Do you guys think of your original characters as real people?
Do you ever hesitate to do things to the characters because of how attached you are to them?
I don't think of them as real people in the literal sense, but when I can picture them clearly in my head, imagine their body language and how they would say things, come up with their back story without a lot of thinking, and know how they would think and react in any situation, that's when they really come to life on the page for me. The most vivid character I've created that was totally original is Claire in Broken/BMS. I could always see Claire so clearly in my head, and I knew how she would act in any situation I put her in, and I knew when I was forcing her to act differently than she naturally would in order to suit the story I wanted to tell, and unfortunately, that hurt her character.
As a writer, I am a sadist and take great pleasure in hurting my characters. The more I care about them, the more I enjoy hurting them. So for me, there's no such thing as getting too attached to do things to them. It's when I'm not attached that I'm just like, "Eh, why bother?" LOL