I think this is a good way to look at it. I don’t want another character like me. I have MANY characters, and they all have a part of me in them somehow but I like to make them all different and I ain’t looking for me in a book. I want my name. I can relate with characters elsewhere.
I just like to see that Monica’s are included in books, too. So I wanna add one.
But honestly, yes. I didn’t even think about that but even characters without your name can end up being a self-insert so the name doesn’t really hold much weight, other than looking pretty on a page and having meaning to the author in some way.
I never read books with a character that has my name in it (not Enna). I don’t even like reading books written by authors that have the same name as me.
I’m probably weird XD Since I was four or five, I really had this thing against people or fictional characters that share my name. I don’t hate the person or the character, I just don’t like it when my name is mentioned for someone else.
But, I’m not one of those people who are super attached to their name either. I don’t think my name is special. I don’t hate my name. I just don’t like seeing it in public unless it has to do with school or academia
I don’t know how you super-common-name people deal with life XD
My name is not super common, but it appears enough to bug me when it does.
To add, I don’t feel like it’s particularly a self-insert. Unless the character shares some traits with me. But, in the end, I don’t care if people use the same name. I just won’t read it
You’d be surprised at how uncommon Monica is where I live. I’ve met very few Monica’s in my life, which explains why I rarely seen the name used in media or entertainment, too.
I feel like it’s just not a name people think about using anymore.
I had gone through this phase for years where I despised my name. I wanted to be named April, and I would always write myself as April in my early stories (back when all I wrote were self-insert stories for me and my friends).
Everyone else I wrote stories with used their real name but i never would. I don’t know exactly when it happened but I remember I started using my real name and eventually grew to really love it. I’ve had many customers tell me it’s a pretty name and you don’t see it much anymore. It’s not like Emily (super common). I have a friend who’s name is so uncommon that she will never find her name on any Keychains.
Anywho, enough of my rambling.
I just want to see more Monicas in stories because I feel like I’m forgotten, but I don’t have the right to tell people to name their characters Monica do I’m left with one option. Name one of my characters Monica. As for which story she’ll be in, I do not know. It’ll be a surprise I guess.
It’s not the name that bothers me, it’s the personality of the character sharing the author’s name. If you want to have a character named Monica who’s a fully fleshed out, real person with flaws, then by all means, do that! Other readers named Monica would love it, for one thing. I just hate it when a character is damn near perfect and so obviously just wishful thinking on the author’s part. For instance, Pride and Prejudice has a saintly character named Jane, whose only flaw is that she thinks too highly of other people. Argh. So much in that book made me gag! Just don’t make your character Monica too saintly and good, and you’ll be fine! ٩(˘◡˘)۶
Thank you! That’s what I was going for, doing my best to separate myself from Monica so she is a real person with flaws. I hope other Monicas would enjoy that.
So, to find a character with my name would probably make me feel all sorts of things. However, I myself wouldn’t do that for my own reasons. For other authors to name a character after themselves, to each their own I suppose. Would I read such a story? I would probably find it a tiny bit odd until I get to know the character more.
I’ve got plenty of stuff. Just that I’m testing online stuff with werewolf sometimes-smut before I’m all in…and so I’ve got stuff moldering on the laptop.
Do you ever just spontaneously write a chapter or an entire story without any planning?
Like just go for it. You don’t care how it will look afterward just want to write all your thoughts down and get it out of the way. BUT this is not an every day thing.
As for which story she’ll be in, I do not know. It’ll be a surprise I guess.
maybe I’ll join soon when I have a second of non-business (not business, but BUSY-ness) to myself.