[ SECRET POST #6012 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6012 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 08 secrets from Secret Submission Post #859.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's pretty basic concept - "I'm special and part of the team of important people now"

It works better for the writer than the reader imo but if you click with the reader's self insert it's basically like you wrote it yourself!

[(Anonymous)]

But what's the appeal in that? That's the part I don't get.

I don't want to be part of the team, I want to read ABOUT the team.

[(Anonymous)]

Some people are different from you.

[(Anonymous)]

That's why I'm asking what the appeal is, so I can try to understand.

Maybe I just have too much of a divide between fantasy and reality to be able to get what makes it interesting to some people.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Shows tend to have a pretty limited range of what's going to make it onscreen, and more so with what kind of personality gets into the regular cast that screenwriters are having to come up with lines for. So, like ... if that's not you, sometimes watching the show can feel like wanting to say things or do things that literally never happen, and see how your favorite characters would respond.

Of course, as a writer, you can also control the plot in your story to an extent that tends to make self-inserts not that interesting for anyone who isn't getting to control which way the story goes. Too many people want the *effect* of something that they don't actually know how to do, so you have characters who are normally serious and reserved laughing uproariously and admiring the self-insert for being charismatic and witty, for instance, when the actual lines the writer managed to give their fantasy self were not that good. Just to pick on a very common example.

Nah, but I say this with all the affection in the world, because facing a blank page and trying to tell stories is hard. Doing it in such a way that other people follow along and feel like what you're making up really could have happened is harder. And failing and trying again over and over is literally how anyone gets good at it. But initially, all the stuff you can't do is frustrating as fuck. So in that light, self-inserts have an immediate payoff that's accessible to every fan who can give themselves permission to write them - it's like being able to face the characters directly, as yourself, and tell them whatever's in your heart. In your own words, but in a setting where they will understand you. And it's accessible regardless of skill level. People come to enjoy a whole bunch of other things if they stick with writing, but that particular thing is hugely motivating.

[(Anonymous)]

You don't understand people wanting to be part of a team?

[(Anonymous)]

I mean in the sense that for me, fiction is fiction and I don't want to be involved in it. I love reading stories about the characters and writing my own stories for them and sometimes even coming up with brand new original characters to play with in an existing universe, but I don't want ME to be any part of that.

Like, I can understand thinking "this group could really use a character who is more down to earth" and then writing in a new character that fits that bill, but that character wouldn't be me, they would be their own distinct character that I came up with specifically for that purpose, if that makes any sense?

[(Anonymous)]

Okay but we're not talking about you, you know? Do you not know how to empathize or understand someone else's experience? That may sound snarky but it's an honest open question. People have given you some good answers, yet you seem really stuck on "understanding" equaling "I want to do this" and that's not what it is.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Maybe they write with the assumption that the writer's opinions will be revealed through the plot and other aspects of storytelling.

Some very introverted people would balk at the idea of a fictional version of themselves. It would feel as if they had just published a personal diary page of theirs, for the whole world to stare at.

[(Anonymous)]

Above anon and honestly, maybe that's why I just can't understand it at all.

I don't write with the idea that my own personal opinions have any bearing on the story in the slightest. The story and the characters are completely separate entities from me, I write with whatever makes sense for them in mind regardless of how I personally feel about it. So the idea of putting a character in that's supposed to be a representation of me is like breaking the concept of fiction?