How Reality Differs So Much From Fantasy

As a writer I have written two non fiction books and now I am over 14,000 words into my third book.
But although I have written before, I find writing my third book to be very different indeed and that's because my current WIP is fiction.

When writing my travel memoir books I recalled vivid memories to help me tell the stories. And although I had copious amounts of diary notes to help me with bits I couldn't remember, I still wrote my best material from memory.

But now writing is not the same as it was before. Now I have absolutely no memories to recall and I find that if I want to write I have to make entire scenes up which is more than an obvious thing to do when writing fiction. But I find writing takes me so much longer these days as half the time is spent thinking up the next scene. Even though I have written a detailed chapter outline I still find my writing takes on a life of it's own.

And that is where my inspiration came from when I thought about writing my current blog post.

Don't you find that fantasy is so much different to reality? You have enthusiasm for your new job only to find out your job role isn't what was advertised. You start a new relationship that's full of hope and promise only to find that somewhere down the line your beloved isn't the person you thought they were. You buy a house that looks stunning from the outside only to find it crumbling on the inside.

But sometimes the cruel reality works in your favour. Your rose tinted glasses have been yanked away from you but then you're forced to look at life in a different light. How can you get out of the job that was falsely advertised, how can you end the relationship your heart is no longer in? How can you fix your house?

As you're forced to view things differently you're forced to come up with different ideas.

Sometimes life has a funny way of making you appreciate the things you already have by showing you your perceived fantasy is actually worse than reality.