Play - Fiction's Foundation
Whatever you want to call it - Make Believe, Pretend, or Imaginative Play - it's all the same: A wonderful expression of one's creative imagination. My childhood was full of this kind of play. Creating an imaginative world within the real world came very easy to me. It didn't matter where I was - the school playground, the unfinished basement in our house, or the backyard - all those places became "different places" when I played. Sometimes I "made up" these worlds and stories that kept me busy for hours; and other times, I stole the worlds and stories from books I had read, changing them, of course, to fit my fancy. It has recently occurred to me that now that I'm all grown up, and playing "make believe" is pretty much frowned upon, I have found a different place to play: my writing. Being an author gives me the opportunity to enjoy pretend play whenever I write. I get to create everything - the characters and the world they live in, as well as their problems, their solutions, and their stories. And just like when I was younger, the imaginative play keeps me busy for hours. When I created a make believe world as a child, it was nothing but real to me; and now when I create those same kinds of worlds when I write, that realness is the same. I'm thankful I enjoyed a childhood full of this kind of play because for me it became the foundation for the fiction I write.
My Author Playground
Happy Reading, Writing, & Playing,
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