So I'm interested to know if anyone else has had this experience. Last night I was at a friend's birthday party at a restaurant, and I was really surprised when I heard the waitress say, "Hi, I'm Madison and I'll be your server tonight." No big deal - but I have a character named Madison who, no joke, looks and acts JUST LIKE this waitress! I've even had character art done of fictional Madison, I checked the drawing on my phone and the facial features match. So I guess now I know a lot more about Madison's mannerisms because I got to watch her serve a table for an hour and a half (and how she worked her way through college seeing as my Madison is 10-20 years older than waitress Madison and the story is set 20 years in the future). Anyone else had this experience where you meet someone so much like one of your characters it's creepy? In other news, when did girls named "Madison" get old enough to start serving tables? I purposefully picked the name because it was one of the top baby names in the very late 90s and early 2000s - granted I'm guessing server-Madison was in her early-mid 20s. Still, I feel old (and I'm not that old)..
I have never met a character but there was this one book I was working on and I used to dream about my characters! This happened a few times lol
I've never had dreams about my characters - honestly wish I could. I need to ask them a bunch of things
You can still ask them without dreaming about them. Just write yourself having an interview with them.
I've not done interviews - although since a lot of my characters are young journalists at a major national TV channel, I've actually explored their emotions by writing first person sequences from their future memoirs, talking about how they felt at points during the story or before it.
My characters talk to each other when I walk my dogs. Hearing something said I can better judge whether the character would or wouldn't say that in the exchange. Can't say as I know any of them or ever met them in real life.
I have dreamed about my characters, more one than the other but not that often. They do tend to bug me when I'm doing other things though, like work
*imagines walking downstairs to see a sci-fi captain and a young assassin in my house* Yeah, I'd run back upstairs thank you. At any rate, my characters like to enter my head when I'm busy at my volunteer jobs. For instance, just two weeks ago my main character from a fantasy appeared and said, "Hey, know what would make me a better character?" and gave me so many good ideas that I wished I was actually at home to write it all down. Try this out if they do the same to you: Dear Characters, Please pick a better time to enter my head and bestow me with your ideas. Sincerely, Your Author
It has happened to me a few times, which has led to much contemplation about meaning and providence, and at times my own sanity. I've never been able to understand why it does, but they are beautiful, if a little unnerving moments
I wonder if it was an experience like this that inspired that movie... 'Stranger Than Fiction.' That is so zen. Time to go do some training! This is not an ex...cuse to take... a na...
One of my characters is a pilot (of space craft) named Sark. I was wandering through the park near my flat the other day and I saw a Golden Retriever that looked exactly the same as Sark's Golden Retriever, it even had the same coloured coat. It also did this thing where when its owner threw a ball for it, it chased the ball and bought it back. Sark's dog also does this! It was a strange morning, I can tell you.
I dreamed about my characters only once, as I can recall. That was when I was writing my first book and when I got to a point where I was stuck with the story development. I simply needed to figure out the ending in order to continue writing. The pause lasted for six months. And then, one night I had a dream about all of them and a huge frozen waterfall they bumped into, and they suddenly got some powers in my dream in order to overcome the obstacle (which was a complete nonsense because they don't have any powers in the book), but months later when I finally figured out the ending, voilà - the huge frozen waterfall really did appear and it took a major role in the story! I think I realized that just now, actually.
now that I am done with the one book I wrote, I started this Novel and one of the Characters is based off of someone I see in real life. I don't know him but I see him every single morning on my way to work through his coffee shop window. So I see that character every day in person lol.
The closest I've ever come was meeting a woman named Paige that has an bubbly personality like a girl named Paige in my books. They didn't look anything alike though. I've dreamed about my characters too. I've also interviewed them. I've even talked to them while driving if I really got stuck. No wonder people think we writers are crazy. Lol
This thread is like a psychologist's wet dream, no pun intended, haha. Sounds like you should revisit that restaurant with someone who's read about your character and see if they think she's the same, that's pretty crazy uncanny though. Now if there was a way to show that to the waitress without looking like a complete loony stalker that would be cool. My story is about ethereal magical creatures that enact the will of the gods in a magical universe, i wish buddy.
HAHA! No one who's read the character would pick up on the similarities because the character is about 15 years older, and, by the time the story begins, has become both a nationally known TV news reporter, a severe alcoholic, and massively changed the way she looks and acts. It's funny to me because as the author I know what happened to fictional Madison's both before and after she sobers up. Actually server-Madison reminded me more of fictional Madison at at 40 after she gets sober - not so much Madison when she was actually the server's age. But actually it led me to think a bit more about what Madison would be like when she was younger because my planned 40-year-old-sober Madison doesn't quite Match 22-year-old-idealistic Madison...even if the intervening years were filled by drunken-nihilist-party-girl Madison. So I've actually re-arranged some of the character's biography after thinking about that and meeting someone who struck me as a younger version of Madison at 40.
And no way I'm going back to the restaurant lol. Well, maybe, the food was freaking awesome. But not on that shift.
you kinda lost me there but sounds good! you should totally go back and take a sneak pic of her for comparison lol
