Thanks for the memories...even the fake ones!

by Toni L.P. Kelner

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and no Thanksgiving would be complete without at least one article about how the popular view of the First Thanksgiving is totally wrong. After all, I live in Massachusetts, and we take our Pilgrim lore seriously. You probably know some of the myths yourself: the Pilgrims didn't eat turkey or cranberry sauce; Thanksgiving wasn't all that religious a celebration or they'd never have invited Indians; Thanksgiving feasts didn't just happen in November; and while black may be the old black, it wasn't the only color they wore.

Yet year after year, the decorations and movies show the Pilgrims lining up around the table in historically inaccurate garb eating historically inappropriate food. And for that, I say, "Thank you!"

This proves something that every writer should be thankful for: that fiction can be more powerful than truth, that humans crave myth so strongly that we cling to it in the face of all reality. The stories that we write can be more meaningful, and longer lasting, than history. For a writer, this is heady stuff indeed.

You see, while writers are usually referred to as creative, there often seems to be a perception that we don't really create anything at all. Sure, when I publish a story or novel, there's a resulting magazine or book, but that's printing, not writing. If I write a script and that script is made into a television show, it's the show that has the weight of reality. The words themselves, the characters, the action, the STORY doesn't exist in a tangible form. It isn't REAL.

Or is it? If it isn't, why does Sherlock Holmes get letters asking for advice every day?

Writers must be creating something, even if it's not tangible. Not that I aspire to creating a character as well known as Sherlock Holmes, or the fictional Pilgrims. My main goal is to entertain. But the idea that just maybe, for a minute, that somebody could read about Laura Fleming or Tilda Harper or Treasure Hunt and forget that they aren't real... That's a worthy dream for any writer. And it's something to be thankful for.

PS - If you see a link between this blog and the current Writer's Strike, it's not accidental. For the writers out there on the picket lines, making their voices heard, I say, "Write on!"

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