Do You Ever Encounter Your Characters in Real Life?

[neuroparenthetical]

Gosh, I sure hope not. Most of them would go into shock if confronted with the harsh realities of this miserable existence.

With a few notable exceptions, I like my characters. I root for them. I make sure to give them a much nicer universe to live in. Smut is one of the few genres of writing where you can do that consistently and still attract readers. There's not a very wide audience for cozy, conflict-free, utopian fiction. Even the Hallmark Channel doesn't quite get there, and that shit is a digitized Xanax prescription for older housefraus who literally cannot cope anymore.

 

[Nicefella]

I was lunching with my sister in a restaurant when I turned my head and saw the total embodiment of one of my characters. I was about to wave to him to say "hi," when I realized what I was doing, and pulled my hand down. Very surreal moment.

@MissPrim I’d love to know more about this! How was he the total embodiment of one of your character!?

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Holy necropost Batman! Gotta check those dates Mr. Nicefella.

 

[EmilyMiller]

It's not exactly déjà vu, but it is déjà something - running across your characters in real life. Or your characters' characteristics. I'm not talking about basing a character on somebody real, I'm talking about characters built completely out of your imagination that you later encounter in reality.

Yup. Went to stay with one of my “characters” a few weeks back.

Then there is also the mirror.

Can someone please disable my Lit access, I really need to go to sleep!

Em

 

[AchtungNight]

I write about real people all the time. If I ever were to actually meet them… well, the climax of “Casablanca” comes to mind. I’d be Rick, of course.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I never have for characters but visiting Wells, Somerset, AKA Sandford, Gloucestershire, AKA Forston, Somerset, certainly gave me a boost for finishing HOT AND FUZZY and made me wonder just what goes on in that area and how much my art resembled reality.

 

[ExploringSoul]

My characters, I think, are quite realistic, so I like to think that anyone I pass on the street can have similar desires and adventures.

After I published a fully fictional story on a kink forum, I got contacted by someone who identified with the female lead. That certainly was interesting.

 

[Dearelliot]

In some stories, sort of. I base characters and events I've known, and experienced but with embellishment of course.
One character, Liz, who I did live with is in my Army story, and she was an amateur femdom, not nearly the person I described.

 

[mpeters]

I have not, but there is a fantasy of meeting a real life version of Kate Robinson from that group of stories, where I’d see her and see things that fit the character, and her looking at me like I seem familiar but can’t figure out why…

 

[Devinter]

I have not - however, I've had a few of them PM me! I've gotten emails like "It sounds like you're describing me to the letter in your story!". Of course, I have no measurement to verify the validity of these claims, but based on the fact that they went out of their way to email me - usually just to mention how similar one of my characters were to their personality and/or real life experiences - I would assume that there must be a large degree of truth to it.