Echoes of a fictional character you created... IRL

[Longgfellow]

This is a question for authors out there... Have you ever seen or met an "echo" of a fictional character you created... in real life? By which I mean, you either imagined someone you met or just glanced was similar to a fictional character, or you imagined meeting them and imagined what they might say to you... or dreamed it... and it seemed surprisingly realistic?

I recently completed my first fictional story not done as a school assignment. I've started several stories before unfinished, or written outlines for ideas that I never went back to... I did stay up late writing this story, trying to finish it (BTW I am planning to submit to Lit as soon as editing is done), which might have messed with my head a little? Also, it has an erotic horror theme. A few days after I finished the first chapter I was at work walking across the campus and saw an attractive blond woman I didn't know walking by. For some reason it popped into my head maybe she looked like my fictional character, and then I looked at her more closely, and just for fun, imagined that it was her, kind of chuckling to myself what a silly thing to do, no harm meant. She glanced back at me and smiled as we passed and suddenly for a moment in my mind it was definitely her -- my character. She suddenly seemed extremely sexy and I felt a huge surge of lust and had to look away and calm myself. I was surprised and a little confused at my reaction and sort of made a mental note, maybe I should not do that again.

I thought it odd, but moved on.

A few weeks later I finished the story while I was staying in a hotel for a week for work. The night after I got home, I woke up in my own bed with my wife sleeping next to me. As people sometimes do I was confused and thought that I was still in the hotel room. My bedroom was completely dark. The story has sort-of an antagonist who is a shapeshifter and in part of the story he is in a wolf-hybrid form. We have 2 large dogs. One, at that moment, decided to move to the other side of the bedroom. This is all that happened in reality but in my brain, still half-asleep, woke up in the hotel room. I heard something moving around on the not-hotel-room floor. I sat up in bed and I heard it move around past the foot of the bed to my side of the bed. At first I thought, "OMG! There's a rat in this hotel room!"

But it sounded way too big for a rat.

I said aloud, "THERE'S SOMETHING IN HERE!"

My wife woke up, totally calm, and put a hand on my shoulder. "Yes..."

My dog also heard me. Instead of laying down he sat down near my side of the bed and stared at me, probably wondering what I was up to, was it a game?

In the darkness, I could barely make out a large canine shape. It opened its mouth and I could see teeth. It was completely unafraid of me.

In a flash, all these facts went through my head:

• A large, strange canine animal was in my hotel room
• the hotel room door was locked
• the animal was not afraid of me at all, was staring at me in fact
• the only solution to this impossibility I could think of was supernatural
• my wife was completely underestimating the danger of this situation

I screamed, "THERE'S A ... A DOG IN THIS ROOM!!!"

My wife, totally calm and slightly amused said, "Yes... There are two dogs in this room."

I could see the dog now looking a little scared, not sure if maybe he better duck and cover, sensing my fear. I sat there in confusion for what seemed like a long time, my wife's hand still resting on my shoulder. Slowly it dawned on me that we were home, and that was my dog... One of two... Then I calmed down.

Afterwards I remembered the story and realized it probably figured into my nighttime panic episode.

In a complete coincidence, later, I was reading a novel and the character had a love affair with his own fictional character. Then I remembered several other mentions by well known authors about conversations with their characters. I had chalked it up to artistic license -- surely Stephen King did not actually see his fictional characters in real life, that would be crazy, he just meant he sometimes imagined what they might say... But after that episode I started to wonder...

Does anyone else have similar experiences like this? Is it common?

 

[NotWise]

One of my earlier stories here had a female character who was slim and petite with short, dark hair that framed her face. In the key scene, she wore a capsleeved sundress with large red polka dots on white.

I walked out of the grocery story near my office one day when I was almost done with the story, and she passed me walking in. She was slim and petite, and had dark hair that framed her face and curled around her jaw line. She wore sunglasses, red lipstick and a capsleeved sundress with large red polka dots on a white background.

