Let's Talk About...

Self-Insertion

They say in every first story, a writer will write at least one character like themselves. I can understand that. We know ourselves the best and naturally add our own thoughts and feelings into the narrative. 

What I can't stand is self-insertion. It's dangerous. 

I appreciate that literature acts as an escape for people, but to write your own life in a story will not make it happen. It will create unrealistic expectations and situations that you'll never end up in. It's crushing. 

This mainly occurs in fanfiction. One Direction fanfiction to be specific. Writing something does not make it real. You can't write yourself into a famous celebrity's life. 

And it's boring. No one wants to read about what you do every second of your life. It's also called a memoir, not a story. 

Writing a story about someone like yourself is a tricky place to define. On one hand you can write them authentically; on another, some writers simply write themselves and change the name. I can't give an outright statement that covers stories like that. 

But what I find about self-insertion is that people tend write Mary Sue versions of themselves. If you've not heard of Mary Sues, you may have written one. A Mary Sue is a too perfect character, a character who can do everything, can overcome any problem without difficulty, who is admired by all and hated because everyone admires them and may have a traumatic backstory. Not all characters who have those things are Mary Sues, but there's a test on the external link to check. I personally, find Mary Sues are characters that are always there in everything; so they can solve any problem, have a relationship with all the characters and just seem to be appropriately everything that the story needs to solve a conflict. 

Personally, I think it puts you in a very vulnerable position to expose yourself like that. It would petrify me.