I agree with you Geoff. Obviously we put the words in the mouths of our characters. They, their actions and their words all come from our brains. Invoking mystical intervention is reaching, and it's an unnecessary complication. When we say, "I follow my characters around and write down what they do," we're using shorthand for the process of putting them in the situations we need them to be in, and saying the things we need them to say.
Given that, just as we visualize the settings, so we "audiolize" the dialog. I don't think it's going too far to say that I can "see" what they're doing and "hear" what they're saying. And I don't think it's a contradiction to say that it's all the product of my imagination. I'm just thankful that my imagination can present the results to me in a coherent and nearly finished condition, and I can write down the dialog as if, as you say, I'm "remembering" it.
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