Building a World To Be

Have you ever heard World by Five For Fighting? Starting a story is exactly like the song. You sit down, pick up your pen, and create a whole world. It may have some of the same rules as your own, but no matter the genre - from mainstream to fantasy - you will make something out of nothing but your own imagination. You will decide if there "should be people or peoples." You will "raise your army" and "choose your steeple." And no matter what you do, "the satellites can look the other way." ;)

And it all begins with a simple idea, sparked by anything - an overheard sentence, a scene in a movie, the latest book you're reading, or simply life in general. Something sets off your imagination, and suddenly the package arrives: "A.C.M.E.'s Build-a-World-To-Be." There are "no instructions or commandments," just a whole universe of possibilities for your story to blossom from if you just "take a chance."

As a writer, you are god. You can do anything. Especially at the beginning, when only infinite possibilities are at your fingertips. You can "lose the earthquakes" and "keep the faults," maybe even "fill the oceans without the salt." Nothing is impossible to you.

So give the song a listen, be inspired and emboldened, and create. It is your world - you make it, you control it.

And in November, go forth and write it.