Do writers fall in love with their characters?

Have you ever created a character who started feeling a little too real?
Maybe you gave them your habits, your fears, your thoughts—or maybe they became someone completely different from you.
When does a character stop being “a character” to you?
And have you ever found yourself caring about a fictional person more than you expected?

I definitely have. I started writing a character and she essentially became me. Her story in this fantasy world was deeply personal.
I honestly feel like this is really hard to describe. That feeling of a character becoming something more.
I think a character stops being a character once you make a really hard choice with their story. Like killing them. Originally, this character was meant to be a side character but then I poured everything into her and she became something far greater. Now a side character means more to me than the main characters do.

This Was Always True For Me.

Everytime I write a story or poem , I would make sure the characters have something powerful beyond their names . I would become emotionally connected with those characters.
While reading too, I would find some characters more spiritful , and when something sad happens to them , I could never move on.

Sometimes, a writer creates a character; sometimes, a character quietly creates a place in the writer’s heart.

Yes. I have fallen for the MC in my story currently before. I love him as a child. And then other characters I have fallen in love with were female characters but they were still characters