All worldly, like!

Yesterday, on the Wyrdsmiths website, Kelly McCullough asked this question:

What do you folks think? If you're a writer, do you find there's a big difference between having someone else's world in your head and having one of your own? Does one seem to fill your brain more? Is there a cognitive difference in terms of creative brain space vs. consuming brain space? If you're not a writer, how do you experience a fictional world? Is it a place you wholly contain in mind, or is it very much a place that you access through the gateway of a book?

Wow. This is an interesting question.

Well, for me, I find that I can switch between my own worlds and the worlds of others without a second though. It depends on the author to if there is a difference between someone else's world and a world I am creating. If the writer has a well realised world - like Middle Earth - then it's almost like living in a world of my own making, as you can realise all the component parts, the people, the plant and animal life, and the way that world works. The only real difference between my world/their world is that I'll have a more intimate knowledge of my worlds, and my characters, as they come from my brain.

In respect to the worlds I create, I have no problem bouncing from one to the other. I mostly work in fantasy worlds, so each will have it's own distinct character - myths, hierarchies, people etc. - and other stories are written in a slightly warped version of the actual, everyday world.

As for creative brain vs. consuming brain, well. Other author's worlds only become consuming when I am thinking about them. Otherwise they are kept in the 'Other Worlds That Aren't Mine' storage room in my head. As for creative, well, that's an ongoing process, both consciously and subconsciously. My own worlds are there, constantly, whether I am thinking about them or not. (Oh, deja vu! I'm sure I wrote that last line, those exact words, in a dream last night!) A lot of stuff goes on subconsciously, and only becomes consuming when I am writing in that world. Every now and again an idea from another world will float to the surface, so I'll just scribble a note down and go back to the world I was playing in.

I can also remember what it was like before I started writing. There were some worlds that I could only live out if I was there in the book as it were. Places like Gemmell's Drenai novels and Donaldson's Land. But other places, like Middle Earth and Lumley's Sunside/Starside, I can live in without being in the book. It only takes thinking of a character for me to be back there.

So, that's my answer. And reading that back it makes me sound like a real writer. Maybe one day I'll get a full story finished in one of the fantasy worlds that're bouncing around in my head.

Well, it's now time to live in the world of a three year old, so I'm off to introduce Principessa to some Roman mythology, or maybe I'll veg out in front of the television watching programmes for three year olds.