Life, But Not As We Know It.

Last Updated on March 20, 2024 by ADMIN-TOM

Writing fiction is, without a doubt, a process that is full of love, worry, fear and surprise. Almost like raising a child.

With the writing process, the creation of plot, characters and setting, when completed, is an entity created by us. It’s not alive, it can’t be compared to human life, but in a way it does have a life. It lives and breaths, in its own way.

When your story idea first hits you, it’s the birth of a new story and your new-born baby needs nurturing. In the middle of the night you will be woken by your baby because it needs feeding with new ideas and words. But steadily, over time, your baby will grow and mature. At some point, your baby will be a child, ever changing and becoming more needy for words, ideas, characters and locations. And one day, your baby has grown into a teenager, full of angst and rebellion, not wanting to go in the direction you want to go, suddenly changing direction even as you feed it new lines and chapters.

And then a miracle happens, your child has grown into a mature story, with thousands of words, multiple characters and locations. Your story is an adult, just waiting for approval from you and more importantly, from your peers and eventually the general public.

And on the day of the great reveal, when your child goes to the prom and is unveiled to the world, you are so full of pride and at the same time scared your baby will not be accepted by the outside world. That’s when you know you have done your best and the rest is up to your novel or story, to stand proud and make the world take notice. And that is when your writing suddenly has a life of its own and your work is done. Now it will either succeed or fail.

If writing fiction is anything, it’s giving birth to a creation that can potentially entertain millions, and literally has a life of its own, a shelf-life.

To mis-quote It’s life, but not as we know it.

Copyright © Tom Kane 2024