I almost turned around to follow her, but frankly the character had issues. If she had similar issues, then I didn't want to know her.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

One of my earlier stories here had a female character who was slim and petite with short, dark hair that framed her face. In the key scene, she wore a capsleeved sundress with large red polka dots on white.

I walked out of the grocery story near my office one day when I was almost done with the story, and she passed me walking in. She was slim and petite, and had dark hair that framed her face and curled around her jaw line. She wore sunglasses, red lipstick and a capsleeved sundress with large red polka dots on a white background.

I almost turned around to follow her, but frankly the character had issues. If she had similar issues, then I didn't want to know her.

That's hilarious!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Does anyone else have similar experiences like this? Is it common?

I often dream about a character I'm writing - that's when I know I've written her very well indeed.

My latest story (one chapter published, the next still in work) takes the premise that someone I met in the street, and who inspired a story, reads that story, recognises the encounter, and contacts the author. Who turns out to be the male protagonist from that story. All very meta and self-referential.

It would be amazing if the real woman I met that day recognised herself twice in the stories, and really did contact me. Hmmm... there's a story idea.

 

[Bramblethorn]

My first story here has a bit where Protag and Love Interest go on holiday to a country B&B run by an old gay couple. One of them was a retired barrister who was rather on the camp side ("Queen's Counsel and Queens' Counsel, my dear") and loved cooking.

A couple of weeks after I wrote that, my partner and I went to visit friends of her family who I'd never met before. The husband was... well, he was married to a woman, but if he was straight, he was the campest straight man I've ever met. He was a barrister. He was very much the physical type I'd imagined for my character. He was an excellent cook. And he had the same first name as my character.

I had to go back through the draft and change the name because nobody who discovered it would ever have believed it was coincidence.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

.
Many of my characters are based on people I know, and most all of the scenarios are based to varying degrees on my life or theirs, including the human trafficking (except of course, none of the I/T stuff is real). Since I’m writing about tangents of my own life, I’m not surprised when reality and writing coincide.

.

 

[Hypoxia]

Met a doppelganger? Only of myself but that was before I wrote. Many of my characters grow from folks I think I know but I don't really see them in others, except maybe cartoonish stereotypes. My rotten eyes see badly anyway so any recognition is unlikely. Who dat?

 

[NoJo]

One of my earlier stories here had a female character who was slim and petite with short, dark hair that framed her face. In the key scene, she wore a capsleeved sundress with large red polka dots on white.

I walked out of the grocery story near my office one day when I was almost done with the story, and she passed me walking in. She was slim and petite, and had dark hair that framed her face and curled around her jaw line. She wore sunglasses, red lipstick and a capsleeved sundress with large red polka dots on a white background.

I almost turned around to follow her, but frankly the character had issues. If she had similar issues, then I didn't want to know her.

That is sooo cool; she must have read your story and liked the dress!

 

[Duleigh]

Most of my characters are based on people I've met in the past... so yeah I meet doppelgangers, every time I hit the keyboard. I just submitted two stories where no one was based on someone I know and it was one of the harder things I had to do. I think the readers are going to call these characters are 2 dimensional, but since this is based on an anime, isn't' that a good thing?

 

[gunhilltrain]

.
Many of my characters are based on people I know, and most all of the scenarios are based to varying degrees on my life or theirs, including the human trafficking (except of course, none of the I/T stuff is real). Since I’m writing about tangents of my own life, I’m not surprised when reality and writing coincide.

.

Yeah, I've had a few characters loosely based on people I knew. I've even used my ex-wife a couple of times. I've also used photos, usually found online, and I made up an identity to go along with their appearance. But, no, it's never run in the opposite direction, I mean I've never met or even seen anyone who was anything like a fictional person I had created earlier.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've used a fair few real anecdotes in my stories, so it's sometimes very odd when one comes up in conversation and I have to try not to sound like my characters, who have often told the story more coherently.

