The Addiction that is Fantasy

Lately, I've become quite enamored of a television show called, 'True Blood.' It has everything that appeals to me: vampires, romance, and an element of comedy beneath the darkly twisted horror that gives life to each episode. I finished watching the latest two episodes this weekend, and I practically have the addict 'shakes' as I wait for my next fix.

What is it that gives a fictional world that desirable quality, that emotional connection that sucks us in as viewers or readers? Whether the world of Middle Earth, Harry Potter, or Bon Temps, the fact that these settings were created by someone's imagination does not seem to diminish their quality or influence in our lives. We love to leave the mundane and the ordinary behind. We love to lose ourselves in someone else's story. The richer the landscape and characters and conflict, the greater impact it has on our lives. It is always hard to get to the end of the story and realize that that is it, there is nothing more, and you must move on and get back to the 'real' world.

Sigh.

What an accomplishment it must be for the author/creator to fully realize their dream world on paper only to see a following of adoring fans spring up and cry for 'more!' I felt a definite loss when the television show 'Firefly' did not make it past its first season. It's final chapter as the movie, 'Serenity' was a nice treat, but it only cemented the fact that the show was gone for good, because unlike 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' dead meant dead. Or the world that Terry Goodkind created in the Sword of Truth Series. When I finished the seventh book, I almost shed a tear because my journey alongside Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell had now come to an end. (Little did I know, Goodkind would go on to write at least four more...and man, what an end!)

I would love to create a world as addictive as those I've mentioned above. That is my goal for the novel I am writing, and if no one but myself falls absolutely, truly in love with it, that is ok. Of course, fans would be cool!

It is a pretty sweet role to act as Creator. It almost seems like too much responsibility at times. Then I remember that I'm doing it because I love to dream and imagine and inspire, and my fear of insignificance is overshadowed by the sheer joy of doing what is in my heart and mind to do.

Plus, it's just fun!