Eyes squeezed shut, she is
trying to hold her breath,
until the last moment when she can't keep either closed.
What happens next ?
Does it matter ? Are you curious ?
Not all fiction is a lie. Not all, but most of it. The point for me is that most stories are tales about people who are not real, in places that don't exist, having imaginary conversations that never occured. In some cases, there are events that never happened, or events that may have happened, described by people who were not
there. The common denominator is deceit.
It didn't happen. It's not real.
These people who are talking aren't real people. So. So, why do we care?
Why are we compelled to write such stories? Simple answer- because we want someone to read them.
We want an audience to read page after page- chapter after chapter. Why do these fake people in fake places having fake adventures matter. It's not the stories we tell, it's the words you use.
It is always about the words- the image- the action- the description of fake that makes us suspend disbelief- that allows us to ignore the central fact of the whole concept- we are reading a story about one dimensional people who were never alive. But, we still care.
Our challenge- is to convince the next reader to believe our story, care for our characters, long for our endings. Our challenge is to have our audience enjoy our pretend stories enough that they can, at least for a little while, imagine that they might be real.
She exhaled finally and loudly, hands on her knees, watching his half smile. She looked up at the ceiling, then waited for a response...
Not bad, he said, nodding his head, not bad for a start.