Is it normal for me to feel the emotions of my characters?

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One of the characters in my story was pushed down a flight of stairs at her boarding school. I seem to want to grieve with her family as she heals, but I don't want to seem strange. I feel like breaking down when her mother breaks down.

I've done similar. Not sure if its okay, but it feels good to get emotions out when i dont have any real people to cry with.

My characters all seem to be a part of me. Even the evil ones. The seem to only say things i would say.. It's a litte wierd and im not sure if im just good at noticing the similarities or if im subconciously expressing myself somehow..

I think this is normative for at least some of those of us with AS. I sometimes feel this way, even towards video game characters if they are well written enough.

I believe NTs can also sympathize/empathize with novel characters, but the incidence seems higher with us. This is purely subjective speculation, of course.

Hmmm... a lot of the NTs I talk to that read have a lot of feeling for their characters. They actually can get really passionate... But I often hung out with the English subject people in HS and took advanced courses. (the people who took those with me were generally more passionate about reading, which made class really fun. Anecdotes...)

Words pass through our mind. We read and probably consider the situation. I think that it's great that you feel through other characters! That's probably why people write and act, to experience different perspectives. Some people feel compelled to write or to create other art. There is a lot more that goes into it, though.

Was considering Randy Ingermanson's ideas on different novel writers: character, plot and theme people. Perhaps you are a character-focused writer.

Now that sounds familiar!

Yes, I can feel the pain of a character when written in detail. If it's a dramatic teen girl's point of view, however, I usually roll my eyes and think, "at least you have *insert NT thing here (like a lot of friends for instance, or maybe even a boyfriend)*, and the book is closed, and I never look at it again.

When it's my own characters, however, my most familiar ones seem to be me (sort of), personality-wise. This way I can relate to them deeply, and my story becomes easier to write, simply because I know what my character would do. I wouldn't have to try and guess what a polar-opposite charater to myself would do.

No, I'm not being lazy; I find it hard to imagine what a different person would do. It's like trying to guess a number that someone's thinking of that's between one to one thousand in just a few guesses. I can't possibly do that, even if I had lady luck on my side.

Yes, yes, yes! When I'm really putting a character through the wringer, I'll be crying as I write. I don't write creatively when anyone else is around if I'm at this point in a story. If a character is nervous, excited or afraid, I'll have to get up and pace it out myself.

If you aren't feeling it, you aren't writing it right.

^What xelebes said.

I think it's perfectly normal and fine to feel the emotions of your characters, you created them, planned their life story, gave them their own personalities and emotions, so you are a part of this fictional being's life. So of course you'll feel their emotions while writing your story.
I know when I write mine I can easily put myself into their shoes since I did create them of course.

This happens to me too whenever I write about certain characters being brutally attacked, killed or dying. Sometimes I get so upset I have to take a break from it for a few days, sometimes longer. My characters feel as though they're alive.

Taupey

Heh, acting was once something I enjoyed. I had a knack for getting into character, my drama teacher warned the other students of it whenever they worked with me. I'd always imagine what I would be like as someone else as I have a very powerful imagination. Often come up with stories in my head, sometimes they were just reflections of other stories or my take on a particular series I was interested in. Though those days are long gone, in my quiet moments I still have that little world in my head to be someone else even if its just a fantasy.

Anyways to answer the question, I think its a natural thing if you have the imagination to put yourself in the character's circumstances.