One of the things I find in writing about people who are dead is that, after a short or long time, no matter how close the relationship was, they become like characters in fiction.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Death ends a life, not a relationship.
I do tend to feel more connected to dead writers, perhaps because they have finished their work.
Meeting authors is kind of the death of the characters. That is always heartbreaking.
I haven't personally in my real life had many people close to me die, but my characters have, and I've had to live that as though it's real. And it can take a really big emotional toll on someone.
Believe it or not, friendships are difficult to write in fiction. They can easily come across as forced, particularly if they involve too much explication and too many overt gestures of affection.
But there's the paradox of fiction - why do you cry when a fake character dies? It's the basis of art. You engage with people who don't exist and care about them as you would your friends and relatives.
I'm not a fan of people romanticizing their loved ones in death.
The interesting thing about fiction from a writer's standpoint is that the characters come to life within you. And yet who are they and where are they? They seem to have as much or more vitality and complexity as the people around you.
If you play a real character who's famous and still alive, it makes things easier if you have the luck to have a good relationship with them.
There's a lot about the character. It doesn't always happen, but there are some characters you really create a relationship with, almost as if they were your friend. And you never get into their heads again or think like them.