Today, I’m going to talk to you about fantasies.
My day job is writing, my part time job is waitressing/bartending. I don’t hide what I write, and I’m by no means embarassed by it. All of my co-workers, and most of my regular customers know what I write, and several have even read my books.
Yet, I still get those looks, and occasionally someone will ask me where I get my ideas with a gleam that is a bit too lascivious in their eye. They’re not asking about the character development. They’re asking about the sex.
My answer…everyone has fantasies, right?
I mean, to some people the fantasy is strangling their mother-in-law, maybe those people become mystery writers. (hee hee) Some people fantasize about falling in love, and raising 2 kids – one boy and one girl- in a painted house surrounded by a white picket fence. Some people fantasize about sex in public, or being tied up and giving someone else all the control. Fantasies vary for everyone, and in my opinion, this is what a lot of fiction is based on.
I’d have to say all of my stories are based on my biggest fantasy. To fall in love with someone who accepts me for who I am. But by no means do I limit my stories to just my fantasies, or to my experiences, but I like to think that none of that matters, because when someone is reading one of my stories, I hope it’s all very real to them.
Some people want to live out their fantasies, some people don’t. Some times reading about them, or writing them down, is enough. It doesn;t matter to me if people want to live them out, read about them, write about them. What matters to me is that people never stop having them.
Can you imagine how boring life, how boring the world would be, if we didn’t fantasize? Share one of your fantasies with us in the comments, and be entered to win a $15 Barnes & Noble Gift Certificate. I’ll draw a winner and announce it here on Sunday!
Related posts:
Comment
I don’t fantasize a lot (at least not outside my novels), but the running theme these past few years has to do with being a bestselling author. Sometimes I imagine seeing my own trailer commercial, but usually the fantasy shoots straight to being interviewed on BookTV. Everyone loves my book, and all my interview answers are friggin’ brilliant.
Comment
Visualization is an important part of making your fantasies come true. *grin*
Comment
Honest? I still have that fantasy about performing on Broadway. *G* Someday, I’ll be Marguerite in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Someday.
Comment
Ohh, acting and singing. Good one!
Comment
I have a Dancing with the Stars fantasy. I want to go on that show because I’m somehow famous and then lose a lot of weight from dancing with a smokin’ hot partner all day.
Comment
LOL @ the losing weight on the show. PLus, it would be FUN!
Comment
Wow, mine is boring. I wouldn’t call it a fantasy so much as a really big want. To explore and live in Alaska for a full year. From start to finish, just me, my husband, and my dog. I’m bringing my husband because I cannot kill animals for food and someone’s got to bring home the moose. Otherwise, I’d leave him behind for the year so I wouldn’t have to listen to him complain about the cold *grin*
And, of course, being able to live off my writing. I can say that I really don’t care if I’d ever make the NYT Top 10, as most the books on there I don’t normally like anyway, but to be able to make enough that I can live off my earnings is enough for me.
Comment
You could be in the warm cozy cabin wiriting while husband is hunting the moose. *grin*
Comment
I’d like to live off my writing, but that’s more of a goal than fantasy. My fantasy is to buy an old summer camp in the mountains and turn it into a writer’s retreat and have a huge organic garden, and maybe a couple of really big dogs and a couple of horses to ride, and have all my friends come visit (or maybe just a house with a guest room).
Comment
Goals and fantasies can be the same thing. Living off my writing was a fantasy for me too.
Comment
My fantasy is to live on a boat with my boyfriend. He sails it and I sit on the deck writing. When I need a break, I can swim in the ocean. We travel the world, seeing different ports and meeting new people. I always have an amazing view and great company (because my boyfriend a really great guy). I think it would be amazing, because in my fantasy, it always is.
Comment
I see a trend of us writing while someone else is working (Hubby hinting moose, boyfriends sailing) . I like it.
Comment
My fantasy is to find a man that pursues with with passion and persistent and sees me for who I really am not the person I pretend to be. (that is my biggest secret fantasy) Oh yeah – I want him also to be wickedly spontaneous and a little bit Alpha – I have this elevator scene in my head but I won’t elaborate on that.
Comment
Hmmm that sounds a lot like my dream man. Good Luck to us both!
Comment
My fantasy (other than to be a working writer, because like Ann that would be a goal) is to travel the world with unlimited time and budget. I’d also like to be Jane Eyre but that’s probably not going to happen! A girl can dream though ….
Comment
Life is very boring without dreams.
Comment
Marnie, I think I married him on you. Oops! I hope you can find another.
*G* Ann, can I come to your retreat and ride the horses?? I agree with you about goal versus fantasy, that’s why I didn’t say anything writing-related. If in my head I think it’s “only” a fantasy, I won’t pursue it like a goal. That and I’m too egotistical to think of it as anything less than what the future has for me. If I don’t, nobody else will.
Comment
Jess, I hope there’s one out there for me too!
I disagree.. a goal can be a fantasy. Yet at the same time I see why you make the distinction. I guess, I think it’s a fantasy until you decide you really want to live it out, and not just dream about it. Then once you actually start working toward it (or trying to live it out) it becomes both a goal and a fantasy. AM I making sense LOL it becomes a goal
Comment
You are! LOL I think the key is what you said: acting on it. I chose to pursue writing instead of taking that voice scholarship I could’ve gotten at that other college. That’s, for me, the difference between a fantasy and a goal. The decisions we make, how/if we pursue them. Could I still someday be on stage (again)? Sure, but probably never Broadway because I didn’t pursue it as I could’ve.
