Character Connections

A colleague and I continued a great conversation today that we started at a meeting yesterday.  She was telling me that over the weekend she read Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun.  For those of you that don't know what that is, it is the Twilight story from Edward's perspective.  I have read it myself, but that's not what made our conversation great. 

She said that she actually missed Edward when she finished reading it.  She said that when she was finished reading the partial draft of Midnight Sun she actually missed the characters.  For me, that news was groundbreaking!  Part of me had always wondered if I was crazy because I felt that way.  I never talked about it with anyone, not even my book nerd friends. 

The first time I felt an emotional connection to a book character was when I read The Catcher in the Rye.  It wasn't a positive connection for me, but it was powerful.  I read it one summer while I was working at a daycare center.  While the little kids were napping I read my book.  It took me a little over a week to figure out why I was so angry when the kids woke up.  It wasn't because I wanted to read more, it was because I felt Holden's anger.  Once I figured out where my anger was coming from, I stopped reading it at work.

Over the years I have experienced this intense feeling a few more times.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I get emotional attached to the characters in the Harry Potter series and the Twilight Series.  I know that there are people out there that may look down on me for admitting that, but I'm not going to lie to you.  Sorry!  Try not to judge me too harshly!  I have also felt a connection with characters in Austenland, with Darcy and Elizabeth in Pamela Aiden's Fitzwilliam Darcy trilogy, and with a few of Jill Mansell's characters.

However, the place where I've had the biggest connection is with the characters I write myself.  I've authored four books (one is self-published, Christmas in Hell, and is available for purchase and download on Amazon).  While writing, my characters float around in my head, talk to me, and tell me what they're going through.  It can take me anywhere from two weeks to six months to get their stories down.  When I'm done, the silence is deafening, but not nearly as difficult as the loss I feel when they're gone.  When I finish with a book, the characters leave me.  I don't dwell on them for weeks afterwards.  Their departure leaves me feeling lonely and sad, like a lifelong friend has just disappeared from my life.

Please do not assume that I wrote this post simply to promote my own writings.  Okay, so maybe a little of my motivation was to promote my books, but not all of it!  I wrote this post to start a conversation with you, my readers, about your own character connections.  Was there a book/character that settled into your being and left a mark when it left?  Have you ever mourned the loss of a character?  Share your thoughts with me, please!