the block

As I continue working on my narrative piece (I think I might just be lazy and hand it in as a short story in some sort of neat physical form), I find it interesting that it's almost more personal to write fiction than to write about real people and events in my life. Does that make sense to anyone else? Or am I just backwards?

To me, fiction represents what the author notices and finds important. Imagination is key, and characters, events, situations, settings, everything seems to tie in to something that happened in the life of the author. Something led to choosing that name, or that location. If a character is rich and spoiled, is that some secret desire of the author? If there's a gay character, what's the reason? Why is he or she a minor or major character? Are the characters extreme or pretty normal?

It's weird. Just that. Weird. I can tell all of you what I imagine, or what I experience in life, or what I did this morning, but telling you what my character imagines, experiences, or accomplishes, is what really seems to penetrate the security bubble. I suppose, rather than me choosing explicit things to say, creating a character and giving him a voice more implicitly invites you into my complex little mind.

Maybe I'll share what I have, maybe not. We'll see if I like it enough when I've finished - which is weird too, because I have such high hopes for this that I'll likely never finish it. I mean, sure, I'll finish the meager 3 page requirement for doing the project as a short story, but there will be so many missing pieces that I may just take the year and attempt to bring the characters to life in full. Attempt, being the key word. I mean yeah, I've sort of always wanted to be a writer, along with concert pianist, artist, architect, director, etc, and writer seems the most accessible of the above. But do i really have what it takes? We can try at least. I'll do my best to earn those gold stars.

And who knows. Maybe I'll get distracted during that time with a more material/physical character, who can help me write a new story. Wink wink nudge nudge etc. Show yourself! Distract me!