot of the story, and getting those he cares about through it as well.
I’ve had nightmares where all my characters were the same person. Aaaaaannnd then I saw this commercial lol
It’s probably obvious to everyone who I would resemble the most… at least on first glance. Writing Characters and their traits, their thoughts and reasoning is like drawing a picture to me. I love to see them unfold, love to see them interact with their surroundings and just act like any living person would. It makes them so memorable and people won’t forget them easily. Especially not Troy…
That’s how I created the one character that resembles me to almost… 80%? One might not see it at first. We both hide behind a mask, each one of us for their own reasoning. We manipulate and twist words while playing with others like they are pieces on a chessboard. Well, she probably more than me.
Nonetheless, I like to be rash and irrational at most times, just like dear Wraith in FAWR. While she’s probably the more cunning of us two, we both change to fit into the scene more, to make us likeable in the most impossible ways. Don’t ask me how, but it somehow works…
When I write Wraith, I feel like I just know what would happen next. Her reasoning is totally understandable for me and my point of view of her, and it makes it easy for me to flesh her character out of her - sometimes not easy - reasoning. She’s someone who doesn’t really trust people she meets very easily, always being cautious and plotting in her mind, and yet she speaks her mind openly and without a care. For the better or worse, I would say, and so do I. Perhaps not as mean as she, but I do my part of thinking on that matter. I realized that very soon, finding more and more traits we both share.
But it is not only her I can relate to. As much as I tried to deny the fact, I undoubtly can be just like Troy ._. When I am happy or just in a very good mood, I can be damn annoying to anyone who doesn’t know me well. I practically become a cheeky and maybe even arrogant person, and yet people still seem to like me. 
There are so many other similarities with other characters that I could explain, but I don’t want to make a check list down here. XD
I am guilty of this crime also .
If you ever read one of my books you shall come across a character called Moon or her opposite Moon-Chan. They represent me in my stories and sometimes I (weirdly) dream about them if I’ve been drawing them for a while… another star is Kitzun who is sort of like a big eared rabbit thing, they appear also though they are a new favourite. So anyway, the wonderous world of MWD.
(If this counts, I also have a setting that appears frequently, even if it’s a statue or something, there is always one item from my “flying city” which enters a book occasionally…authors guilty power )
I don’t think I’ve ever manifested myself in my characters? At least, not consciously. They’re too cool to be me. It’s mostly that I have characters pop up in my mind, and they basically grow as fullfledged individuals that demand to have their storry told, and I’m just their mouthpiece of sorts.
Yikes, that sounded less batshit in my mind 
Naw, I have a portfolio of characters - when I write, they “screen-test” for the parts I’m writing. If they fit, I “hire” them for that story. They all have their individual lives before I write the story - it makes it easier this way because I know how they will react in different situations.
The reason I put a character of “me” in my stories is to add the “Loki” effect into them, and create some chaos which adds to the “realism” and prevents the story being too canned.
All of my characters are me. Or maybe I’m all of my characters. When they all get to talking and suggesting things, it gets pretty crowded in my head.
I usually make my chatractrs exaggerations of how I wish I was but occasionally I’ll find myself plunged into a story or two. So I suppose I put a little bit of me into each character. Of course I also tend to torture characters indiscriminately so maybe that’s not a good sign Lol
Whew I’m sure glad this isn’t true for me. Some of the characters I write are downright atrocious. If there are parts of me in these particular characters, they’re dark parts hidden away from my consciousness. And I sincerely hope they stay there.
The story I’m writing involves my insert quite heavily.
I don’t have ‘me’ in most of my IF, simply because game characters are too malleable. Regular fiction, well… When I tell people I write for myself, I mean it 
In all honesty, any character I write is going to be inspired by someone. That could very well be me, but it could be people I know, or a person I’ve met in passing, or observed… or even read just about. They don’t even have to be real!
Like, just going off the things I’ve written that you guys would know-- mom from Carhalow is inspired by a lot of people. Mostly she’s based (ironically) on my dad in the way that she’s friendly and gossipy, and then on me, in that she’s so god damn anxious all the time lmao. Then there was Morgan, who I modeled after my sister and some autistic kids that I work with.
Borrowing is just part of writing, I think. Blah blah nothing is in a vacuum blah blah.
I think most of my characters are how I think other characters could have been if they were raised differently, had slightly different personalities, had different friends etc. I have several characters that are basically me, but somewhere along the line they chose differently from me so they are their entirely different character now. Sometimes I even feel sad for thinking about it too much, because I could have been them, but I’m not. 
Well said. 
Well, sorta. I mean, the main character is always, and I mean always, me. Literally me, name and all. I’m arrogant like that. But all the other characters are entirely different from myself. They are the representation of what I would like the people around me to be.
I actually do something very similar to this. (Also sounds a little crazy when said aloud )
I don’t think I’m like my characters. Mainly because the way I write them is I imagine that they’re sitting across from me, telling me their story. It’s more a process of transcribing a story that this character is currently telling me than it is me thinking “okay, what would they do next?”
Which… yeah… sounds a little crazy. But, hey, if it works, it works, right?