Characters Or Angels?

Anyone seen the humourous children's film, Nim's Island? Jodie Foster plays a successful author who is in her words, borderline agoraphobic. She is contacted from a remote island in the Pacific by a little girl who lives there with her marine biologist father. When he goes missing at sea in a storm Nim asks Foster to travel across the world to help her.

So why am I waffling on about this movie?  Apart from the fact that my family think I am very much like Foster's neurotic writer down to the hand washing obsession, Foster's male character, Alex Rover, appears to her as a real person she loves and talks to. It is he who convinces her to overcome her fears and leave the house and journey to the child. I have heard many writers talk of how they see, hear and feel their characters around them and for the first time since writing Knight Of Swords and the subsequent books I can say that I have joined their ranks.

My character, Nathan Valancourt suddenly appeared at a school function I had to attend in the summer on my daughter's behalf and came and sat next to me. Since that day he has made several appearances and I have often felt him standing behind me when I work or move around the house. And boy is he tall. Feeling as though those many days spent stuck in the house writing and suffering from vertigo were finally making my sanity crack I told my husband.

He thought it was great and a positive sign that I was getting to know my character. Besides many a writer had that experience and he referred me to Nim's Island again. I have now relaxed with Nathan's frequent appearances but I sometimes wonder if there is more to it than character development.

His visitations now often coincide with moments when I feel distressed, worried, afraid or in pain and not just when I am working. And I have to say my spirits lift. Recently he has drawn my attention to a ring on his finger. It isn't a wedding ring but a silver man's ring. I have no idea what he is trying to communicate but it doesn't seem to have any place in the story. I sometimes feel that it is a message meant for me that I can't decipher.

Is this wishful thinking? Is he my higher self? My animus? My guardian angel? Spirit guide? Ghost? Or just a vision of my character? Before you cast your judgement upon me and call for the men in white coats, think about how you see your own characters. Are they parts of you or a ghostly presence spurring you on to write their story?