When I was 5 or 6 , somewhere around first grade, we were given an assignment in class to color in a picture of a boy and a girl. I don’t remember the details, but I guess we were supposed to make them realistic. Well, when I got to the children’s faces and legs and hands, I colored them green.
I don’t remember what my teacher’s exact words were, when she saw my green people. I do remember being kind of crestfallen afterward because she had told me that people weren’t really green. It wasn’t so much that she had crushed my creative spirit, I was just unhappy because I had done it wrong.
When we sit down to write, we often bring baggage to the table. I don’t just mean that we have preconceived notion of what we’re capable of producing, though that’s certainly the case. What I mean is that we sit down with this idea that certain things are Not Allowed.
Sometimes, things are Not Allowed for a reason. Yes, there are outliers, such as GADSBY or TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG, but most of us need the letter “e” and commas. I’m not addressing constrained writing. In most cases, there are rules that need to be followed.
There’s also a great deal of freedom, especially in the fantasy/scifi genre. Non-human narrators, sentient inanimate objects, and stories-within-stories-within-stories have all been done. Is it easy to do something unusual well? Of course not. But if you let that stop you, or hang onto some misguided belief that it’s Not Allowed, you might be holding yourself back from writing something awesome.
So, if you’re willing to take the time to make it work, then – please! – make your people green. Don’t let fear of doing something wrong keep you from being creative. Don’t just write the same old things that have been rehashed a thousand times. Be daring and bold and try out things that scare you a little bit. Creativity is always worth the risk.
(image copyright Paramount Pictures, used without permission)
