Have you ever fallen in love with your characters

[JamesMiehoff]

By that I mean do you ever write a story and then you just can't leave those characters alone. You have to write another one and in the middle of writing that one you start another one....

I think I picked the wrong way to go cold turkey on writing 750 word stories. But I couldn't stand the withdrawal symptoms.

James

I thought confessing this would help, but I just thought of something else for them to do. If they were real people, I would have a restraining order against me.

 

[Maeven_quinn]

By that I mean do you ever write a story and then you just can't leave those characters alone. You have to write another one and in the middle of writing that one you start another one....

I think I picked the wrong way to go cold turkey on writing 750 word stories. But I couldn't stand the withdrawal symptoms.

James

I thought confessing this would help, but I just thought of something else for them to do. If they were real people, I would have a restraining order against me.

If you can’t leave a character alone, than you probably have a great character.

 

[YDB95]

All the time!

 

[KeithD]

Yes, I've launched several series based on continuing a character.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Pretty much always.

 

[DarkWhispers2U]

yep

I think we as writers will always fall for our characters in some fashion or another. Why else would we use them in stories?

Perhaps another question we could be asking is if we've ever had a character that we absolutely hated? Did they turn out too evil, ignorant or maybe too perfect?

 

[Maeven_quinn]

Perhaps another question we could be asking is if we've ever had a character that we absolutely hated? Did they turn out too evil, ignorant or maybe too perfect?

This happened to me once in a non-erotic (well... not entirely non-erotic) NaNoWriMo I wrote a few years back.

My main character was smart, aristocratic, and socially oblivious. It turns out she was also a racist.

I'm going to re-do that whole novel some day, but she needs to be a supporting character and not the main. Also her half-orc body guard is going to have enough of her shit someday.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

If I don’t get fixated on my main characters, I don’t let the story go public. I may love ‘em, loathe ‘em, even get squicked out by them, but they have to leave me changed or I finger I’m not doing my job.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Oh god yes. Some far more than others. My absolute favorites....
Jay-Lin in Chinese Takeout.
Strawberry
Chuntao in Tales from Old Shanghai
Altani in One Night in Xanadu
Kinky Ho in Camel Toe
Lady Lihua Baskerville in Midnight at the Villa Diodati
Trixie in White Wedding
Fan in Huginn’s Yule
And I Love Chloe in A Troll is Haunting Tex’s. Chloe is the best

 

[NotWise]

I've totally loved some of my characters, but I write plot more than character. If the story is done, then so are the characters.

I won't even make an exception for Penny.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Constantly. Especially Karen and Alexa.

 

[sweetdreamssss]

By that I mean do you ever write a story and then you just can't leave those characters alone. You have to write another one and in the middle of writing that one you start another one....

I think I picked the wrong way to go cold turkey on writing 750 word stories. But I couldn't stand the withdrawal symptoms.

James

I thought confessing this would help, but I just thought of something else for them to do. If they were real people, I would have a restraining order against me.

Well most of my stories are an extension of some of my real life experience..so yeah i love my characters and one of the character is based out of my best friend..

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I haven't really fallen in love with any of them yet. I do have a series of stand alone stories that all feature the same couple. And I'm kinda starting to think about them a lot. But I'm mostly in agreement with NotWise, in that when the story is over, it's been easy to let them go.
I dunno, since one of my writing goals for this year is better characterization, maybe I'll wind up in love with one after all.

 

[ElectricBlue]

All the time. If I don't fall in love with them, I can hardly expect my readers to. I'm fickle though - I can move on with fond memories... or I'll come back to them and fall in love all over again.

It's all very narcissistic/solipsistic though, because they've mostly all muscled themselves up from my subconscious demanding to be written. Which is why I subscribe to the Jungian school of anima/animus - it's easy to write about those you love .

 

[Rustyoznail]

I like my characters for all the above reasons. Except for one guy I really wanted to beat the shit out of, but one of my main characters, Cathy, got to him first.

And that wasn't planned. As EB said about the subconscious muscling in on the process.

 

[Javahead]

Pretty much all my characters - when I'm writing them.

Afterwards? Not always. Generally even if I like 'em, I don't have an urge to write more. Done is done.

What's annoying is when a character is one of my less well-received stories keeps bugging me. Though I'm kind of fond of the little tart, she's not my favorite-I-love-her character, just the most insistent on getting in my head.

