ScriptSuperhero.com

I was born and raised in Minnesota, but sometimes I love to fantasize about living somewhere else, somewhere with winters less harsh than those that I know are only a few months away again.

One place I like to dream about moving to is Florida. I’ll sometimes even hop online and visit a Web page that focuses on Tampa real estate to fuel my imagination.

Warm weather in the winter? Sure, a bit more rain but virtually no snow.

Then I remember the hurricane seasons of recent years and, well, get a bit less enthusiastic about it. But I visited Florida once when I was in college, over a spring break, and I’d love to go back as an older adult and really look at some of the non-college kid features I overlooked my first time down. Enjoy the real Florida. That’d be nice.

A little more IBM memory is never a bad thing to add to your laptop or desktop PC. But try to tell my Uncle Kenny that!

I still have a vivid memory of Ken proudly showing off to me his Commodore Amiga 128 with a “massive” 64MB hard drive.

“That’s all the memory you’ll ever need,” he told me proudly. “You could write all the novels you want and you’ll never fill it all up.”

Of course, this was ages before iPods and digital music; video downloads; system software that takes up tens of gigabytes of space all by itself. Time sure changes one’s perspective.

One thing most writers don’t have to worry too much about is their public image. Unless they become the next James Patterson or Amy Tan, most writers are not public figures.

So diet trends like South Beach and miracle chemicals like hydroxycut are not at the top of their minds. That is more the province of actors, not wordsmiths.

Is that necessarily a good thing, though? I’m not saying writers should be celebrities, but perhaps if our profession was a bit more public than it is, we might see fewer writers who are overweight. That would be a good thing, because then we’d live longer, live to write more stuff.

Just stray thoughts…

It may seem a bit silly, but I wonder if having your own room, or sharing one with a sibling using bunk beds is a more conducive environment for nurturing a young kid’s creativity and imagination.

I know that I grew up in my own bed, in a room that was all mine, and I’ve turned out to be well-suited to writing-related careers. Perhaps all those late nights staying up reading helped me, since I didn’t have an older or younger brother to consider. I could stay up reading as late as I wanted, most of the time, since I had an upstairs room and the light didn’t filter downstairs where my parents slept.

Then again, there has to be some benefits to having a sibling. It affords one an opportunity to share their stories with a somewhat captive audience and really learn the art of storytelling by receiving immediate feedback. I guess Ill never be sure, but it is an intriguing thought.

I wonder what it must be like to be a highly successful writer like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. To not only be well-paid as a writer, but to enjoy the fruits of your labor by seeing your stories translated into multiple mediums.

What would be more fulfilling, I wonder. To attend a glitzy Hollywood premiere of one of your books made into a major motion picture? Or to see it at home, in your living room, which by then would be fully decked out with an HDTV, home theater seating and plenty of speakers to get that 6.1 Dolby Surround Sound effect going on?

Or would the simple experience of seeing your book turned into a stage play be more fun? The possibilities of success seem endless. But ultimately, if they distract you from writing for very long, they won’t last.