Orchestra Weekend! Castles! And a question.

[vivien_sivvus]

The question first: Would you ever write yourself into a story? Have you already done so? Which would be more important for you- creating your personality or creating your appearance? How would you change it?

I'm kinda asking because of a thread by... I think it's Osprey Archer, on appearance vs. skills.

Well, I've just returned from another

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Why, yes, that is my post. :) I inspired something! Sort of.

I actually have written myself into a story, but it doesn't quite provide an answer for your question because the story was for (and about) my friends, so I didn't include almost any physical description because we all knew what we looked like. And I had to keep us reasonably in character so no one would get irritated.

I did give myself the incredible ability to jump in and out of an alternative reality, though.

But I think for self-insertion stories more generally, when people are writing for an audience that won't know if they're exaggerating, writers tend to give themselves the whole enchilada. Brains, beauty, magic powers, a telepathic unicorn, and a love interest who leaves Mr. Darcy in the dust. Fascinatingly tragic past. Etc.

Your conductor sounds brilliant. He reminds me of my government professor.

When are you going to Hungary?

[vivien_sivvus]

Haha! Have you read Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series? He writes himself into it, and it's *so* exaggerated that it's actually annoying. One of the other characters actually describes his writing as "the words of a God" at one point...

The Conductor is amazing, although he's quite intimidating. There are over 100 people in the orchestra, and he's the undisputed LEADER! And he does tend to go from sarcastic comments to explosive anger/firing people remarkably quickly :P

We're going in a couple of weeks. We have a residential practice session for three days, and then we leave. :)

[vivien_sivvus]

Ooh, I thought of another quote: "The bassoons are always smiling. They have to be the happiest section in the orchestra. Every time I look up at them I get a lovely warm feeling. I don't get any right notes, but I somehow feel good about it..."

Of course, this was before he got really annoyed... the German or Italian word for Bassoon is "faggot", and whenever he was annoyed with them he would stop the entire orchestra by screaming "FAGGOTS!" across the room. **sigh**

[osprey_archer]

Oh, dear. I hope the conductor is rather less homophobic than that last paragraph sounds, because otherwise he sounds like a very interesting guy.

The only things I've read by Steven King are Misery and On Writing, which I liked, but not enough to read anything else. But it makes me sad that he wrote himself into a book in such an egomaniacal kind of way.

[girl_called_sun]

I've never written myself into a story; I have written characters in the past that embodied what I wanted to be - idealised versions of me, I suppose. They were always cleverer, quicker, funnier than I was, because that's what I aspired to - so that's my answer to the ability v's appearance debate.

Your orchestra sounds like fun. I played in orchestras before I went to Uni (very, very badly), but direction in a 70 piece brass band consists of "Piano...that means quietly!"

[vivien_sivvus]

Piano means *loud* in a brass band, doesn't it? And then forte means "Right, let's deafen the audience!"

[girl_called_sun]

And fortissimo means "Try and blow the front row out of their seats!" Good clean fun.

[vivien_sivvus]

Hehehe :P

The problem is that when brass players try to do that in orchestras, the strings are between them and the audience. Makes for some interesting concerts!

[lyredenfers]

I've never wholly written myself into a story, but I always use bits and pieces in characters. More often, I find myself in other peoples stories. The scariest: Diana Wynne Jones' Time of the Ghost. Scary because, whoa, accurate! It's actually where I get my lj/internet pen name from (Fenella Melford). There are four sisters, like my family, and not only did DWJ get bits of my appearance (down to the gap between my front teeth), she also got bits of all of our personalities. Sigh.

Oh, conductors. That's all I have to say. *cringes and flees*

[vivien_sivvus]

Whoa... that's never happened to me, but it sounds really creepy!

[anait]

I don't self-insert, except in the way that all writers do, in bits and pieces that are mostly unintentional. I try and avoid self-insertion on purpose, to the extent that I don't have any fic written from the point-of-view of original female characters. I guess I thought that it's too self-revealing, or displays a lack of ability to imagine new characters, or that I'd just end up writing Mary Sues... I don't know. Do you?

Between the castles and the conductor quotes, this post was a lot of fun to read. :)

[vivien_sivvus]

Do I? I use parts of myself that I *don't* like to create the grittier parts of my characters, (the demon you know etc.) but I don't tend to like writing about the good parts of myself- like you said, it seems self-revealing.

Apart from any sarcasm. That's all me.

Thanks- I thought someone might find the castle interesting! :)