 

[LdyHoneybee]

This is a question for authors out there... Have you ever seen or met an "echo" of a fictional character you created... in real life? By which I mean, you either imagined someone you met or just glanced was similar to a fictional character, or you imagined meeting them and imagined what they might say to you... or dreamed it... and it seemed surprisingly realistic?

I recently completed my first fictional story not done as a school assignment. I've started several stories before unfinished, or written outlines for ideas that I never went back to... I did stay up late writing this story, trying to finish it (BTW I am planning to submit to Lit as soon as editing is done), which might have messed with my head a little? Also, it has an erotic horror theme. A few days after I finished the first chapter I was at work walking across the campus and saw an attractive blond woman I didn't know walking by. For some reason it popped into my head maybe she looked like my fictional character, and then I looked at her more closely, and just for fun, imagined that it was her, kind of chuckling to myself what a silly thing to do, no harm meant. She glanced back at me and smiled as we passed and suddenly for a moment in my mind it was definitely her -- my character. She suddenly seemed extremely sexy and I felt a huge surge of lust and had to look away and calm myself. I was surprised and a little confused at my reaction and sort of made a mental note, maybe I should not do that again.

I thought it odd, but moved on.

A few weeks later I finished the story while I was staying in a hotel for a week for work. The night after I got home, I woke up in my own bed with my wife sleeping next to me. As people sometimes do I was confused and thought that I was still in the hotel room. My bedroom was completely dark. The story has sort-of an antagonist who is a shapeshifter and in part of the story he is in a wolf-hybrid form. We have 2 large dogs. One, at that moment, decided to move to the other side of the bedroom. This is all that happened in reality but in my brain, still half-asleep, woke up in the hotel room. I heard something moving around on the not-hotel-room floor. I sat up in bed and I heard it move around past the foot of the bed to my side of the bed. At first I thought, "OMG! There's a rat in this hotel room!"

But it sounded way too big for a rat.

I said aloud, "THERE'S SOMETHING IN HERE!"

My wife woke up, totally calm, and put a hand on my shoulder. "Yes..."

My dog also heard me. Instead of laying down he sat down near my side of the bed and stared at me, probably wondering what I was up to, was it a game?

In the darkness, I could barely make out a large canine shape. It opened its mouth and I could see teeth. It was completely unafraid of me.

In a flash, all these facts went through my head:

• A large, strange canine animal was in my hotel room
• the hotel room door was locked
• the animal was not afraid of me at all, was staring at me in fact
• the only solution to this impossibility I could think of was supernatural
• my wife was completely underestimating the danger of this situation

I screamed, "THERE'S A ... A DOG IN THIS ROOM!!!"

My wife, totally calm and slightly amused said, "Yes... There are two dogs in this room."

I could see the dog now looking a little scared, not sure if maybe he better duck and cover, sensing my fear. I sat there in confusion for what seemed like a long time, my wife's hand still resting on my shoulder. Slowly it dawned on me that we were home, and that was my dog... One of two... Then I calmed down.

Afterwards I remembered the story and realized it probably figured into my nighttime panic episode.

In a complete coincidence, later, I was reading a novel and the character had a love affair with his own fictional character. Then I remembered several other mentions by well known authors about conversations with their characters. I had chalked it up to artistic license -- surely Stephen King did not actually see his fictional characters in real life, that would be crazy, he just meant he sometimes imagined what they might say... But after that episode I started to wonder...

Does anyone else have similar experiences like this? Is it common?

No, but I once had a friend who told me she married my favorite “child” irl. I did not agree but I let her have her fantasy. When I write a character, really write them, spend time getting to know and understand them, they take on their own life, their own personalities, and try sometimes to make their own decisions That are not necessarily the decisions I want them to make. I have seen other authors say this also. Sometimes, I have even refrained from writing an event because I KNEW how they would respond and I did not want them to go that way. I am always on the lookout for actors who “could play them in the movies,” however. (Well, everybody has dreams.)