I think what people who say their characters talk to them may be experiencing and using that particular phrase to express is when they've fallen into a rhythm with their story, the way Virginia Woolf described how if she had the rhythm of the first sentence of a story, it seemed to write itself. When you've got that rhythm, it seems to come easier, and suddenly it feels like you aren't writing at all, but following the beat, and a lot of writing gets done. I think on some level, the characters talking to you phrase--at least I hope this is what it is--has something to do with that more than an actual conversation that takes place in the author's head. I've always read it figuratively for a different neurological writing experience. I aim to keep thinking of it that way, though when interpreted literally, ick, I think I wouldn't be a writer if my characters really did literally talk to me.

Good luck with writing your personal story. It's a different well to draw from, and there's nothing wrong with it, though some people think there is. If you read Jeff Ford's newest collection of stories, I think you'll see the range he writes in, and the personal story is one of the kinds he does best.