Reality

I often wonder what is real. I think the Matrix movies were perfectly timed for me as I was growing up. They let me look at things in a way that I had never done before that time in my life. Back then I wanted to escape from reality in any way that I could...books, movies, video games, anything to remove myself from the mundane.

Now I create my own realities, I build people, civilizations, worlds, entire universes imagined and destroyed. Sometimes these places, and characters seem more real to me than my friends and family do. I'm inside their minds, I see their thoughts, cry their tears, dream their dreams.

But, it's not real. I can't interact with them physically.

I think that is important to know, to remember. You can't allow yourself to be so wrapped up in an imagined reality that you forget to live your life. You must experience the moments that will leave you breathless. Why read about a beautiful sunset, when you can wrap your arm around the one you love and experience it, first hand? Then when you do need to escape it bolsters your imagination making the time spent far richer than before.

You can't fully appreciate what a character is experiencing when they are falling in love if you've never experienced it for yourself. The way your heart skips, and your breath quickens, the sudden tremble you feel at the thought of their touch, the way the goosebumps dance across your skin once you've embraced and caress one another. These are things that must be more than words on a screen or page. They must be participated in as part of the human experience.

Then, and only then can you fully appreciate the subtle nuance an author can create with a single word like love.

Equally as an author it is important that we take the opportunity to participate in life as much as possible. So that we fully appreciate the reactions we are creating in our audience. Every word must have meaning and will impact our audience in ways far more profound than any other medium. More than any other artist the author creates culture. We write books, screenplays, songs, commercials. All of these things must be written words before for they are displayed to the world. That is a grave responsibility, and one that cannot be taken lightly. We must offer our audiences truth at its most primordial core. For what we do, shapes reality.