I find that using real life characters and adapting them is the best route to 'original' characters. aaah but what if people read my stories and know it's them they'll know I still shy away from that--a lot of people in the first couple years of Fiction Collective used to base their stories on people they knew, and the stories were always flat and sort of pointless. It can be very hard to write about someone you personally know and be able to communicate their complexity to the audience, for the same reason that geniuses are often not good teachers.
OTOH if you mean basing them off of people you vaguely know or famous people in non-famous scenarios, then I am all up for that.
no subject
aaah but what if people read my stories and know it's them they'll know
I still shy away from that--a lot of people in the first couple years of Fiction Collective used to base their stories on people they knew, and the stories were always flat and sort of pointless. It can be very hard to write about someone you personally know and be able to communicate their complexity to the audience, for the same reason that geniuses are often not good teachers.
OTOH if you mean basing them off of people you vaguely know or famous people in non-famous scenarios, then I am all up for that.