As a lover of prose myself, I believe that writers are slightly crazy. In order to create believable characters in one's work, one has to personally believe in said characters. Seeing in the mind's eye people who are not alive, places that are not real, and events that never happened.
There's a monster in the new Doctor Who series called the Weeping Angel that is truly terrifying in that it only moves when you're not looking, and even a projected image of it causes it to become real. This concept can be seen as the embodiment of any imaginary character: once you imagine, write, or draw it, it becomes real for you.
Ideas pop up in my head frequently. Sometimes I'm inspired enough to write them down, sometimes I'm not. I've had characters that I wrote about 20 years ago reappear, as if to say "my adventures aren't over, write some more about me!" Much of the time I don't, because the scenario is too complex or too outlandish to be believable anywhere other in my own imagination.
Somewhere in the mess that is my home office there's an old notebook in which I scribbled down some of these ideas, and upon re-reading it months or years later I shake my head and say to myself, "it seemed like a good idea at the time, but even I can't believe that." Perhaps it's just as well, because once I start believing in my own imagination, people will think I'm crazy.
What is wrong with being "a little crazy"? If you 't, you don't have imagination - and how could you write anything entertaining your readers?
ReplyDeleteWorks for the fictional writer. I find I don't have the creativity for fiction. However, I enjoy researching and teaching through writing. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know if writers have to be crazy, but they sure do tend to be. I'm a poet as opposed to a fiction writer, and I am also Bipolar. In the course of looking up my particular problem I have found that a ton of writers are Bipolar. Charles Dickens was Bipolar, for instance. So that is on the mental side of things.
ReplyDeletePersonality wise, I think you are right. It takes someone special to create a world and inhabit it as easily as they do the world they were born to. I'd file this under visionary.
Also, your devoted following of Dr. Who makes me jealous. I haven't seen the Doctor in ages.
Thank you. I've been following Doctor Who since I was a teenager and I think it does take a certain level of craziness to understand it.
DeleteDoctor Who=Winning! And I'm pretty terrified of the Weeping Angels. I'm not a fiction writer but I've always had quite the imagination. I think it's an awesome thing to be able to create worlds and creatures and "escape" into it for a bit.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone is a little crazy at sometime or another. Even though I am crazy I will never be a writer... Thank you so very much for all your comments on my post.. I love to see them.
ReplyDeleteEvery one is -or should be - a little crazy, that's what allows us to keep our sanity.
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