Comment
My fantasy is the same as it’s always been, finding a job I can get into that does not involve sitting at a desk. I’ve tried a couple different things and always end up right back at the desk.
Or, I could win the lottery.
Comment
LOL I think the lottery fantasy is one we all share.
Comment
Well, I did have this fantasy of not having to work a full-time job – I’d be home all day and be able to get stuff done and concentrate on my writing… It would be wonderful. Then I got laid off. My fantasy isn’t quite working out like I’d hoped.
But I am devoting as much time as possible to my writing.
My one big fantasy is that certain writers would be able to come out with a new book like every other week – same great quality, just no need to wait 6 months to a year for the next one.
Comment
I’m sorry to hear about the lay off, but glad to hear you’re using the time to focus on your writing. Sometimes need is the best motivator.
and LOL @ the other one. I think some of us would also fantasize that we could WRITE a new great book every week, same quality. LOL
Comment
Before I had a wife and kids, I fantasized about backpacking around Australia, just me and a camera. Now that I have a family, the dream is the same–but it includes them–and I find it much, much sweeter. In a few years, our kids will be in high school. Old enough to travel well and hungry for adventure…
Comment
That sounds like a wonderful fantasy. I bet your family shares it.
Comment
My fantasy…I don’t have many really. But I’d love to move to Scotland, to Forfar where my grandparents came from, and live in a little house with a garden full of heather and a room that has a magical door that turns soundproof when I go through it and becomes plain again when I leave the room so I can GET SOME WRITING DONE!!! Bringing my husband with me? Some days, I think I will, others, I refuse. Depends on how much of a PITA he’s being
Honest, my DH is awesome. But some days…
Comment
LOL
Sounds…magical.
Comment
I’d love to say I fantasize about something exciting like being an international jewel thief, but in reality I am currently fantasizing about taking a nap.
Comment
LOL I fantasize about that often!
Comment
Some times the fantasy can be small, baking a really good cake.
Comment
It’s my birthday. My SO has rented a luxury limousine to pull up in front of my office and the most gorgeous chauffeur you ever saw comes to the front desk with a single rose to call me up there. He whisks me away to a luxury spa for the full treatment: massage, manicure, pedicure, facial, hair and makeup with a brand new outfit. then he takes me to my favorite restaurant where my SO waits. We go to dinner and then dancing the night away. He then presents me with a gorgeous diamond bracelet for my present. The rest is private.
Comment
I was all ready to shout HAPPY BIRTHDAY! until I realized that was your fantasy! LOL
Good one.
Comment
I fantasize about getting The Call, being offered an insane advance on which I could comfortably retire, and be able to walk into my boss’s office and say “I quit.” After which I will celebrate with amazing food, and proceed to buy a ranch and horses with which to play while I write for a living.
Comment
I don’t think I’d call this a fantasy, but I have a recurring dream at night about a sudden development of magical abilities happening to me.
I’m already living my fantasy with a wonderful husband who adores me and respects me and 7 fabulous children.
Comment
7 CHildren! Wow. I admire you for that. ANd nice fantasy.
Comment
Werewolves…I fantasize about werewolves, they are so hot. Probably because the first paranormal romance I read was Night Play by Sherilyn Kenyon. I’ve got my own stories that I’m working on so now those fantasies are all about characters and plots and trying to keep up with where they are taking me.
Comment
My fantasy is titled “The Librarian & the Rock Star” and features a punk rock eighties icon *grin*, plus tons of touch. I’m single and so missing touch right now.
Comment
LOL what a very sensitive way to put that. I’m missing touch too.
Comment
I have so many fantasies.
I guess I’ll go with taking a cruise around Europe or the Mediterranean.
Comment
I’ll have to go with the plain old becoming successful enough at writing to actually do it for a living, though if I could do that while living in a castle in Wales or Ireland, all the better.
Comment
one would be living like jennfer gardner in alisas that is a fantasy of mine
other is owing a sports team all run by women that would be fun for me
great fantaises ladies
Comment
Oh golly. I’ve got a couple…
1. That Newsweek or National Geographic would just call me up and offer me a senior writer-type position.
2. That when the movie version of one of my stories comes out, David Tennant (Dr. Who) will be playing the leading man…
Comment
My fantasies have changed over the years, but there are two that have remained constant:
- Making a living through my fiction writing (and by that I mean, I don’t have to work in a stressful magazine publication for yuppies, or a desk job, or being someone’s whipping girl in the corporate rat race)
- Owning a beautiful, comfy home of my own, with a small yard so my (indoor-only) cats could go out with me from time to time and enjoy the sun and grass, and enough rooms to satisfy my husband and me (with one left over to make into a guest room!)
One day, they will both come true.
Comment
One day, they will both come true.
Exactly! Great attitude.
Comment
My biggest fantasy is to live in Greece or Italy and be able to travel the world. Of course that would be after I got the call, my book went to auction and the advance was a 4 book deal with movie rights. I don’t want much
Comment
My fantasy….once all the kids are out of the house I retire and decide to hike around Europe….like someone in their 20’s. During my journey I am swept off my feet by one (or more) sexy European men….maybe one for every country…need to be democratic about this. Make the decision the move to Europe to be with xxxxx.
Comment
wtg jess