Every character in the novel has a double or alter ego. This doubling is a motif that underscores the themes of Writing What You Know and Reality Versus Imagination. Freddie, Cain, Marigold, and Leo A in the frame narrative all have their equivalents in the stories Freddie and Hannah construct. Freddie writes what she knows by using people in her orbit as starting points for the characters in her work. These creations morph as her plots diverge from the reality of events around her because there is a difference between the imagined world of her novels and real life around her, and she is clear that there is such a difference.

Nevertheless, her reliance on real people as the inspiration for her characters and plots helps her see real people with more insight, but it may also cloud her judgment. For example, when Freddie first meets Marigold, whose double in Freddie’s work-in-progress is Freud Girl, Freddie imagines that Freud Girl may be a stalker. Marigold’s surreptitious attention to Whit inspires Freddie to create the stalker double, but it turns out that Marigold is engaging in stalker behavior, and her actions in the Reading Room were a tell that Freddie picked up on.