One of the writing discussions I had with the guys who cut down my tree was about the role of the author in any written work. One of the guys asserted that all writing was ultimately autobiography because it was filtered through the author’s perspective. He seemed surprised that I didn’t disagree.

When someone wants to criticize an author, the term “Mary Sue” or “self insert” gets thrown around (particularly toward women). While it can be annoying to read something where it’s painfully obvious that the main character is a stand-in for the author, living out their fantasies and utterly insulated from all story logic, the truth is that just about all characters have some element of the author in them, since we’re the only person we have experience being from the inside out. Our frame of reference is the way we see the world and how we experience feelings, both physical and emotional. We can empathize and sympathize with others and try to put ourselves in their shoes, but we still have to imagine based on our own experiences.

The way I like to describe it is that I put myself in a blender, add some other things, and then a character is what comes out. Each character may draw on different aspects of myself and leave out aspects of myself and will add other things to it, but I’m still in there. I try not to identify so closely with any character that I let the universe warp around that person and create my own little fantasy bubble universe in which a character is the most special snowflake ever and gets all the good things that I’d like to have, but I can’t imagine how I could leave myself entirely out of a character if that character is going to have any dimension.

But, as I said to the tree guys, the key to writing more interesting, varied characters is to make yourself a more interesting person. The more input you have, the more material you have to go into that blender to mix up with aspects of yourself. That means learning and experiencing. When I’m researching a character, I look for memoirs and autobiographies of people who’ve been in similar situations so I can learn about those situations from their perspective. It’ll still be filtered through me, but there’s other input, and adding that information to my head changes me a little because my view is broadened. I read a lot of biography and history, even when I’m not researching a specific book. I like to wander through the non-fiction section of the library and grab random books that catch my eye. I love YouTube because it’s full of people giving their perspectives on random things. It’s all more stuff to go into that blender.

You can talk to people who are different from you or have unusual professions (like the tree guys), go to different places, try doing new things (like taking a pottery class). To be a good writer, you have to be a lifelong learner. That’s a big part of the appeal for me. I like learning and absorbing information, going to new places and meeting new people — and then getting to consider it “work.”