Sally wrote in reply to me:

I find it helps to base original characters on real (preferably not too pretty*) people I know, at least physically - it makes it less likely that I'll idealise them or morph them into myself.

Excellent idea. Though I never write beautiful people. Can't relate to them!

Though there are always *bits* of oneself in nearly character one writes,

I

think - certainly those that I work hard on. Even the crew (my version of Vila's voice is decidedly different from other people's, the rhythms and words and ideas, because they have to come from *my* rhythms and words

and

ideas).

That's very encouraging, though I do try to get the right feel, esp. with Vila and Avon who have very distinctive voices. One thing I've found is that local words and usages creep in without me noticing.

It's probably more noticeable when the character is entirely your own creation, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Oh, good!

<Mind you, I've also created Vila's mother, and she's rather like mine. Is there a term for that? :-)>

That depends on how nicely or otherwise you'd describe your mother <veg>

Fairly nicely in this case. I based Vila's mum in his e-mails on *part* of mine, using only her protectiveness and neurotic worries about him - that he's eating properly, dressing warmly, and probably dead at the bottom of a cliff or in some other horrible way if she hasn't heard from him for a while. I left out my mother's hypercritical nature. Poor Vila didn't need that too.

Anyway maybe a good term would be Mummy Sue?

In the more serious fiction I'm doing, Jandy Restal isn't my mother at all; though I've kept the same character name. Her different, darker history makes her a different person.

*though, as I have noted, there *are* no ugly revolutionaries in space ...

Now I think of it, you're right! No self-insertions for me then! :-)

Nico