I've got a couple of characters I quite like in my Valentine's story this year. I could write more about them; I've got one more story with them plotted out. I have a couple of unrelated stories that I could be doing too. Or I'd intended to try writing a female POV story, just to stretch myself a little - I have a fully plotted out storyline for it.

But instead, I've ended up writing random scenes with the wrong character in the wrong story.

 

[RetroFan]

I don't often write sequels (apart from story series) even if I really like the characters or it gets a positive response, but I absolutely fancied the panties off Melissa from 'The Mystery of Melissa' perhaps more than any other character I've written about.

 

[jaF0]

Words. Fiction. Nothing more.

Some of mine don't even have names. Rarely, if ever is the same name used twice.

 

[gordo12]

I thought maybe I was alone in this, but I see many are captivated by their characters.

I found myself wondering what Mallory (Demon Blood) was doing one day. Then you give your head a shake cause she's fictional.

Still.....

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Fallen in love with my characters? Actually, I fell in love with the people they are actually based on. Well, the women anyway. The men are just good friends.

So, I guess I am in love with some of my characters.

 

[yukonnights]

I find this a strange question. But perhaps the use of the phrase 'fallen in love' is just a euphemism for 'really liked'. Regardless, it seems to me that since I created them from some part of my own inner self — imagined words, thoughts or actions. Then, if I experience strong feelings for some aspect of a character, is it not actually some aspect of myself I either love or hate?

Maybe it's just me overthinking, but the characters aren't real. However, the creator of those characters is. It seems to me that the characters we love or hate tells us more about our self than anything about them If I 'fall in love' with the mass murderer in my story ... it might mean I need professional help

Now if 'love my character' means; 'I like the way readers reacted', that's different and much simpler.

 

[SimonDoom]

No. Not really. At least, I think that's my answer. I've thought about it for a while and that's the answer that seems right to me. But I'm still thinking about it.

My characters, even the female characters, are, in one way or another, projections of myself, or parts of myself, into an erotic dream world where I explore erotic boundaries, limits, new horizons. Falling in love with them would be an act of narcissism, and while I certainly have narcissistic qualities I draw certain lines. I empathize with my characters. I get aroused or excited by the things I have them do. I root for them. I wish them well. But I don't exactly fall in love with them. I have a kind of filial/creator relationship to them, and to some extent I think falling in love with them wouldn't quite be kosher.

That's my answer, for now.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

No. Not really. At least, I think that's my answer. I've thought about it for a while and that's the answer that seems right to me. But I'm still thinking about it.

My characters, even the female characters, are, in one way or another, projections of myself, or parts of myself, into an erotic dream world where I explore erotic boundaries, limits, new horizons. Falling in love with them would be an act of narcissism, and while I certainly have narcissistic qualities I draw certain lines. I empathize with my characters. I get aroused or excited by the things I have them do. I root for them. I wish them well. But I don't exactly fall in love with them. I have a kind of filial/creator relationship to them, and to some extent I think falling in love with them wouldn't quite be kosher.

That's my answer, for now.

You just KNOW EB and or Rusty are going to pounce on you for that.
Aussie slang. It's as deadly as Aussie wildlife...

 

[ElectricBlue]

You just KNOW EB and or Rusty are going to pounce on you for that.
Aussie slang. It's as deadly as Aussie wildlife...

The way I read Simon's post, he's got the Oz nuance perfectly. Eats roots shoots and leaves, and take care with your punctuation.

He's writing narcissistic head-fuck stories, just like I do. The difference is, he's dancing around with all this filial/creator thing which is... let's call it good old Aussie bullshit. He writes incest stories, for goodness sake, and if he's the filial son and the wench is always his mom, then isn't it obvious? Every good boy loves his mom.

Simon does Freud, I get by with Jung (the whole anima/animus thing) - it means I don't have to think of my sweet old mum in an unpalatable way. Simon's just in denial.

I've got an idea though: Simon the Wombat Shares his Burrow (a Collection of Rural Tales). Makes a change from penguins.

Carry on .

 

[gordo12]

You just KNOW EB and or Rusty are going to pounce on you for that.
Aussie slang. It's as deadly as Aussie wildlife...

Sorry to break your heart but it translates just fine in Canada too. Nothing Aussie about it.