I am a shameless daydreamer, book reader, and story maker-upper and I need my fix of escapism to get me through the day!

I had a thought when I was writing this morning – how strange is it that all of these characters are just coming out of my head? Imagination is a strange and powerful thing, don’t you think?

As far back as cavemen painting on walls, humans have had a fascination with story telling and escaping from reality! We are captivated by fictional tales of heroism, tragedy, love, loss and all other manner of human emotions – despite these stories not being remotely true! 

Does that mean our lives are so dull that we are coming up with (or distracting ourselves with) lightning scarred wizards, sharp-toothed love interests who like to eat people, a teenage battle to the death in a screwed up dystopia, and sexually messed up rich guys (oh my!) ?

Yes and no. Our lives aren’t all bad, right? (RIGHT!?) but humans have an ingrained setting to always look beyond their own reality for something better. We like to explore our feelings through characters and read about unrealistic scenarios to wonder how we might fair in the same stiuation or simply to marvel at the main character’s ability to overcome adversity or fall in love against all odds etc. etc.
Here’s an odd question for you to ponder…

Would you rather know (don’t ask me how just accept that you do) that all the books you loved actually existed in some other reality but it could never affect your life OR would you prefer books to be just the way they are, wonderful, beautiful fiction?
Thanks for reading!

11 thoughts on “Imagination Vs Reality”

  1. I like the way Robert McKee puts it in his screenwriter’s guide: stories are a metaphor for life. In that way, I think they do exist in real life because they represent life. But it would be really cool if they actually existed in an alternate reality too!

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    1. I love this idea! Yeah I’m not sure what would be better! If they really exist I think I’d be jealous of some of them! The inkheart series touch on this with the characters born to life from books. But I’d feel so guilty for some of the things I put my characters through if this were true haha

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  2. I think I’d literally go insane if I knew the creative worlds I love actually existed but I could never go there. Yep. I’d be in a padded room in no time. So I’ll keep books the way they are. And stay sane. 🙂

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      1. Oh, man. Too many to name! Numero uno would probably be Middle Earth. After that, Narnia. After that, even though it’s a real place, I’d like to go to Prince Edward Island and be Anne Shirley’s friend. After that, Willowen, which is the land of magicals in my own fantasy series. I really should move that to number one, but let’s be honest. Most writers don’t put their own writing at the top of their list, right?

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      3. I don’t think it’s unoriginal. I don’t know many people who wouldn’t want to be immersed in Harry Potter. I would, myself, but it’s just not in my top five or ten places.
        That being said, I have been to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. So maybe that’s why I didn’t include it in the list. I’ve already been there! 🙂

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      4. Ahh amazing! I’d love to visit there! What was it like? I’ve done the film studios in london as I only live an hour from there hehe!

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  3. Great question!
    Whether they exist or not we are affected. Stories are the best way for us to learn empathy and to develop our emotional intelligence, so I say let them exist and through the looking glass we laugh, cry and become enraged on behalf of our beloved characters and come out more whole as human beings. 🙂

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