Christle Hart – Author

Between Worlds and Words Podcast Reflection

Maybe we don’t just create characters.

Maybe, sometimes, they help create us too.

The more I write, the more I realize that fiction is not separate from real life at all. It’s woven through it. Every story carries pieces of us—our fears, our hopes, our grief, our resilience, and sometimes even the things we never knew how to say out loud.

Lately I’ve been reflecting on how deeply connected storytelling and healing really are.

When I first started writing Flowers and Dreams, I thought I was simply creating a fantasy story. But looking back now, I realize that many of the characters I wrote were emotional reflections of things I needed to understand, needed to survive, or maybe even needed to heal.

Not exact copies of real people.

Not autobiographical.

But emotional truths.

Maggie, for example, represents a resilience I never naturally felt I had myself. Despite uncertainty, fear, and upheaval, she continues reaching outward instead of shutting down. She keeps trying to connect with people. She keeps trusting. She keeps moving forward.

And honestly, that fascinates me because my own instinct throughout much of life has often been the opposite. When things became painful or unstable, I tended to retreat inward. To disconnect. To leave.

But Maggie stays.

I think maybe I needed to write someone who stayed.

And it isn’t only Maggie.

Genny—the girls’ mother—also represents something deeply important to me. She listens to her children. She talks honestly with them. She includes them in decisions instead of ruling over them without explanation. She creates trust and partnership inside her family.

That mattered to me because it reflected the kind of relationship I intentionally tried to build with my own children, even though it wasn’t how I was raised myself.

Sometimes we write the people we wish we had known.

And sometimes we write the people we hope to become.

Friendship became another part of that realization for me.

Growing up, my life involved constant movement—different cities, different states, different homes. Relationships often felt temporary because everything around me felt temporary.

So when I wrote Maggie’s friendships, I think I was writing connection the way I wished I had experienced it.

Shelly represents lifelong friendship. Colin represents the kind of person who arrives exactly when someone needs them most—steady, dependable, safe.

And the funny thing is, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started finding those kinds of friendships in real life too.

One of my closest friends lives in the UK, and we’ve known each other for nearly twenty years despite never actually meeting in person. We met online long before that was common, and somehow the friendship endured through texts, calls, and video chats. Sometimes we go months without speaking, but when we reconnect, it feels like no time passed at all.

I also have a local friend I’ve known for years now—someone I know will remain part of my life no matter where either of us ends up.

Recognizing those relationships in my own life helped me understand why Maggie’s relationships mattered so much to me while writing them.

I think readers experience this too.

Readers find characters who feel safe.

Characters who make them feel understood.

Characters who stay with them for years because somehow they explained something the reader couldn’t explain for themselves.

Maybe those characters helped them survive something quietly.

Maybe they made them feel less alone.

Maybe they justified difficult emotions or painful decisions.

Reading isn’t just entertainment. It’s emotional. It becomes part of us.

And maybe that’s why certain fictional characters remain with us decades after we close the book. We remember what they would have done. We remember how they made us feel.

Because I don’t think we connect to stories by accident.

I think sometimes we discover parts of ourselves hidden inside them.

And maybe that’s why stories matter so much.

Maybe we don’t write what we know.

Maybe we write what we needed.

---