She Is Me, Fictionally Speaking

It was bound to happen; I was destined to eventually write about a female writer, who was bullied as a kid, and at some point, loses her hair. After all, all of the writing I'd done up to that point, be it in my journals or stories for the occasional creative writing assignment, was in some way, all about me. I don't know of any writer out there whose stories and characters don't somehow include a bit of themselves. The trick is to write the character so they aren't a Mary Sue or the male-gendered equivalent, Gary Stu. (click to learn more about the term)

Charise Sayles is a woman in her early 30