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brightrosefoxDo we create the world just by looking at it?
This got me thinking about what writers do when we create fictional worlds.
Some authors because so enamored of their characters that they start believing those characters are real. I mean really Real, like friends that the author needs to buy birthday gifts for (seriously, a certain female author of urban fantasy apparently does this).
There are writers who love their characters, pretend to mentally have conversations with the characters to get the plot moving, mentally act out the character's personalities, get sad when characters die, even argue with characters when a storyline isn't going as planned. I do this all the time. It helps with the world building. I love my characters very very much, and often get emotional over them. But I don't see the characters as Real. They're fictional. I made them up.
But maybe they exist now, because I created them; maybe they all live in a separate reality out of my head, connected to me, that I access through my writing.
I think there are more realities than people believe. The realities that each of us perceive, alone, for example. Yes, the couch is blue. Everyone who looks at the couch can see that. But each and every person who looks at that couch might see it a little differently. Maybe different shades of blue. Maybe strands of other colors woven into the fabric.
I certainly think that reality is subjective up to a point. It's when people break from the general basic reality, start living in their own realities, ignoring the reality around them, that the problems start. It's not quite the same as spiritual or religious perception, which is based on a unique kind of faith. But I really do think that we can alter the world in certain ways using our personal perceptions.
This got me thinking about what writers do when we create fictional worlds.
Some authors because so enamored of their characters that they start believing those characters are real. I mean really Real, like friends that the author needs to buy birthday gifts for (seriously, a certain female author of urban fantasy apparently does this).
There are writers who love their characters, pretend to mentally have conversations with the characters to get the plot moving, mentally act out the character's personalities, get sad when characters die, even argue with characters when a storyline isn't going as planned. I do this all the time. It helps with the world building. I love my characters very very much, and often get emotional over them. But I don't see the characters as Real. They're fictional. I made them up.
But maybe they exist now, because I created them; maybe they all live in a separate reality out of my head, connected to me, that I access through my writing.
I think there are more realities than people believe. The realities that each of us perceive, alone, for example. Yes, the couch is blue. Everyone who looks at the couch can see that. But each and every person who looks at that couch might see it a little differently. Maybe different shades of blue. Maybe strands of other colors woven into the fabric.
I certainly think that reality is subjective up to a point. It's when people break from the general basic reality, start living in their own realities, ignoring the reality around them, that the problems start. It's not quite the same as spiritual or religious perception, which is based on a unique kind of faith. But I really do think that we can alter the world in certain ways using our personal perceptions.
