"A writer is simply the documenter of his own insanity" Unknown
A fiction writer is many things, it would seem but what really?
I was reading this article today and I wondered....well now, maybe that explains a lot;
I have spent a significant portion of my life with several of my imaginary friends and, not only have I done this but I have documented it. Not only have I documented it but I am trying to present it in appealing fashion so that people will pay me for the pleasure of gawking at my insanity. I enjoy this activity and call myself writer, author, among other things.
"What do you do in your spare time?" People ask me
"I invent people and have conversations with them in my head and then I write it down" they usually start making excuses and backing away right about this time. This may be a not altogether conventional description of a writer's trade but it is not inaccurate really.Think about it. At this moment in time I have...around 9 people in my head about whom I think regularly, whom I place in situations and generate dialogue for, with whom I, in fact, have conversations effectively. A lot of the time we keep these conversations between ourselves and they never make it to the page; either because I forget about them, am distracted or, when I sit down at my keyboard with the complete intention of writing down that cracker of a dialogue from earlier down something strange happens...I start to write and it turns into something completely and utterly different. My neat little scene, my snappy chatty, my situationette turn into something completely different! I sit down wanting to write how x met z and talked about y but then w comes in and murders x and falls in love with z and y did this every happen????!!
I think Poe put it best "I am a writer therefore I am not sane."
Therefore I ask you this question and, honest answers only please, on a stamped and self addressed postcard. Do we create our characters or were they always there, inside our heads? Do we create stories or are we the medium by which the story writes itself? Are we really crazy or are scientists just jealous b*st*ards because they don't do anything original?
I open the floor to comments and questions!