Many of my friends are writers and most of them have really interesting relationships with their own characters... I know people who see some of their characters as role models and then there are those who can barely live with the people they've created (and yet they still keep writing about them... XD) So, any similar/different experiences ?
I have lived with the same characters for about 8 years now, and there are a few I'm getting a bit sick of, to be honest. Some that seemed hilarious at first are now starting to wear thin, whereas those who were once evil incarnate have endeared themselves to me somewhat. I still think my MC is the awesomest thing since the tinterwebz was invented though
Some of my MCs seem like tired, beaten-down versions of me. The kind of me that would exist if I had had a much harder life. I sympathize with them. I have an MC in another story who's a teenage boy with a good sense of humor, but he's incredibly annoying to me because he never knows when to just shut up. I have a young boy hunter character I love very much, partly because he hardly ever speaks - he has a fine sense of hearing that helps him hunt, and when he's talking he can't hear his prey. So he keeps very quiet unless he really has to say something. This is a characteristic I find attractive, maybe because my roommate is one of those people who won't shut up. I have an MC who intimidates me a lot because he's so much smarter than I am, and is a world-renowned scientist. It's hard to write him, because how do you write someone whose brain outclasses your own in every way? I have another MC I argue with all the time, because he's founding a new religion and I'm an atheist. Arrgh. I have complicated relationships with all of these guys, but their adventures are fun to write about!
I tend to view my characters as friends (or enemies, depending, but usually friends), as if I knew them personally, everything about them. Which, for that matter, I do.
I agree with Erato. I like all of my characters, even some of the bad ones. I have a great group of friends in real life, but sometimes an extra warrior type for a body guard, or maybe a spellcaster for helping take care of chores... that wouldn't be so bad. There are a great many of my characters that I would love to have around the house.
Well sure, you know everything about your characters (if you've done a thorough job of fleshing them out) but that doesn't mean you necessarily have to think of them as friends. Some of mine I would be quite happy to observe from a distance - like contestants on Big Brother. You know all about them, and they might entertain, amuse, fascinate or annoy you, but you don't actually have any urge to meet them in real life. Except my MC, who I am totally possessive of and he comes to bed with me every night
Sounds good, Cassiopeia Phoenix! When I was younger, I viewed some of my characters as role models. Now, they're more like friends. I hang out with them and accept them for who they are! I also have this strange ritual. If you're into basketball, you'll know players have routines they go through before attempting free throws. For me, I take three dribbles. With each bounce, I murmur the name of a character. I then take the shot and miss .
I love my characters. I might not like all of them but some of them I've known for 20 years and those I really love. Then there are the relatively new acquaintances that I've come to care a lot about and I think of them every night before I fall asleep, because right now I miss them so much I can't even write anything else atm. Two of my characters are the kind of people I would definitely marry, given the chance, . As for the women, I don't know if we would be friends if I met them IRL, but I still care about them. It's like family members, almost. You may not always get along or even like each other, but in the end of the day you know you love them anyway.
Right now I writing a fairy, a gay man, a seventeen year old boy and an eight-hundred year old portly weird wizard type. It would be like going to bed with Harry Potter, Dumbledore and Dobby.
My characters exist solely for the story. Getting emotionally attached to them would get in the way of abusing, torturing, and maiming them to advance the story. It's important to always keep in mind that they are not real. They are constructs created as part of a tapestry of fiction. So I like or dislike them solely on the basis of how effective and believable they are. Some of the nastiest of them are my favorites.
NO, it's important FOR YOU, Cogito. Who says there's one rule for everyone? Getting attached to my characters doesn't prevent me from kicking the shit out of them for a good story, it just makes me (and hopefully my readers) sad when I do. Honestly Cog, do you ever lighten up?
I love my characters after I've toyed with them and wrecked their lives. Once it's written I'm free to lurrrve.
Getting attached to my characters has never stopped me doing something horrible to them - a great character whom I admire and love deserves a great story. And whilst I am perfectly aware they are not real right now, when I am working with them, thinking about them, writing - yeah both them and their world is very real. They are part of my subconscious and not my conscious. Playing with characters is fun, fun, fun and no I don't HAVE to stop anything, because the worst that happens is I format it myself, get a cover done, a friend to edit and throw it up on kindle to join the other stuff on there. Anyway, if I tell them they are not real they run off sometimes for weeks at a time. Given the idea of a character as real is enshrined in popular culture and literature indicates that it has been experienced by many great writers.
Definitely attached to them. I like some characters and never really hate any. I do notice I rarely like the main character though. He's always more of a vehicle to move the story along.
I love my characters, love, love. And sometimes want to smack. Frequently want to smack when they're running around being idiots. I don't see how you could write without being attached to your characters. Yeah, you still get to horribly ruin their lives, but how would you know if the horrible ruining has any impact if even YOU don't care? I don't know if I would classify them as "friends" (even the imaginary type) because good god I would not want to be friends with some of these people... But calling them my children would just make it weird when I torture or kill them. Hrm... On a side note, I have, in the past, picked up some of my characters speech patterns when they're unique. It's weird.
Almost sounds frightening. Your characters are parts of your own psyche. Sounds like some kind of multiple personality disorder.
As much as I love my characters, I maintain a healthy relationship with them, as in I know they're fictional and I am an unseen, unknown observer into their lives. They do not know me, are not aware that I exist. Now, don't get me wrong, there may be a character that's essentially me walking around in my own universe, but even then, I don't let that character get too involved to the point where he solves the plot himself. He's just a side character who may wave at the protag in a nonchalant way.
I am their God and I can do whatever I please to them, and most of the time I am coming up with spectacular ways to kill them. That is my relationship with them. Although most main characters are usually the embodiment of some sort of ideal I believe in. Still, that doesn't mean I won't do to them what the story demands. I don't feel any sort of emotional attachment to them because I need to be unbiased, and also they are imaginary, but I wouldn't mind meeting a few of them if that was somehow possible.
When I see threads here like, "My character refuses to cooperate," I can only roll my eyes and shake my head. To me, that is a symptom of an unhealthy character relationship, one in which the writer has let slip some of his or her separation of fantasy from reality. Do I ever lighten up? Quite often. Still, there are writing matters I do take seriously, because I don't see certain positions ever leading anyplace good.
