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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39920
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39920
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Here's another perspective for you:

I am working on a novel with many characters. In quite a few of them, there is a bit of me: I give them my values, and then make them argue which core value takes precedence, much as I debate with myself. I give one character the mistakes I made with my first boyfriend, I give another what maturity I have gained since then. One character shares my love for the written word, another - my inability to sing.

Those characters also have my friends in them: quirks, traits I admire, way of seeing things that isn't my own. And there are the people who are not my friends: aspects I respect and aspects I despise are also woven into my story when I need them.

There is nothing wrong with drawing on your life, on what you're familiar with, when writing a story. Jim Butcher's characters in _Dresden Files_ are geeks who love _Star Wars_ and _Star Trek_ and _The Lord of the Rings_, play D&D and eat at Burger King, just like him. Tolkien based Sam on men he knew during WW1, and gave Faramir his dream of a land overtaken by huge waves. Jane Austen had personal familiarity with the situation of the Dashwood sisters in _Sense and Sensibility_.

All of this becomes a problem only if all your characters are based on you to such an extent that they have no unique voice. If they are all the same person, with only minor differences, then you should look for other sources of inspiration, and distance your characters from yourself.

Original score: 5