kajsa ㅇㅅㅇ

a question for anyone else who writes:

do y'all ever feel your characters' emotions while you're writing? 

i've started realizing that it actually happens to me quite frequently lol. i had to stop writing the other day because i was writing a scene and started to feel panicky.

it was a pretty big scene where one of my characters (who is very anxiety-prone but is only just starting to discover such) had a nervous breakdown/anxiety attack. as an anxious person myself, i started to get that tight chest, mental fog, and short of breath feeling, so i literally had to put down my writing for a while and come back later. also, there was this one time my friend and i were writing a grief-stricken couple who lost their child (i have neither been in a romantic relationship nor had a child, so both of these fields were pretty foreign to me), and i literally started crying. several times. many. got that hollow chest feeling too that you get when somebody dies. idk bro

it's especially weird because sometimes when i write, i'm just like straight faced, emotionless, like "this is a thing", and it'll be the most gut-wrenching scene, but then other times i'll be writing and like sobbing screaming throwing up hyperventilating crying etc etc. i think it probably has to do with my current mental state and environment, but like is this common for other writers too? lemme know cuz i'm curious haha. tell me some stories :3