ever fallen in love with one of your characters?

Honestly it's so hard to write a real persons speech pattern in a way that is both good writing and that resembles them well. A character's voice we develop from scratch and have a lot of leeway to play with them and try things and see what we like and what we don't. When you try to write real people then they tend to turn into cartoons; you blow up and exaggerate things and then to others it reads somewhat differently.

For my beloved @Lemie ; she has a certain acerbic wit. Sometimes in clever ways, sometimes rather crude ways. She can, and will, provide a verbal slap just because it's funny. And I happen to share that sense of humour, it's one of my favourite things about her (that I will talk about in public anyway). And when I came to write something that had her voice in, well, I didn't do a great job with it. I ham handedly crammed these little bits of dialogue to try and get something in there that would make her sound like her. I really didn't want her to sound like she was just permissive and meek because that's so not her; but then of course her just nodding along with the narrative wouldn't have been so noticeable. It's kinda damned if you do, damned if you don't. That won't stop me though!

The funny thing is that I have written characters who share our sense of humour and tendency towards cutting bon mot plenty in the past. Any character that has their roots in me does exactly that all the time. They push back at people, they bust chops and they are interesting and exciting to be around. But when I write them (ie, when I'm writing full length books) I don't make an effort to make them be funny like that. I just write dialogue about the narrative and suchlike, and when something amusing occurs to me then I put that in where it fits. And then I cut a lot of fucking dialogue out of the book and only leave the stuff that is genuinely witty and funny and cutting.

A lesson for all writers: humour is like sex; you can't just force it in wherever you like and expect good results. (Well... Sometimes ).

 

Of course! I am a dude and almost all of my stories actually feature a lead female protagonist. I have 3 of them, all very different in their own right for each of their own stories. But they are all warriors/soldiers and they are all very strong young ladies. I have to admit they are extremely gorgeous and they work extremely hard for the bodies they have. They are girls you would never want to mess around with. I greatly respect them and admire them for who they are.

 

Ah, yes...this happened once. I wrote about it in my blog (Google my author name plus blog if you want to read it).
The love interest of my protagonist in my first novel. I wanted her to be interesting and appealing to the reader despite her emotional baggage so I created the sort of female lead that I would go for. Is it possible to be too successful at that task? She's a great character with mysterious history but at her core we learn she has a good heart. In working with her and my MC particularly through dialogue I really came to adore her. I had to do something painful to her to move the story forward and I actually shed some tears because of it; I disliked being cruel to her.

I never lost sight of the fact she is fictional but as a writer I became so deeply invested in her that I have genuine affection for her. I think this was ultimately excellent for the book as it meant I had to really work to treat her well at the end and finish the story with honor. The book as a whole is quirky and difficult to categorize but the female lead and the interplay between her and the MC is some of the work of which I am most proud and satisfied with.

My second female lead in what has become a series I have affection for more as a child than a love interest. I treat her differently but I'm uncertain why. Perhaps it is because she would never be my type...or she is just a more independent character that doesn't really need someone in her life (she thinks). It's funny that I can place her in danger and have her beat up and it doesn't bother me at all like it did with the first young lady.