Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Imaginary Friends

Do you remember that movie "Drop Dead Fred"? A little girl has an imaginary friend who gets her into all kinds of trouble. Her mother gets mad and pretends to tape him inside a jack-in-the-box. Then when the little girl grows up, she lets him out of the box and he's still the crazy imaginary friend she thought she made up. But now she's an adult and doesn't think it's funny anymore. Plus, Fred is a a perv.

Yeah, that movie was weird. But it's one of those '90s movies that I watched and would probably watch again on a lazy Sunday. [Spoiler alert - sorry, I'm sure you were dying to see this movie.] Can you believe they kiss at the end? Totally creeps me out.

Anyway.

I never had an imaginary friend as a kid. Probably because I had an older brother and sister to play with. (OK, so my friend David and I pretended in sixth grade that we had miniature dragons that we carried around on our shoulders. But that's beside the point. And actually, we got the idea out of a book about a kid with a pet dragon. So you see, it was cool. Totally.) The strange thing is, I feel like I have imaginary friends now.

I was writing on Saturday morning and I'm at the point in my WiP when the tension is really starting to build. I found myself getting all excited and anxious about what I'm planning to have happen to these people. These people who don't exist except in my own head. Kind of like imaginary friends.

I think this is an amazing thing that we do when we write fiction. People and places can come to life just by imagining their world and giving them a story. They become real to us. We bring them to life and can evoke real emotion in us. I truly care about them.

Right now, my imaginary friends are getting into a bit of trouble. I THINK I know how things are going to turn out, but not exactly. They've taken on a life of their own. Again, that's why pantsing is so fun :).

What's going on with your imaginary friends?

5 comments:

Amalia Dillin said...

I had two older brothers and two older sisters growing up, and they never got in the way of my imaginary friends-- and those pet dragons totally count. I had pet tigers, myself :P

I love imaginary friends. I kept mine from childhood through high school and college and totally sublimate them into writing now, um, mostly. ;)

Right now I am getting to know an Orc and a Princess. I am positive Thor will not approve.

Unknown said...

I had imaginary pet horses when I was a kid and several casts of characters I liked to play dolls and dress up with (and if the neighbor kids played the characters 'wrong' I would squawk) so . . . yeah. Writing. Basically and excuse to keep said casts of imagninary friends in a semi excepted mean for adults.

Also, can I borrow your dragons? They sound amazing.

Melanie_McCullough said...

I never really had an imaginary friend either. But I've always had the ones I would write about. Even when I was younger.

Right now my characters are making me cry, but hopefully they'll be a happy ending.

Love the imaginary dragon by the way. In my book that makes you super cool!

Mandie Baxter said...

I never had imaginary friends, but my son currently has two: a brother named Jack Sparrow & a sister named Broccoli! :)

Let's see...I haven't touched mine in a week. Last completed chapter one is killing off his parents. Then 2 unfinished chapters have started...in one they are are resolving the killing & in the other running away! So cryptic. Hehe.

Love this post (and I too can't help but watch that movie when it's on).

Keriann Greaney Martin said...

@Amalia - I love that you had imaginary friends. Pet tigers are totally cool!

@Taryn - Such an imagination. I don't know if I could've kept track of multiple characters and play dress up with them. And YES, dragons for everybody!

@Melanie - Thanks for validating my cool status :). I'm never sure. I hope there's a happy ending for your characters too. I'm a sucker for happy endings.

@Mandie - OMG, I can totally see some celebrity actually naming their daughter Broccoli, lol. Sounds like your son has a healthy imagination like his mama. Wow, very intriguing - I'm curious about the motive now!