Imagination's Slippery Slope

Imagination fuels my writing. Without it my talent would be nought. But when the line between imagination and reality blur it can feel rather gruesome. I have no problem admitting that I can completely conjure up scenarios in my mind. My mother used to call it making a mountain out of a molehill. It didn't feel good when it was a molehill and as an adult, well the feelings tied up in it often feel insurmountable.

When I am right about the way something goes, it feels more intuitive, I was on the right track. Other times I completely make up the reason why a person is behaving a certain way, when of course, I have no idea what they are really thinking and what their reasons for reacting are. The point is it can be a slippery slope.

Along with the advent of Facebook (who hasn't succumbed to that?) it is so easy to feel like we are piecing together someone's life based on what they have posted. Indeed, so guilty of that. Social networking and its ills in this path of single life is a whole other topic though.

But what of the age old "I'm waiting for him to call"? Feeling caught up in that is so juvenile and immature to me. To be quite honest, I was never a waiter, and impatience is my middle name. The main reason I'm like this is that when the passion hits, I want to talk to that person right away. It's when I'm not in contact that my mind plays those tricks and I totally give in to my imagination. Is that so wrong? Should I learn the rules of the game?

Confusing imagination or dreams with reality is a lesson to be learnt. I want to be careful not to blur those lines because that's when the crazy starts. To quote A.S Byatt:

"Between fantasy and reality are the dreams. Things we touch, involuntarily, in dreams: things we possess there: untrodden paths we tread. This changes us."

So I am figuring out how to be clear on the use of my imagination. Flights of fancy will be used in writing, not in scenes of potential reality.