When someone talks to you, I don't see how you can think of them as anything other than real. I can be watching TV, driving to the grocery store, working on another book, or any other daily activity when I suddenly hear one character or another speaking to me. It wouldn't be so bad except I tend to have an internal conversation with them as if they were another person. They tell me about scenes they want to be in and how they think it should go, or how they would feel in a specific situation I'm thinking of writing--their emotions, how they might react. Sometimes they comment on another character. I realize that this is just my Muse, Willow, talking to me. But since Willow constantly changes her appearance--sometimes a woman, sometimes an Elfin, and even sometimes a dragon--I doubt if this is a whole lot better.