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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41137
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41137
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In addition to Matthew Dave's excellent answer..

Whether a character/story is interesting or not is more about the character/story themselves rather than where the inspiration for it comes from.

An author projecting themselves onto a character is not automatically going to be boring, if they are projecting _interesting_ traits and elements onto the character then they are going to be interesting.

Something that gets very tiresome is when _every_ (or at least most) of the characters are variations on the same projection but that doesn't sound like what you are doing. If supposedly different characters all behave/react in the same way that doesn't work.

A "Mary-Sue" **can** be a problem (depending upon execution) - but that isn't really because it's a projection of the author - they tend to be more idealized projections rather than realistic ones (i.e. they are who the author fantasizes about being in the story) and it's the idealization part rather than the projection that is the problem. A well-known example is everyone's favorite _Star Trek_ chew-toy Wesley Crusher who was seen by many fans as being a Gene Roddenberry playing out his day dreams with a Mary-Sue archetype of himself, complete with insane amounts of contorted Wesley-saves-the-day plots - it's not until Roddenberry took a step back from the show that the character experienced actual development and real adversity (that wasn't just "Those dumb adults don't appreciate his genius")

Original score: 5