Falling in love with your characters

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Have you ever fallen for one of your own characters?

[elleoco]

I've been in love with the hero in every one of my romances. Which makes me book-to-book fickle, but I can't imagine being able to write that kind of story without the emotional investment.

[spin52]

Definitely, but it always turns out they're spoken for and I just can't compete.

[Lynn]

I love pretty much all my characters, even the ugly-inside ones. Would I fall in love with them outside of my books? Highly doubtful. I am not a good fit for most of them, and they're not a good fit for me. But they are highly interesting to me and I have tender feelings for them. :D

[LilyBLily]

I agree. I have very tender feelings for my characters. After writing multiple books in one series, I have trouble remembering that my favorite continuing character in those books is not a real person. And that the town I invented does not exist, either.

I try to create attractive people, although their physical attributes are not the main attraction. Their hearts are, and if the story goes the right way, there's a bloom to their union (or one might say their communion) that radiates back at me. I tend to fall in love with how the characters in my stories are loving to each other, if that makes sense.

[Bill Hiatt]

I agree. I have very tender feelings for my characters. After writing multiple books in one series, I have trouble remembering that my favorite continuing character in those books is not a real person. And that the town I invented does not exist, either.

It is commonly said that the subconscious mind takes everything literally. I'm not sure how anyone can determine that, but it is at the very least a commonly held belief. Among other things, that means that the subconscious mind can't distinguish real life from fiction. The subconscious mind also works on an emotional basis. Whatever logic we have comes from the conscious mind.

This is one reason we can have strong emotional responses to literature and film. The subconscious believes what we read and what we see.

Of course, consciously, we can distinguish (or we'd be in a lot of trouble). But subconsciously we can't. I'll go a step further and say that creative people leverage the subconscious as part of our creative process.

What does all that mean? Good writers are emotionally connected to their characters. I'm not sure we can create very well without such a connection.

[Shoe]

My number one rule is, main characters have to be people I'd like to hang out with in real life, and the female characters women I could easily fall in love with. I don't write about serious topics, so it's easy to put this energy into my books.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

[/quote]
It is commonly said that the subconscious mind takes everything literally.
[/quote]

I also heard that. If you watch a movie where a character has cancer or other life-threatening disease your subconscious will believe it to be true and your body will respond accordingly. I'm now circumspect about what I watch and read. 

I can't write about a character being cruel to animals, or other things that might upset me.

I have fallen for the MC in one of my books, and visualised who would play him if it was a movie. 

[Bill Hiatt]

One of my fans once told me my MC was her "book boyfriend." Another fan said of the characters "broke her heart."

That's the kind of connection we hope readers make with our books.

[Vijaya]

Such a great thread! I've fallen in love with characters and hated others, but only my husband gets to keep my heart.
And Jan, given that reading puts us in the shoes of another person, our bodies respond as the story people do. My stories have made people hungry for Indian food

[Post-Crisis D]

Many years ago, I wrote a short story and killed off the main character at the end.  My neighbor was my test reader and she was disappointed that he died at the end.  So, I saved him in the next revision.

Which I suppose may be a good thing since I wrote three or four stories after that with the same character and have two 10 "episode" book "seasons" planned for him.  Of course, who knows when I'll ever get around to finishing them.

[Bill Hiatt]

When you write fantasy, killing someone off isn't necessarily the end. Depending on circumstances, you have options like undeath, lingering as a ghost, resurrection, growing a new body to put the soul in, and, with a long enough time frame, reincarnation. Not that you want to keep all your characters alive. But death isn't quite as final an end as it would be in more real-world-oriented genres.

Rewatching Teen Wolf--being a sucker for teenage-oriented shows is an occupational hazard of being a high school teacher--I noticed the degree to which both heroes and villains seem to come back from apparent death. Here's illustrative dialog:

Peter: Doesn't anyone ever die in this town?
Malia: I think people were hoping you would.

In any case, some stories necessarily involve death. But both authors and audiences aren't going to want to lose a beloved character. Then again, if a development like that weren't moving, we'd know something was wrong with the story.