The Characters Who Sat Beside Me

It always started the same way—a vivid dream I couldn’t shake. A girl. A strange fire. A feeling that something sacred was unfolding. That dream came to me again and again over the course of years, lingering like smoke in the back of my mind. It wasn’t until I finally wrote it down that I realized—this wasn’t just a dream. It was the beginning of a story that had been waiting for me to notice.

The scene that opens Ashes of Chastity is that very dream. But the moment I put it to paper, something unexpected happened: characters began to appear. I don’t mean in the abstract way writers talk about “creating” characters. I mean they arrived like visitors. Fully formed. They’d walk into my imagination, take a seat beside me, and silently watch as I wrote—waiting to be acknowledged.

It became a familiar sensation. I would sit down to write, and there they’d be—just out of view, like ghosts with opinions. They didn’t interrupt. They didn’t rush. They simply... waited. Their presence filled the room. They were calm but insistent, their energy unmistakable. One would lean back, arms crossed, while another stood behind me with quiet intensity, as if reading over my shoulder. Sometimes I felt their approval, sometimes their resistance. But always, their need to be seen.

And when I finally saw them, they came with voices, memories, desires. They challenged my plans, expanded the world, and, surprisingly, shaped the characters I thought I already knew. Gabriel didn’t feel invented—he felt remembered. Ebony, Cassiel, Patrick—they didn’t need to be built; they needed to be witnessed.

It became a kind of ritual. I’d sit with my laptop, and scenes would play in my mind like a silent movie in full color. Not just images, but mood. Atmosphere. Emotion. Then, like voices behind glass, I’d begin to hear the characters speaking—not just to each other, but to me. Voicing their thoughts, their judgments, their vulnerabilities. It was strange, and beautiful, and felt more like witnessing than writing.

If you’ve noticed my writing is highly introspective—thank you. I used to question that. I tried to write more like the "rules" said I should: faster pace, more action, less emotion. But eventually, I realized: introspection is my native language. It’s how the stories come to me. It's how they become. These characters didn’t just move through scenes—they evolved through thought, emotion, hesitation, and memory. And so, that’s how I wrote them.

Writing Ashes of Chastity has never been about following a blueprint. It’s been about listening. About trusting the dream. About being present enough to witness what shows up.

If you’ve ever had a story chase you in your dreams—or a character who felt like an old friend—you should write it!  That’s what this book has been for me. A calling answered, written down, and now shared.

—Annalise Monet

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Annalise Monét is a genre-bending author redefining sensual faith through stories of magic, desire, and spiritual awakening. Subscribe to her blog and discover her books on Amazon and wherever books are sold.