Do novelists write their friends and family into their stories?Yes. Utsudo borrows some events from friends around her, but only the people involved would recognize them — and she pokes fun at herself even more often. She has also written stories for friends, such as Guardian Angel, Open 365 Days to encourage an unlucky friend, The Psychology of Love for a heartbroken friend, and Cinderella’s Glass Slippers, hoping a friend would step out of the gloom.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Using friends and family as novel characters

　　Using people around me as novel characters? Of course I have!

　　If I’m going to roast — no, I mean honor — someone, of course I start with the people around me,though in my works I roast myself far more often than others.

　　After all, the people around me know my pen name. If they actually found out, I’d probably have been bagged and beaten who knows how many times already. So for personal safety, I think selling out myself is safer — I’ve made plenty of blunders anyway (covers face

　　Though some people are clearly having a blast being teased… ahem!!

　　But I must clarify, my dear friends: although I occasionally use your embarrassing moments as plot events, I hide them very carefully, maybe using only a tiny part. Basically no one but the person involved would recognize who it’s about, so don’t worry too much —

　　Hey, wait! Calm down!! Put down that grenade—!!!

　　Beeeeeep————

　　Well, let’s not mind this charred frizzy hair that looks a bit like a microphone, and get back on topic.

Works written for friends

　　Actually, apart from RO Adventure Journal, which really does sell… I mean,adapta friend’s story, the rest basically just borrow bits of events. But I’ve definitely drawn many story ideas from people around me, so I’ve also written stories for friends.

　　Although most story ideas and the protagonists’ longings basically come from me, quite a few works were written for people around me.

　　For example, a friend felt they were really unlucky, so to encourage them and show them how many people were by their side, I wrote Guardian Angel, Open 365 Days. There’s also The Psychology of Love, to remind someone who’d lost the courage to love after a breakup, and Cinderella’s Glass Slippers, hoping she’d step out of the gloom and live as herself… and so on.

　　There are also some manuscripts that haven’t been released or weren’t accepted, sitting on my D drive. Maybe someday I’ll revamp and post them XD

My novels are a record of my life

　　But besides works written for laughs, fun or record-keeping, I also often write tocommemorate and remember— perhaps a relationship, friends or family lost or passed away, or shifts in my beliefs and thinking…

　　Since I’ve had a writing habit for a long time, even though I rarely keep a diary, flipping back through old works lets merecall one by one what I used to worry about, care about, lose and long for — even what events happened at the time.

　　In other words, my novels are essentially a record of my life.

　　But it seems only people very close to me can decode a bit of it; most people just smile and move on.

　　Come to think of it… isn’t that basically making my diary public for everyone to read!!!

　　Uh-oh, isn’t this a bit too embarrassing (covers face

　　Forget it! Forget all of it!!! (blushes and runs

FAQ

Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #49 (in Chinese)
• Next: #51 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.

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