I think I speak for at least some other authors when I say that we get majorly attached to our characters. We have created these people to our spec. We’ve given them hardships to overcome, and we’ve knocked them down repeatedly throughout the process. We’ve dragged them through the mud and slapped them around until they hit rock bottom, only to pick them up off their feet, and help them toward sweet redemption at the end of the story.

Through this process, we writers laugh and cry with our characters. We are on their emotional journeys with them and yes, there are times when we internalize their pain. It’s a daunting process, but it truly is a labor of love.

I always talk big about how I’m going to take two weeks off and veg out to mindless television shows in the evenings, but the fact is, I’m not comfortable unless I’m writing. So the question is where do I go from here?

Fortunately, the novel I just finished is book one in the series, and I have at least two more to go. So even though the next books in the series will focus on different couples – secondary characters that I’ll be developing into heroes and heroines – the couple from my first book will be around. But I’ve been down this road before. It won’t be the same. I’m still sad to put them to bed (no pun intended), but what keeps me going is that I have this set of characters, who I already know a little about from book one, that I get to expound upon and fill with new strengths and insecurities. And I get to introduce new characters into the mix and develop them as I wish.

The absolute worst is when you finish the final book in a series and you really have to say goodbye. Hopefully by this time the author is a little sick of their crew of characters, but unfortunately, I have not found that to be the case.