Falling in love with your own characters

[SimonDoom]

No. I can't recall ever doing this.

I have written characters who are projections of feelings and desires and fantasies and who embody things I'm attracted to, but I'm always aware that they're fictional creations and I don't ever think of them as real people. So I cannot fall in love with them.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Simon Pegg?

Erm…no. It was SPECTOR_D I asked permission off. HOT AND FUZZY was a straight-up homage to the set-up of the original HF with a few of my own-brand of saucy twists.

You don’t necessarily fall in love with your characters. I think those I'm writing about now are pretty shallow and vacuous but it is logical to love what you create.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've dreamed of characters while writing them so, yes, when that happens, I've generally fallen in love with them. I figure, if I don't, how can I expect anyone else to?

 

[stickygirl]

No. I can't recall ever doing this.

I have written characters who are projections of feelings and desires and fantasies and who embody things I'm attracted to, but I'm always aware that they're fictional creations and I don't ever think of them as real people. So I cannot fall in love with them.

Oh Simon *sigh* Are you really from Vulcan?

 

[oneagainst]

Not fall in love with them, terrified of some of them maybe, but rooting for them* all the same.

*notation on Australian dialect: as opposed to rooting them, just so we're clear

 

[SimonDoom]

Oh Simon *sigh* Are you really from Vulcan?

 

[JohnSm123]

I know something along these lines has been posted before. This is a new thing for me as most of the characters in my early work were based on actual people. Even in some more recent work, the disguise worn by characters is kinda thin (e.g. Dungeon 101, or Off the Shoulder).

But, in my latest - Jacob’s Progress (still to be published) - no character is consciously based on anyone I know. And I kinda fell in love with one of my two FMCs. I found myself actually welling up when writing two sections involving her (and again when editing them).

Is this normal?

Em

I was in love with a FMC of mine for about two years.

 

[Duleigh]

I fall in love with my characters all the time, I never want to stop writing them. Enchantress 2 is at 55K words now and I might finish it up under 60K

 

[EmilyMiller]

I fall in love with my characters all the time, I never want to stop writing them. Enchantress 2 is at 55K words now and I might finish it up under 60K

See, I can be smug now. Although it’s split over three episodes, Coleoidphilia is over 60k words. I never thought I could write something that long.

Em

 

[ElectricBlue]

Not fall in love with them, terrified of some of them maybe, but rooting for them* all the same.

*notation on Australian dialect: as opposed to rooting them, just so we're clear

Yes, the famous lesson on commas: The wombat eats roots shoots and leaves. Insert commas as required. Punctuation matters.

 

[Voboy]

I don't "fall in love" with mine. But I certainly do want to meet them. They're very, very real people to me.

 

[Duleigh]

See, I can be smug now. Although it’s split over three episodes, Coleoidphilia is over 60k words. I never thought I could write something that long.

Em

We're a Wonderful Wife chapters 1-14 clock in at 376,227 words (if you add in the side stories the total goes up to 445,211 words)

That's what love has to do with it.

Your turn.

 

[EmilyMiller]

We're a Wonderful Wife chapters 1-14 clock in at 376,227 words (if you add in the side stories the total goes up to 445,211 words)

That's what love has to do with it.

Your turn.

Just another 55k to go!

Em

 

[MillieDynamite]

It was not impossible, but highly unlikely, that the high school scenario would have happened. Their young ages at the time weigh pretty heavily against it. A better rule of thumb is to grieve for a while, and then move on. Difficult at the start, but healthier in the longer run as you just demonstrated.

Pops says no one ever knew just how not nice she really was. He broke up with her for a reason, and he won't elaborate on that reason. All I know is it wasn't cheating but something else, something she did to a friend of his. Yes, a girl that was a friend, but never a girlfriend.

 

[Duleigh]

Just another 55k to go!

Em

That will take you to 115K, a little short of 445K but I didn't notice how big WaWW was getting until I hit Chapter 8

 

[EmilyMiller]

That will take you to 115K, a little short of 445K but I didn't notice how big WaWW was getting until I hit Chapter 8

I meant you, hun - to hit 0.5 million.

Em

 

[Duleigh]

I meant you, hun - to hit 0.5 million.

