“The sky is so big!”
A friend of mine used to always tease me when I would visit him out on his farm in central Missouri, stare up at the sky, and state in awe, “The sky is so big!” It never failed to amaze me and I could never really convey the feelings that seeing the sky brought on in me. It was more than a feeling of being so small in compared to the sky as being in awe of the sudden size of the world around me. It seemed every time I left the city, I grew smaller and the world so much larger around me. Of course, it has always simply been my scope of things rather than the world changing shapes and sizes, but I have always found it interesting how our perceptions can make it seem as though the world, not us, is changing. I can go outside and take a drive to Forest Park and feel as though I am in a whole other world, at least until you factor in the sound of the highway, the smells that only a mass amount of people can create, and the buildings rising over the trees.
When I step out of my car for the first time on a visit, I would always take a deep breath, sigh, and stare up at the massive sky. Sometimes, you just wish and yearn for a simpler time. Simpler does not mean easy. The life of a farmer is hardly glamorous, and although I once thought myself cut out for it, I was rudely awakened to the reality of my need for the city.
“The world is so small…”
My business management part two class just ended and I am headed over to the Nosh, our dining hall, to pick up a sub before heading to work. My mind is working frantically to figure out what I need to do during the next twenty-four hours in order for my day to run smoothly. I have to make sure to type out the notes for class, outline the next four chapters, and work on the study guide before the next test is over so I can just review it. I’ll get the same sub I always get, so I don’t have to think about that, but what is work going to bring me today? I am so sick and tired of dealing with ungrateful and ignorant customers that treat me like crap anyway… What am I even thinking about that for? I need to call Andy and see how his day is going, that will surely cheer me up, as will the drive to work with my Three Doors Down cd blaring… As I stand in line, my thoughts are interrupted by three of my friends who tell me they’ve been calling me for several minutes and have received no response whatsoever. Obviously, I was stuck in my own thoughts, which is often where I seem to be when I end up depressed or forlorn.
I recently tried to explain to my boyfriend the laments of living with a writer. I may not be a good writer, or a decent writer for that matter, but I do have a creative nature and a wish to express myself. When the feeling strikes, as it so rarely does, I am keen to take up my notebook or laptop in this case, immediately and begin working on my thoughts.
My parents used to tell me that I was not acting as part of the family with my headphones on and my notebook in my lap. Even if I did not have my headphones on, they expected me to hear what they said, though, and I was often too far out in my own little world to hear what they wanted me to. I have never really had much of an interest in television, so even to this day, I will consistently get bored, or work on something else while somebody else watches television. Movies are definitely more fascinating to me. I want to be able to feel what the character feels and know what they know. I want to be a part of the character’s life.
That is just something you do not get with television. It is good for comic relief or if you simply do not want to think any longer that day, but it seems just a waste to me much of the time.
If you could create a world, what would it be like? Would there be magic, would people fly, would you be able to do whatever you wanted, would there be laws, or people to break them, where would you fit in, what role would you play, etc. I love learning about other people’s world s and the ones that they have created so much that I now fear creating my own. I have these absurd fears about what if my world is not good enough. That idea is absurd because it’s my own world. I can change it if I want to. It will always be good enough because it will be whatever I want it to be at that particular time. So if I want my world to be straight out a Final Fantasy game or Oblivion, it can be, I just shouldn’t plan on publishing it. Likewise for any of the worlds I have read about over the years.
Herein lies the dilemma. How do I create a world that is not the same as all the others, but yet is exactly the same as all the others. It has to have all of the recognizable parts, living beings, some form of society (real or believed), law and order, crime, love, hate, etc. All of the yin and yang things the world is made of for us today. So now I just have to think of a time period, what my creatures will look like, how they will act, what their cultures will be like, how their rules are going to be, and how to make it lovable and believable for some audience to want to buy the book…. Oh yeah, and I have to make it likable enough for some publisher to back it. This should be a piece of cake!!! Or not…
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