Has anyone else noticed that a lot of authors tend to write every single character as being just as witty as they, themselves, are? Oscar Wilde plays make me crazy for this. They're soo funny to read, so I forgive them for the grievance, but come on!

Oscar Wilde just had a lot of wit to share. Not all of his characters are smarty pants, especially in his dramas.

What I can't stand is characters who are written to be everything the author wishes they were. Beautiful, clever, witty, adored, mary-sues... Gah. It makes me want to hunt them down with a rusty pipe.

I know the times when I read a book like that where the character is " all knowing" makes me want to slap the author and say that this character is supposed to be like a regular person so it can keep the reader interested in the story when trouble starts

lol - a lot of writers use parts of themself to depict characters because it's what they know best. It's especially common with writers who post online at ficionpress and fanfiction - so many people use themselves as a model for characters.

That being said - I love it at times if it's portrayed beautiful - like Oscar Wilde - but other times it can be dull - like those writers on online writing communities - they seem to forget details because, even though it's a good thing that they write what they know, they sometimes assume other people just know and forget to write it all out. I'm just generalizing here - it's not true - I myself read stories on ficitonpress and some of them are amazing - and some famous authors use themselves too much - either way - it's interesting to see how they view themselves.

I like Oscar Wild! He's good. Have some of his works on one of my shelves.

Writers do that a lot, as myself, I base characters from parts of my own personality, but always adding a twist from one of my friends or just my imagination. It works well because, me being a writer I understand somewhat, that it makes a much better character. If you make a new character, which you know nothing about you have to spend a lot more time to create him, and for some they can do this.

Still using your own personality for a character usually gives them more depth.

Heh, I don't know. Wilde was dealing with a rather particular approach to story telling and he does it well. Off hand, I can't think of any professional author I read that has all 'perfect' characters. But then, I think when I stumble across books like those, I think I just put them down and forget about them.