I suspect an author’s relationship with their characters is always nuanced, even when the character is nominally oneself or one’s alter ego. The writer Lawrence Durrell, in his Avignon Quintet, explored this love-hate relationship by having his principle character (basically a Durrell surrogate) Aubrey Blanford invent a character of his own, Rob Sutcliff, who is just as “real” as Aubrey himself (and both, of course, are fictions created by Durrell). The arguments and tensions between the two veer from amusing to existential, as each resents the other in various ways.

If you’re ever in search of something different from the typical novel, Durrell’s post-modern neo-gothic and highly mannered quincunx may be worth a read.