Yes, You Love That Character — Here’s Why

You ever finish a book and think, “Wow, I’m gonna miss them”?
Yeah, us too. Whether it’s Elizabeth Bennet throwing witty comebacks, Atticus Finch standing tall in court, or Sherlock Holmes thinking ten steps ahead—some characters just stick.

But why?

Why do these fictional people feel real enough to miss?
Why do they echo in our minds years after we’ve closed the book?

The answer is simple… and not simple at all: authors work hard—sometimes painfully hard—to make them unforgettable.

Let’s talk about that.

Characters Aren’t Born in One Sitting

Writers don’t just think up a great character in five minutes and call it a day. Most of your favorite classic characters came from weeks, months, or years of shaping.

Take Victor Hugo, for example. He once said he had the idea for Les Misérables twenty years before he finished it. That means he had people like Jean Valjean living in his head for decades—growing, changing, becoming who they needed to be on the page.

Same with Leo Tolstoy, who rewrote Anna Karenina so many times, he nearly scrapped the whole thing. But he couldn’t stop. He needed Anna to be just right. Not a perfect woman. Not a pure villain. Something messier. Something human.

That’s the goal: not to make a character likable—but to make them real.

Writers Use a Hidden Blueprint (But Don’t Tell Anyone)

Writers don’t just toss characters into stories and see what happens. Most follow an invisible map—called a character arc.

It’s the journey a character takes inside the story. It’s how they change—or refuse to change—because of what happens to them.

Think of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. He doesn’t start the story as someone we root for. He’s cold, bitter, selfish. But we see every moment that breaks him open—every ghost that shows him a different truth—and we feel it. That’s the arc working.

And it’s no accident. Charles Dickens planned it carefully, step by step, so that by the end, Scrooge doesn’t just feel like a changed man—he feels like someone we believe could change.

Writers Use Pieces of Real People (Sometimes Themselves)

Here’s a secret: many classic characters have bits of real people inside them.

Some are inspired by family members, friends, enemies. Some are a reflection of the author themselves.

• Jane Austen gave Elizabeth Bennet her own sharp wit and pride.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky poured his beliefs, doubts, and mental struggles into Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
• Mark Twain based Tom Sawyer on a mix of boys he knew—including, maybe, a little of his younger self.

That’s part of what makes these characters feel so real—they are real, in a way. Even if they wear different clothes or live in another century, they speak to something that still exists in us.

Creating Unforgettable Characters Hurts (And Heals)

This part doesn’t get talked about much, but it should:
writing great characters is emotionally draining.

Writers sit with their characters through heartbreak, death, mistakes, regrets, and quiet victories. They cry for them. They fight with them. They know their favorite food, their worst fear, their secret dream—even if it never shows up in the book.

And yes, it can hurt.

It hurt Mary Shelley when she wrote Frankenstein, channeling grief and loneliness into a creature just trying to be loved.

It hurt Charlotte Brontë when she gave Jane Eyre strength, stubbornness, and solitude—traits she lived with every day.

But it’s also healing. Because through these characters, authors can say what they never could out loud. They can explore questions, rewrite endings, or give voices to people who never had one.

So… Why Do You Love That Character?

Because someone, somewhere, gave them a soul.

Because behind every classic character you’ve ever loved is an author who thought about them deeply, fought for their voice, rewrote their lines, gave them flaws, made them shine—and then let them go into the world.

The love you feel for that character?

It was built. Word by word. Tear by tear. Page by page.

And now they belong to you, too.