What do You do when your writing upsets you?

“If I ask you to think about something, you can decide not to. But if I make you feel something? Now I have your attention.”

―
Lisa Cron

When I’m writing short stories I’m in the world of that story for a short time. But novels, as I’m finding out, are different.

I’ve grown to love these characters, become involved in their lives. What’s worse, I’m the one making them miserable, because I created their world, and their troubles! I guess the fact that I’m feeling their feeling is a good thing, because maybe then the reader will get to experience those feeling as well. And as Lisa Cron says, maybe I’ll have pure writer’s gold: my reader’s attention!

But in the meanwhile, I’m a little blue, all because of the people in my novel– who have nothing much in common with me, who have no existence beyond my imagination.

Does this happen to you? 
Do you ever strongly feel the emotions of the characters you read about, or the ones you write?

For those coming here via #IWSG, here’s my post.