I’d heard creative types talk about “finding their muse” and dismissed it as them just being artsy, saying something no spreadsheet jockey would ever say . . .

“Gotta find my muse, Earl, before I can complete this profit and loss statement.”

Anyway, the main character in my debut novel was Avri of Talla. In my mind, Avri was an uncomplicated, middle-aged man. He loved being a farmer. He loved his wife and son.

Avri was unaffected by his best friend being the king of the realm. He’d known King Castor from when they were boys together, playing soldier in the palace courtyard, wading in the garden pond Avri’s father built. When they were young men, he accompanied Prince Castor on a state visit to the Pyrrian Kingdom.

Avri’s best friend just happened to be the king.

He enjoyed being a Friend of the Realm, though. He realized the high honor it was and he valued it greatly. In this role, he believed he served his fellow countrymen and offered advice to his friend as he ruled Darsinia. I came to love Avri’s unassuming, servant’s heart.

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Avri of Talla is not a real person. He exists nowhere but in my mind.

Could I really know someone who is only a fictional character?

I didn’t expect to meet and come to know fictional characters when I wrote, but that’s what happened.

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If you’d asked me before I started writing, I would’ve said something like, “Authors plan their characters, the plot and setting. They assume a theme before they write the first word of their story. This ‘finding a muse’ thing is just creatives being pretentiously modest.”

But something happened to me.

I used dialogue Avri had spoken when I was with friends in social settings. I saw similarities between events in my story and real life situations, though I never went so far as to ask, “What would Avri do?”

The weirdest unexpected thing, though? I began to dream about Avri and his family and the tragedy which befell their country. I dreamed regularly about a fictional character and those dreams, to me, were as believable as any dream ever has been.

I had no idea what to think when the dreams started. Had other authors experienced this?

In the weeks it took to complete the novel, I began to hope I’d have dreams about my characters. There I heard dialogue between characters. Dreams helped me develop a stronger sense of Avri’s personality. They showed me how to work through difficult plot points.

It’s best if I stop there. I sound a little like a creative writing professor. 🙄

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This is something new for me – a runner’s high for authors. I now want to write more stories just so I can meet all these characters.

I have gone too far, though, when I set a place for Avri at our Thanksgiving table.

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