An overactive imagination

I have an overactive imagination. I freely admit it. 9 times out of 10, when I finish either a book or a movie, I make up my own stories for how the characters' lives turn out. I want to know the "what happens after the happily ever after?" And it's funny, but if I didn't like the way something ended, then I allow the characters to live on in my imagination the way that I want them to.

Have I ever written any of these things down? Yes, actually I have. I recently found some notebooks from when I was in 6th or 7th grade, where I had written fan fiction before I even knew it was fan fiction. There was a series of books I'd read during that time called the House of Winslow series by Gilbert Morris. Each book is dealing with the next generation in the family. One of the stories I found continued the story of a couple of the characters between the ending of "their" book and moving onto the one about their children. I've done that for years. Even now that fan fiction is so prevalent, I still do it. I've got one true fan fiction piece that has well over 20 or 30 chapters right now. Then the last book came out and 90% of what I wrote has been proven false by the book. Someday, I may go back and rewrite it to make it compatible to the last book, but who knows.

I've got files saved on my computer that have various bits and pieces of stories. One is a full-length novel. Most are just one or two paragraphs or pages of starts (or even middle) of stories. At times, I just want to bring those characters to life and tell their stories. But I never do.

Having an overactive imagination is a good thing as long as I don't let it interfere with reality. I've been known to use reading as an escape from reality. I found out in college that I needed the downtime that reading gives me. My first semester at school, I'd only brought 3 or 4 of my books with me so that I could actually devote time to my studies. I came home at Thanksgiving and read everything I could put my hands on. I learned then, that I needed to have my books with me. Or at least some of them. I'd heard one day last week in my voicemail a message from a sales director who recommended reading 1 book a month. I had to laugh. Because she'd obviously never met me. I typically read between 4-8 books a month. More at times.

I'm about to start on a journey of reading my Bible through in a year. I'm looking forward to it. And I'll be reading it in addition to my current stack of books. :)