I worry about accidental self insert characters, partially because reviews often rip into them as Mary Sues, and partially because I want to make sure my characters are distinct and well defined. One strategy I have to avoid accidental self inserts is to include intentional ones. It feels silly, but giving my self a cameo as a side character is really fun, and it gives me an outlet for my self insertion urges 😂 Was wondering if anyone else does this, or if it's just me and Stan Lee.

I absolutely do it! There's a side character that has my features but not any of my personality. I just try not to make someone exactly like me.

Author Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files) always inserted himself as a cameo, usually arriving to help the hero or talk about classic cars. It's always a tiny role. The great Alfred Hitchcock always did that; in the movie "To catch a thief", the great man appeared on a bus carrying a bird in a bird cage. What I have done to prevent inserting myself is to create as many characters as possible. I have spent time watching people in public places. I keep a mental note of that person's description: young/ old, body characteristics, race/ethnicity, religious, man/female, and what they are doing. Each person is then a different character. For example, I was on a cruise looking at the people in the concourse, going to and from the various establishments. That was extremely rich environment. I personally don't like to do it. If you want to do it in an artful way, go for it

Replying to justinc.06t: Author Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files) always inserted himself as a cameo, usual... ↩️ I like the approach of creating as many characters as possible. Do you usually use all the characters you create, or do you brainstorm a bunch and then pick the ones that fit best?

Replying to Bethany: Replying to justinc.06t: Author Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files) always inserted ... ↩️ It depends. If they are background characters, like if a character is waiting in line and instead of being engrossed on her phone, she takes a quick opportunity to see who's in front of her. That could be as vague as possible. Sometimes, I have a character who's based on a real person. I took some of their characteristics, change the name, etc., and that becomes someone else.