A Goodreads user asked Allison M. Dickson:

Is it common to encounter situations where a reader does not distinguish between your thoughts and feelings from those of your characters? If so, how do you handle this?

Allison M. Dickson It doesn't happen too often, but it definitely does happen, especially when I write protagonists who are generally not all that likable. Sometimes friends or family members will read my stuff and see a teensy snippet of something in there that they recognize, like a name or an anecdote from real life, and they'll think, oh so THAT'S what you really think of me (or this issue)! It's funny no one ever tries to attribute the positive stuff to themselves. :-P

At any rate, this notion that the things I make my characters do or say is "me" couldn't be further from the truth, and I like to remind folks that I am a fiction author first and foremost. I write in many cases to escape real life, not mirror it on the page. Though I do believe what Stephen King says about fiction being the truth inside the lie, said truths are more in the broad sense and not about specific things and people or politics or religion. I don't try to embed messages about my stances on social issues in my work -- that's a bit too didactic for my liking and it gets in the way of making authentic characters, and I also think it's lazy for authors to always be falling back on those same laurels. I believe writers need to challenge themselves and stretch unfamiliar muscles in their work. And if they're going to be putting a lot of their personal views or experiences into the work, they need to do it obliquely enough that it doesn't read like a manifesto.

You can usually tell when an author is trying to intrude on his or her own work. Some can succeed at it. Robert Heinlein had a way of making his characters sermonize on his pet issues that was so utterly persuasive and fascinating that you would put his books down wondering how best to go about starting a polygamous nudist colony. I could never get away with that, and I'd rather not try.

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