THE GAME OF PRETEND

Someone said that penning fiction showed the immaturity of certain writers; that made-up stories were an easy copout rather than real stories presenting hard facts based on research.  Personally, I thought that person must be loaded with BS but without the scientific research necessary, I couldn’t prove it.  Maybe some fiction writers are immature but what’s wrong with that?  Some of our best research was accomplished at an early age.

Recently I watched the movie, HOOK, starring the late Robin Williams. It is the story of Peter Pan, now a father, with neither the time nor patience for childish ways, who must return to Neverland to rescue his two children, kidnapped by the evil Captain Hook.  Unfortunately, Peter has no recollection of his earlier life or his flying skills. He doesn’t remember ever being a child or thinking like one.  Peter must rely on help from Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys who are still miffed that he left Neverland to grow up and eventually have a family of his own and, even worse, he becomes a lawyer! 

As we know with stories like this, Peter strips away the fetters of civilized adulthood and relies on his imagination and childlike confidence to save the day.  Along the journey, he realizes that the bridge between childhood and adulthood can and should be traveled both ways.  Essentially, Peter learns to lighten up!

I think there’s a little Peter Pan in most fiction writers.  We tend to let our imagination run amuck.  We see something or hear about an incident and wonder what would happen if?  A person sitting near you in a restaurant grabs your attention and you start wondering who they really are and what are they writing on that piece of paper.  Will they slip it to the waiter or perhaps another patron passing by the table?  Voyeurism and imagination are useful writing tools.

As children, wrapping paper rolls were never thrown away until they were rendered utterly useless as swords or head boppers, finally  flattened and ripped apart after our last encounter with bad guys or our little brothers and sisters.  Our fighting skills were honed using those cardboard rolls and later reenacted by our characters in their life or death battles against evil soldiers and fire breathing dragons. 

We raced across neighbors’ yards and down alleys being either chased or pursuing bad guys, knowing that if we hit a tree or bounced off a curb at the wrong angle, the chase was over until the front wheel got fixed and worse still, Mom told Dad!  Many a car chase grew out of those high-speed two-wheeled adventures.  It didn’t take much to expand our knowledge to include double pedaling and downshifting.  But, the sounds of the motor never sounded as great as baseball cards being throttled by bicycle spokes.

We have a tendency to incorporate our family and friends into our stories.  Our children became the inspiration for Michael and Annie in the Survivalist Series, our nephew was an ongoing character in the Track Series and the whole family ended up in our novel, Written in Time, along with Teddy Roosevelt.  Real-life friends are scattered throughout many of our books, after first getting their permission. 

Fiction writing means you have to accept the fact that there is a lot going on between the colors black and white.  That huge gap can be filled with stories out of this world or over the fence next door.  What did Angie say to Bob that caused such a ruckus?  Out of all the stars I see tonight why is that one different?  I wonder why?  A writer might remember sitting inside a blanket tent with a canteen of water and a plate of Mom’s chocolate chip cookies and lifting the corner of the blanket to discover a vast jungle inhabited by deadly creatures and spear-holding natives, instead of Grandma sitting in her overstuffed chair knitting, her big yellow cat perched beside her, purring, a clock loudly ticking on the wall.

Who knows for sure what makes a person want to tell stories.  Maybe some writers are looking for their own universe to control; some might be hiding a past reality, disguising it behind a facade of fiction. Some of us just want to crow about a story and see if it will fly.

Sharon