Having an overactive imagination is both a blessing and a curse.

When reading or writing I can be transported into worlds I could never visit and do things that I could never experience in real life. My mind expands these universes of thought and feeling to provide an experience that no games console, television, or cinema can provide.

On the other hand when real life problems come around, that means I also run through all the probabilities and possibilities, filling my thoughts with worries that might not necessarily come to pass.

 

Worst of all though is what I consider being ‘Haunted by the Story’. Your mind is full of this amazing story. It constantly shifts and sways, forms and reforms in your brain. It’s like seeing the most amazing film at the cinema, but not being able to tell anyone about it because it’s not finished and is constantly changing.

Getting it down on paper helps, but real life gets in the way, and you are constantly feeling guilty that you are getting no further with it. So you find yourself going to sleep thinking about it, waking up thinking about it, walking along thinking about it, and occasionally drifting off only to find yourself lost in the story again.

At one point I was coming up with the most amazing ideas, only to have them forgotten about an hour later. How many plot altering, wonderful ideas have been lost to the ether?

 

The only solution at present is to capture everything on a dictaphone app on my phone, giving me some piece of mind that eventually everything should make it into the book.

 

When I finally finish and publish the book, maybe the story can be exorcised from my brain. :)