Oh look - a flame war. Anyway - look there are a bunch of different methods of doing this. Survey a bunch of big-sellling published authors and you'll get a spray of different answers to the same question. As for anyone's opinions on mental health - yes, there are limits but those limits are pretty far out - and as long as someone is taking proper care of themselves, leave it alone. For what it's worth on the character bios - you need to know enough about your characters to make it realistic without weighing yourself down with worldbuilding. And again that's a line in different places for different people. I personally don't know if any of mone are lefties but I need family history on most of them going back at least two generations - which most people don't need, but I deal a lot with the concept of history asserting itself, so I need to know who the grandparents are. Good rule of thumb - don't dish out garbage to people who do it differently than you...because everyone does it different.
My characters affect me in that I try to make them compelling so people continue to read about them. But one thing I don't do is become attached to them. I see them as workers that have a job to do.
Mine love to visit me when I'm at work or at another place where I can't drop what I'm doing. Then they promise they'll be there when I get home...only by then they're not. Damned characters. >:[
So, are you also a writer if, knowing you're a writer, your friends and family come to you when you're awake and offer you plot ideas?
Why not? It doesn't matter where your ideas come from so long as you, as the writer, have the skill to put it together coherently.
If you're not crying and laughing with your characters then you still need to work on character development. It's good that you've grown so attached to your characters and may be a sign that your readers will too.
Well, today I wrote a scene where my character smelled something so disgusting she almost vomited. I felt a bit queasy myself after writing it, though it lasted for just a few seconds.
Oh yea I absolutely know where you're coming from. I've made my characters endure hardships and commit unspeakable acts and sometimes don't wanna direct the story in that direction, but have to for the story. I'm very afraid of killing off some characters
