We spend a lot of time with our characters, so it only makes sense that real-life discussions remind us of them. Personally, I find myself referring to fictional events and imaginary people whenever it’s relevant about as often as I bring up real people. Hey, they’re real to us, right?
Terrell is a character from my novel Finding Mulligan.
THIS. Oh so much this!!!
Once I overheard two women talking about a mutual acquaintance, with such news that her husband was cheating on her, she had been in a coma for six weeks, had amnesia, her daughter was pregnant, etc. I offered my sympathies, and they looked at me as though I had two heads.
It turned out they were discussing a soap opera character, and they thought it should have been obvious which soap opera it was. So I changed the day when I went to the laundromat.