And it was all a Dream

Teaching a high school creative writing class has reopened my eyes to the traps so many young writers fall into. Writing a hero story, every novice writer starts their stories the same way - their hero comes down the stairs and has breakfast. Because this is how we start our own days. There's no in medias res battles with sea monsters or meanwhile in Gotham city parallel plots. And if they actually finish a piece it usually ends one of two ways. Everyone dies. Or it was just a dream. And each time, each writer, myself not excluded. Is delighted with their clever trick ending. Maybe it's a writer's right of passage. To write about breakfast and then ending our stories as though its' all a dream - not fully trusting the imaginary worlds we've created to be "real."

Whenever students finish great books, they often ask, "Is this true?" And my response is, "Yes, but it's fiction." And after much head scratching and confusion, I explain that fact and truth don't have to be the same when it comes to fiction. Something that feels true, have true elements, but be imaginary. So I've started to challenge my young writers with this same idea. Why end the story with a dream or death? Why not let the truth of your fiction shine through all the way to the end?

And this is a challenge also to myself. To write what is true - even if it is not based on facts.