Real Life or imagination?
Years ago, when I started on my writing journey, almost every book I read, or lecture I listened to, said: write what you know.
Having led a normal and rather sheltered life I couldn’t think of anything exciting to write about.
I failed at the first post.
I could have written about my pet rabbit, who I spoiled by feeding it milk; bad, bad, bad. It was a while before I noticed he wasn’t eating his carrots, yet he was getting very fat. His nourishment was coming from the milk. Consequently, his teeth grew and eventually locked together. I had to take him to the vet to have them returned to their normal size!
Or, I might have been inspired by my experience, as a very young girl, when, with friends, we pinched cabbages from a market garden and fed them to the donkeys in the field opposite – exhausted donkeys who were in need of a rest, having spent the long summer months giving children rides on the beach. Not exactly best seller material. To this day I still wait for the knock on the door from the police.
Time passed and I continued to try to learn the craft of writing. Then, one day, I stumbled across an article about an honoured famous actor discussing his latest movie. He said, he was waiting to play a particular scene when his co-actor walked onto the set looking like death warmed up. So, he couldn’t resist asking, “What on earth is the matter with you? You look awful”.
His co-actor replied, “Well, the character I’m playing has been up playing poker for the last three nights; so, I thought I’d do the same to prepare myself for the scene”.
The famous actor responded, “Have you never tried acting?”
It taught me that there is more to writing than writing what you know!
In my stories, I have killed more people than I care to remember. I can assure you that however realistic they may seem, they are culled from my imagination and certainly not reality. Honest, me Lud!
