Growing up I would say I had a very active imagination. I enjoyed playing video games that made me a part of the story. I enjoyed pretending with friend and on my own epic tales of adventure and heroics. Last of all I enjoyed writing.
When you get into Jr High school is about the time it becomes “weird” to have your head in the clouds. This is the time people get into sports or other activities that were tangible. I fell into that mold in school. I wanted to play sports, but a part of me still clung to the imaginary. It started with choir and turned into being in theater.
While not letting out the true imagination I felt I kept a hand on that imaginary world that grew in my mind throughout my life. All of this seemed weird to me. I mean I’m a grown adult still imagining a complex world that doesn’t exist. Many times I doubted the worth of continuing to grow this pretend world, but as many times as I doubted I also clung to the joy I felt when creating it.
Needless to say, it’s been a great comfort these last few days listening to books and podcast, both by and about J. R. R. Tolkien. Not only was he and intelligent scholar, but his imagination was active. He created a world he was so entranced by it dominated his life behind the scenes till he wrote the Hobbit and suddenly that world was put forward for the world to see.
I’ve always loved the Lord of the Rings, but the more I learn about Tolkien the more I feel like kindred spirits. I always thought of my book as a history about a time in an imaginary land and even thought to write an opening explaining it to be such. I only recently learned that was the Tolkien’s style when writing the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. It gives me encouragement to hear his own thoughts on his world creation and on creativity in general.
Jacob Gittins 