I've been sick for a week. One week, in bed. I'm not used to this much time in the house. It's oddly unsettling. I spent the first few days watching endless hours of tv. Then when I began to feel like I was living in alternative reality, I decided it was time to shut off the tv.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever spent so much time living in a different world, that reality began to feel unfamiliar. (Yes that is correct I'm officially crazy). But really. When I was younger I would disappear into books for days. When I finally finished whatever series I was in, I would return disappointed the real world. What happens when the real world becomes a pale comparison to the world you want to live in?
I suppose that's why so many people turn to other things. I'm sure if I wasn't so afraid of pain I would turn into an adrenaline junkie.
Doesn't matter. Anyway the product of the last week in bed has been for me to begin writing again. Obviously that has not shown up here. I'm working on a book. When you read books about writers, they always tell you to write about what you know. But I think that there are actually two realms of writers. Those who write about what they know, what is familiar and those who write to create a world that cannot be realized in the present. I think the latter type tends to get pushed into children's literature or sci-fi/fantasy. It seems that those are the books that inspire us when we are young. They make us want to be bigger, better, and brighter than we are.
Tomorrow, I go back to work and my writing will probably get laid aside for a time. But this week has made me want to do 2 things: continue to write the world that I cannot live and then to make my own life the best story it can possibly be, so that I no longer wish to escape.
That's all.
2 comments:
Good thoughts.
It is interesting that you mention reality feeling unfamiliar after you've been really absorbed in a fictional world for a while. I definitely have had that experience. Sometimes I feel like I'm a sponge and I've just completely absorbed the world of a book. I don't quite feel like myself and I don't know how to interact with other humans for a while. But the feeling fades after a few hours or days.
'Write what you know' is both a truth and an untruth. If you take it to mean 'write only about events and places you have actually experienced' then it is false; people are capable of writing vividly and convincingly about things they have not and could not possibly experience.
But if you take it to mean 'write about things that resonate inside with you, things you believe; write about that unique particle of truth that is lodged deep inside you' then I think it is very true. Writing about things that speak to you and attempting to communicate your unique perspective of life (and I think we all have one) is critical to writing well.
I love fiction, I love writing, but I've tried to bear in mind that life's narrative is richer and stranger than anything I've imagined or read, and to be open to experiencing that.
-Tom
Thanks Tom.
I agree about writing that which resonates inside us. I remember someone or some book saying that a writer's job is to do just that...to strive to take the "truth" that explodes within us and describe it for others. Truth being used liberally...to describe that which is beautiful, grotesque, that which moves us...and so on.
Thanks for your words.
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