Ch 9, Morris & Laube-Make the Character Come Alive

From pg. 118:

“You will find yourself becoming that character…But don’t let your character become you. Take on his traits and feelings; don’t have him take on yours.”

“The acid test of a real-life character is when she starts to think and act for herself.”

My notes after reading:

Stumbling on these. They almost seem backwards to me— or at least to my experience. But that may be the problem right there: At least, the problem of a freshman novel, a first story written, or a self-insert. Something like that. Why “you don’t publish your first story first.” The story written for yourself.

Not sure where I’m going with this, so looking for feedback. I feel like all my characters are me—some aspect of me. I hope they are not all carbon-copies, and I don’t think they are. Pretty sure they’re not! As for the “acid test”, I get what he’s saying, but it still seems like an artificial distance put between my characters and me. None of those characters will do anything but what I write. They may come from surprising, hidden, or disturbing parts of me, but they come from me nonetheless.

Thoughts, comments, questions? Something obvious I’m missing in my naivete?