Creative Minds

I wonder if a lot of writers were children who had imaginary friends. I didn't, but I have a feeling that many adult writers did have them. Certainly shows the creative side, doesn't it? 

My youngest brother, Jim--then called Jimmy--invented a fire dragon and her five baby fire dragons.  He talked to them, told people in our family not to step on them, and he often blamed his own misdeeds on them. Jimmy was born quite a few years after his three older siblings, so maybe he had a need for companions that he could relate to. Thus, the fire dragons! At one point, it got pretty frustrating as he was always warning us to "Watch out, you're going to step on my fire dragons!"

Many children fill a need of some kind by having an imaginary playmate, another child that is their best friend. Aren't writers much the same? We dream up imaginary people in our fiction stories and novels. In fact, we create dozens and dozens of imaginary people who live in our stories. 

The sign above rings true, doesn't it? When you're on the outs with those make-believe characters, you sit frozen before the keyboard. You have to bend over backwards and be nice so your story friends will tip-toe back into your life and start talking again. 

Be patient. They'll come back. If you're in a hurry, you might have to go searching in every nook and cranny to find them. But you will come across them again. Writers Block tends to be tempoary. Just don't step on the baby fire dragons!