The Birth of A Fantasy
The other day I was reflecting on my own healing journey when I began to look closely at when creativity began to aid in that process for me. A lot came up. First foremost, it started early. My twin brother and I always created elaborate stories for our action figures. We spent hours in our room or in the backyard playing out remarkable adventures. When our figures weren’t out fighting the darkness of the universe, it was us acting it out for ourselves. We were the heroes of light. We were the symbols of hope.
What were we healing from at such a young age? Honestly, I’m not too sure, but we were both extremely shy, and I think our imaginations gave us a safe space to be our most extroverted selves. For a couple of introverts, that was an extremely freeing experience.
My brother never really let go of his creative side. He continued to nurture it in school by taking extra art classes, diving into writing classes, and simply owning his truth. It took me a while to circle back to owning my creativity, but I don’t think I necessarily let it go either. There were instances (looking back I see more clearly) where creativity was still attempting to be there for me.
In a high school literature class, I wrote a short screenplay for an assignment. I wrote about a boy who left land behind on the day of his graduation for a life of freedom out at sea. I was scratching the surface of a fantasy deep inside of me - a life of freedom that does not abide by any norms.
The following year I ended up in a creative writing class, not by choice, but to get out of a more difficult class. My teacher that year was exceptional and opened me up to the worlds inside of me. Every assignment was an opportunity to reconnect with a deeper part of myself.
Of course, I left that behind when I enrolled in university only to catch myself transferring to a new school after one year in order to change my major to Creative Writing. This is where my twin brother and I rekindled our collaborative spirit. My brother had already created an origin story for one of the most sinister villains of all time, but he had no use for this character beyond how he came to be. So we decided to work together - to create a world around this character. The birth of The Fantasy.
We spent hours each day talking. We created characters, cities, worlds, and more. We took everything that was bottled up inside, everything the introverts of our youth resisted sharing, and we injected it into this story.
When I was studying abroad in Australia, I found myself spending hours upon hours alone at the beach. It became an escape. It became the only place I could really be alone. It became a sanctuary for my thoughts. I was so afraid to open up and be my authentic self that I hid on the pages of my notebooks.
But as I hid on the pages something else happened, this world we were creating became more real. I didn’t feel like my brother was on the other side of the world, I felt like he was right there with me, witnessing the birth of a new realm.
When I went off on my own I created characters. I would sit in the sand in the morning, come up with a name, and then spend the day building their appearance, their history, their personality, and their fate. I would check my messages to find out what new creation my brother came up with. We were connecting dots. We were feeding off of each other. We were healing the void of separation by joining each other in a trance of creativity.
Seven years later and those characters are very much alive. Our world is finding a place here, on the pages we’ve dedicated to it. We’re planning an entire series. The first book has taken us so long because there is so much to create, and much of what we’ve created had to be experienced first. These characters are their own, but they’re very much a part of our journey. These characters are a part of us, both of us, together.
The beauty of such an elaborate tale is that I do not soon have to face the day where I say farewell to these characters and this world. I get to share my growth with them and decide their fate based on the lessons I learn from my own life. I get to share the magic of life’s journey with everyone through the lens of these characters. I get to collaborate with my twin brother in more than one life simultaneously. I get to heal and grow through the creation of something new.
When this series is published, regardless of the success it meets, it will be my most treasured work. It will be among the most epic collaborations of all time.
