So, there’s a major disconnect between writing about a situation (fictional or otherwise) and the sequence of events of or personal action in a situation. this disconnection is something I, as a writer, have to hurtle every time I put pen to paper, every time I write a story that will, I hope, be at once believable and entertaining. The Disconnect comes when imagination enters the equation, just as with the scene of a movie, which I can’t remember for the life of me, during which a police man who is asking a woman about a suspicious person she saw in her neighborhood.
She started out describing a man who looked not unlike the very cop interviewing her, brown hair, a beard, a suit, though as the interview went on, the cop (who ends up being the bad guy in the end) convinced the woman the man she saw was actually red-headed with no beard and dressed like a homeless man. The point is, one’s imagination can be very malleable, depending on a multitude of factors. The woman in the movie started out incredibly sure about who she saw, or at least what he looked like, though, by the end of the interview, she had lost 90% of her confidence.
That’s me, except that the interviewer is also me. I get caught up in trying to be accurate instead of starting out with what feels right in my gut, which, in my experience is the best, at least on the first pass of a story. See, the problem lies with someone’s (my) imagination turning a situation that happened or could have happened into a situation the imagination wants to happen. Maybe there’s a philosophy or concept that imagination likes more than how the event played out originally. So, as with the lady being interviewed by the cop, someone’s imagination can skew what would otherwise be a fully convincing story or scene.
I hope this makes sense, since, as I wrote, it is something I battle every time I write a scene or a story.
The real question, though, is how to remedy this. How to make sure what comes out on paper (I usually start out a piece in a notebook, then take it to the computer) is authentic. And, given that I’m young, 25 years old, I don’t have as wide a variety of experiences from which to draw. But also, I don’t get out as much as I should, which leads to a limited daily exposure of the people about which and for whom I’m writing.
I invite anyone else who has thought about or has had similar problems with writing stemming from a similar place to leave a comment. There’s obviously the idea that you should, “just write,” but it’s sometimes hard to do that when there is a constant barrage of worries and questions about the process.
So, with that I hope everyone has a great day!
On Creativity 