The novel is an event in consciousness. Our aim isn't to copy actuality, but to modify and recreate our sense of it. The novelist is inviting the reader to watch a performance in his own brain. -George Buchanan
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Today was the last day of spring break. At least I have the weekend to transition into the school week. I've been working on a painting I call Window to Imagination. People are always asking authors where they get their ideas. So what is imagination? Is it a pool of things we have read, seen, experienced, dreamed?
In my painting I portrayed the positive, whimsical side. But really, imagination can be dark and scary too. I used to frighten the heck out of myself imagining what might happen if someone broke into my house when my husband was gone and attacked me and my kids. (Okay, so I still frighten myself with that one now and then.)
And think of the horror writers like Stephen King. Definitely takes some kind of imagination to write those kind of stories. So our imagination must be fueled by our fears and desires as well. I imagined what I'd like to say to the idiot driver who passed me on the right going at least 80 miles an hour.
Sometimes imagining is a way to re-do things. When I don't like the way I handled something, I find myself imagining it a different way. Like I'll imagine saying something much funnier than what I actually said. Or sometimes I imagine myself pouring on the righteous anger. I'm always way funnier, stronger, smarter, and definitely sexier in my imagination. Funny how that works.
Maybe imagination is a way to try out new behaviors. I can say things that I couldn't really say in real life. Or at least I can say things and not have to pay the consequences. I guess if I was really looking through a window into my imagination, it would definitely have some dark things lurking in it as well as things like fairies and unicorns. Because if I can work out the nasty, petty, mean things by imagining them, then maybe I won't need to say or do them in real life.
By the way, this week I have watched two movies with authors as characters. Both movies (Stranger than Fiction and Nim's Island) portrayed the writers as neurotic. So see? There is no reason I shouldn't be an author!
In my painting I portrayed the positive, whimsical side. But really, imagination can be dark and scary too. I used to frighten the heck out of myself imagining what might happen if someone broke into my house when my husband was gone and attacked me and my kids. (Okay, so I still frighten myself with that one now and then.)
And think of the horror writers like Stephen King. Definitely takes some kind of imagination to write those kind of stories. So our imagination must be fueled by our fears and desires as well. I imagined what I'd like to say to the idiot driver who passed me on the right going at least 80 miles an hour.
Sometimes imagining is a way to re-do things. When I don't like the way I handled something, I find myself imagining it a different way. Like I'll imagine saying something much funnier than what I actually said. Or sometimes I imagine myself pouring on the righteous anger. I'm always way funnier, stronger, smarter, and definitely sexier in my imagination. Funny how that works.
Maybe imagination is a way to try out new behaviors. I can say things that I couldn't really say in real life. Or at least I can say things and not have to pay the consequences. I guess if I was really looking through a window into my imagination, it would definitely have some dark things lurking in it as well as things like fairies and unicorns. Because if I can work out the nasty, petty, mean things by imagining them, then maybe I won't need to say or do them in real life.
By the way, this week I have watched two movies with authors as characters. Both movies (Stranger than Fiction and Nim's Island) portrayed the writers as neurotic. So see? There is no reason I shouldn't be an author!
7 comments:
Sarah;
Imagination is a woderful thing. I think we all do similar things. I can imagine telling my boss exactly how big an idiot and loser I think he is without losing my job. It's a way of letting off steam.
My imagination really kicks in around cemetaries at night--or during the day for that matter--and a deep woods at night. Both stem from my childhood. My aunt had a picture of two men in a canoe and a bear standing along a river bank. For years I feared a bear behind every tree. And cemetaries are just plain erie and we're unsure if spirits roam.
Or I can imagine a relationship that ended turning out better. I can be carried to the 1860s and 70s prairie with buffalo, Indians, and lands never seen before.
Sometimes I even imagine that I can write.
Larry,
You can write. Don't need an imagination for that! Just need to sit butt in chair.
Me too for that matter. I have spent too much time playing with paints and not enough time writing. As much as I hate getting up early, I'll be glad to get back to my morning routine of writing!
Hey, painting is a creative expression. Nut I have my butt in the chair and going to write.
Hi Sarah! This is Tricia. I'm at a different computer and don't remember my username or password, so I'll just be anonymously Tricia for this one. Isn't that imaginative?
I have always thought that artists must be the most imaginative people alive. And I wish that I had more of an imagination ... like the ability to think "out of the box" more.
It is like playing the "what if" game when I'm writing ... what if this happened or what if that happened in my story. The problem is that I find myself editing my imagination even during the what if process.
And Larry, cemetaries at night ... yikes!!
~Tricia
"And Larry, cemetaries at night ... yikes!!"
I "parked" a lot of places in four years of high school and beyond, but NEVER in a cemetary. The things that stick with us from childhood. I still don't like scary movies--give me a good romantic-comedy any day.
In grade school, my friends and I used to go to the movies and walk home together. One by one they dropped out at their house until I was all alone. I had a long privet hedge to walk past, although at night I never walked. I ran all the way home.
This blog has, well, got my imagination imaganing all kinds of things.
While my dad was finishing our house, we lived in the basement. I slept on the side with the furnace. Imagine being 11 or 12, lying in the dark, and trying to sleep after seeing "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" or some Martian invasion movie and listening to the furnace noises as it heated and cooled or the blower kicked in. Is it any wonder, I like westerns and romantic-comedy better than creep shows?
Thanks for dredging up childhood fears Sarah. Now I'll have to sleep with the light on for a few nights. LOL!!!
Larry,
Glad to be of help.
As for cemetaries, I have to admit that I love them. I love to wander through them during the day and read the headstones. In college we used to play cemetary tag at night. There is this huge cemetary on the Northwest side of Grand Rapids (I don't know the name) and we would have someone be "it" and then we would all scatter and hide behind headstones and trees and whatever. It was great fun. The scariness just added to the fun. Worst thing that ever happened was I got a wicked bruise from crashing into a headstone in the dark.
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