I am not an author with any interest in writing a self-insert main character. (How boring would that be? Very.) However, of course, all my main characters have part of me in them. So as an exercise in self-awareness and reflection, and in order of date written . . .
1. Maeron from The Fifth Tunnel is my loneliness and uncertainty.
2. Mort from Swallowgate is my trust, both rightly and wrongly given.
3. Logan and Alissa from Logic’s Emporium of Stolen Memories are my immovability, both positive and negative. Both, in different ways, put up with/don’t act in situations for far longer than they should; they cannot be moved. But then when they hit a breaking point and finally do move, they resettle themselves against their adversaries – and their adversaries cannot move them.
4. Stephen from The Monsters of Stephen Enchanter is my expectation of rejection and my drive to create.
5. Acacia and Quietus from Wizard: Deceased are the sorts of people I like to make friends with.
6. Mercedes from Bargaining Power is my aggression and strength.
7. The clockwork man from The Land of the Purple Ring is my honesty, optimism, and naiveté.
I think it’s worth noting that these traits get far more positive as time goes on, although all of them are forever true of me. And also that The Land of the Purple Ring was written right after a time of trauma and stress and betrayal. When writing that book, I swore none of the ugliness done to me would infect my book. And I am very proud of the fact that none of it did. That is my victory.
(Mercedes would approve.)
I do find it interesting that none of these are my academic self. The closest to that would be Mervyn from Wizard: Deceased and Chancellor Thomas from Bargaining Power. Then again, that’s not what I love to see in a protagonist, so . . .
