Leaderboard

Well that's very kind of you to say so, I thank you for it.

I started out writing longhand, in a series of notebooks, going through pens at a prodigious rate, and working on my laptop desk or at the pool. Then I would type everything up on the computer, and edit, edit, edit... It got colder, and I moved indoors, and eliminated the middle man, so to speak, and now I work on the computer. I still make notes to myself on all sorts of things, including scraps of paper, post-it notes, and my arm. Many, many years ago, I had an old Royal typewriter, with the cloth ribbons, and I used to love pounding away on that old thing...

I prefer typing, mostly because it would feel like a waste of effort to me to write everything out, then type it up for my internet victims readers. Typewriters are great to use, but it's been 13 or 14 years since I had the chance. I like the noises and the feel of them, but as noted by SK, mistakes could be an issue - especially if your typing skill was as weak as mine could be.

Well, sure. In my stories, there's a part of me in each and every character. But it's not self insertion. I think the technical term would be 'unavoidable.'But if you're writing and you start to worry that someone may think your character is SI, it may be worth reviewing. Maybe your subconscious or your muse is trying to tell you something. Don't be afraid to count traits. "Like me...not like me...like me...like me...identifiable as me from orbit...not like me...." But it's not a crime. Hell, Self Insertion isn't criminal. But at the level of Mary Sue, it starts to look like masturbating...which is frowned upon in public venues... Zacktly! Just make sure your character is believable. IF you have that down, no one even notices if it's Self Insertion.