Do you write characters similar to yourself?

I do believe in that a little. The book I'm writing does have a main character that is similar to me but over exaggerated. I can write other genders and economic classes but I have trouble writing about a different ethnicity. Mostly its because I don't want to presume to know about what a different ethnicity would be like and I don't want to fall into stereotypes. Its a lot easier to write about my own ethnicity and while some may not like that in my books I think it will be better that way.

I think that a lot of characters I've written have been based on me or aspects of me - perhaps the way that I think, and my personality. Whether they are male or female, young or old or look anything like me is irrelevent. As I learned who to write a wider range of characters I can now truely get into the minds of characters whose ways of looking at the world are very different from my own. I make extensive notes about each character and make sure that I know exactly what motivates them and how they relate to other people - the people closest to them as well as their manner to strangers. For example, what their goals in life are, and what their greatest fear is, which family relationships they have which are problematic, and why. Much of this is irrelevent to the story, but it is relevent to creating a convincing 3-dimensional character.

I just had a friend read my current manuscript. She asked me if a certain character was supposed to be European because she could "hear" it in her voice. I was surprised. I didn't think I had written any change in dialect that would suggest such a thing but, yes, she is European. In my first novel one of the characters is supposed to be like me because in the original story it WAS me. I wrote a story in high school about a friend and me. She thought the story was good enough to be a real book so I took that story, changed the names and wrote a book. I ended out changing a lot of the story too. LOL! The male in my current novel, I feel, is very well written. The female, I don't really think is much like me at all. But it is true that we write what we know. The story is about an abusive marriage, but in no way resembles my first marriage. My first novel is more of a fantasy of mine when I was a teenager. I wrote a short story based on a relationship I had with a co-worker, but is in no way true. I have also written from the point of view of a child. I think I am pretty versatile with my writing.

I do not write a character similar to myself. (that would be too depressing.) That would turn the story into an autobiography or biography. I do however use my experiences in the workplace, as well as the experience of others to further enhance my writing. I find it easy to write characters different from myself and would rather. I have been in touch with people of different economic classes so that part is easy and I can write another gender since I am married, and I have been around various people of the two sexes, of different ages most of my life. You have to go to a cafe or a shopping mall and listen to everyone, maybe take along a digital recorder. Get invited out more. Watch and observe. That will help.

I never felt all that "female" and mostly I write male parts. Kind of enlightened males, but since I never wanted so many of the things it seems most women want, love, romance, families, children, husbands, I just can't relate.

I think as a writer, writing about what you know ends up writing about what you have experienced, what you believe in, what you've done, what you've seen, and what you love. It takes a while to really find what you think you know and how that translates to your writing. The people that honestly know you will always see you in the writings and those who don't know you will soon learn just by reading the things you write. A good writer can become any gender, in any genre and can enter any economic or social class. With the right research you can also speak any language. That's what writing is all about.