Em

The story is over, I might write a side story or two but I promised that Chapter 14 would be the end. Most of the chapter was a big Epilogue. There is one more story promised but it will be assigned to the Stormwatch series for the Summer Contest but who's to say there's not another side story out there waiting for the plotbunny to strike.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Pops says no one ever knew just how not nice she really was. He broke up with her for a reason, and he won't elaborate on that reason. All I know is it wasn't cheating but something else, something she did to a friend of his. Yes, a girl that was a friend, but never a girlfriend.

I guess this is relevant. My 50th high school reunion was held last Saturday. I didn't count them, but the list seems to show about 150-200 people out of class of over 800 attending. A mere $125 to go to a rather nice restaurant in Manhattan. But the last person I actually still knew personally (he's going) - I haven't seen him since 1988. So I'm not going. I remember being there, but it's become moot now. It's sort of liberating to let the past go.

You might be interested in examining this location. Looks like the most expensive item on their regular menu is a bottle of Pinot Noir for $1,860. Of course, one could dine there quite well for a lot less than that.

https://robertnyc.com/

 

[John_Vandermeer]

It was incestuous and yet he gave her a ring? That's a new one for me. Was it blood relatives?

As for being dumped, I have one guy who only lasted four months with her, and then he has to deal with her for another three years. (They work together, but on a student paper.) Then ten years later they meet by accident, and she wants him back. At this point I have him spending a couple of weeks assessing the situation. I haven't decided the outcome yet.

It was 1st degree incestuous and he did give her a ring. Which she of course refused, yet he sliped it deceitfully in her bag anyway. Father-Daughter that get on a slippery slope divorce rebound relationship. Not that he meant wedding bells and the whole show, but he did lose his sense of reality in the relationship, and he did mean some kind of “you are my best partner ever” message, which is a (the) key reason she dumped him. And cut off contact for some time, ending the story. Story line did escalate the romantic tragedy vibes as it went, even as it kept up the incestuous femdom ones with which it started.

 

[32aa]

All of my stories have been based, to some extent, on somebody from my past, except "Same Old Lang Syne".

That said, my two MF characters from "I know you aren't a serial rapist" are two characters that I poured my heart and soul into. I enjoy rereading my stories, and there are scenes in that story that still make me choke up. I often ask myself, "Did I really write that?"

It's like what has already been mentioned, 'You create a 'living' person and not just a cardboard cut out of a fictional and faceless character'.

I think it's that kind of emotional commitment that comes through in the story and draws the readers into the feelings of and between the characters. It's why we write.

Maybe it's just me.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yes, the famous lesson on commas: The wombat eats roots shoots and leaves. Insert commas as required. Punctuation matters.

There could be quite an explicit version of that, as you may have noticed.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There could be quite an explicit version of that, as you may have noticed.

That's why it's a lesson in comma placement, importance thereof.

 

[TheSoaringCrow]

This may be pointing out the obvious, but even though your characters aren't based on anyone, they are still based on observations you have made in your life of the people around you. In a way, and I'm sorry if this sounds sad, you're creating imaginary friends when you are creating characters. You are giving them more than just a few lines on a page, you are giving them a history, a life, experiences, you are giving them their own agency and drive that helps them (you) guide their moral compasses. Even emotions and possible traumas that may have created those emotions, all of that doesn't just come out of a vacuum. You've become a TV antenna, tuning into the frequency of the world and absorbing little snippets as you watch. And, yes, pun intended, because even the media you take in helps you to shape your own characters.
Then, subconsciously, you tie in your own life with theirs. Comparing and contrasting. Curiosity and maybe envy or compassion. All of these spill into your writing. So, whether you recognized it or not, your female lead character is, in some way, a part of you and your experiences, both the ones that have happened and the ones you wish have happened.
With all that being said, yes! You are normal! And if a character you have created has the power to draw emotions out of you, the person that is creating them, then like others have posted, "so will the readers!"

 

[SimonDoom]

Yes, the famous lesson on commas: The wombat eats roots shoots and leaves. Insert commas as required. Punctuation matters.

Never trust a wombat who shoots up the place and doesn't stick around to pay for his roots. That's one nasty wombat.


I hadn't heard this lesson before. I like it.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I hadn't heard this lesson before. I like it.

It's a regular on the Year 10 English exams over here.