Does Anyone Else Get Attached to Their Characters?

I write fiction, meaning my characters aren't real. But sometimes I forget that.I know that sounds ridiculous because I'm the one who created them. I gave them names. I decided what they looked like, what they feared, what they loved, what broke them, and what they would become.I start my novel thinking: They're just characters. I created them. I can do whatever the hell I want to them. And maybe giving them a hard life or taking away someone they love and causing them pain is for character development.Until somewhere between writing, they stop feeling like characters and start feeling like parts of me.I know the way they would react when they're angry. I know what they would never say out loud. I know the memories they try to forget and the things that secretly makes them happy.And I still deprive them of the little things that actually makes them sane. Like blurting out the very words they vowed never to say out loud which is meant to hurt the other but knowing deep down, the one getting hurt is them. Or bringing back coincidental scenes of the very memory they tried so hard to forget. I know which character would stay when everyone else leaves. I know which one would pretend they're okay even when they're falling apart.And I start caring about them. Maybe too much.That's when writing becomes painful because sometimes I know something terrible is coming.I know a character has to lose someone. I know they have to be betrayed. I know they have to experience heartbreak because it's part of their journey.Let's not even go to the part when a character you've grown attached to is supposed to die.When I know it's that time, I sit there staring at my screen thinking, “Do I really have to do this to you?”Sometimes I pause mid-typing and just take a breathing. When it weighs too much, I write with pain and guilt and then sleep it off.There are moments I wished I could protect my own characters from the story I've created for them. Sometimes I want to change things, not because the original plot isn't good, but because I couldn't bear to hurt someone I had spent so much time bringing to life.And maybe that's the strangest part of being a writer.We create characters just so we can put them through things we would never want to experience ourselves.If we can become emotionally attached to our own characters, maybe there's a good chance our readers will become attached to them too.And we fall in love with them before anyone else do._Which character have you become the most attached to while writing? If there is anything you'd want to say to them, what would it be?

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