
I’ve always loved imagining stories. But having my brain hot-wired into a fantasy world isn’t always a good thing.
As a kid, it was cool to spend 90% of my time playing
with action figures or drawing stories or creating comic books – I was just
being a kid. But as I grew up, my brain didn’t really change. It stayed stuck
in fantasy-land most of the time, making up crazy adventures when it should
have been focusing on more adult concerns. To this day, my brain continues to
be in la-la land so much that functioning as an adult has become a bit of a
problem.
Writers Aren't All There
If you know
a comic book writer, or have been afflicted yourself with the need to think up
mad stories in your head, you know what I mean. The blank stares. The feigned
interest in conversation. The
forgetting to pick up the kids after school.

Living With Only Half A Brain
Such is the
writer’s brain. 95% of a writer’s brainpower is used in the pursuit of dreaming
up stories, leaving scant few brain cells to accomplish the tasks of day-to-day
living. It is essentially like functioning with a lobotomy – your brain isn’t
all there. While this sad affliction affects millions across the globe, to the
chagrin of forgotten wives and neglected boyfriends everywhere, I have to think
it’s part of a grander purpose.
Stories are
important. Stories are not just an expression of ideas, but an expression of
the writer’s deepest thoughts on the nature of reality. At least, that’s what I
think shapes the foundation of a great story. Authors dig deep inside
themselves to bring up big sloppy handfuls of their most profound insights,
gleaned over a life-time of experience, that we the audience are allowed to
experience through a dramatic art form. This is by no means a small task –
hence the toll it takes on the minds of those afflicted with the itch to write.
So when
next you encounter a writer, instead of rolling up a newspaper and whacking
them upside the head to get their attention, gently take their hand, sit them
down in a corner, and allow them to quietly filter the secrets of the universe
through their wondrous, if socially frustrating, lens.
The world
will be richer for your kindness.
G.S.
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