Hey you,
Today I’m supposed to lie to you. Really. That’s what the prompt is called. Lie. It goes on to suggest that it’s talking more along the lines of imagination, and suggest I rewrite an actual story, change reality, or something like that… but I’m caught up on the word lie.
I’ve been humming and hawing over what to lie about, and I can’t, and I won’t. I don’t want this blog or my writing to be about lying. I tried thinking of it the other way, the more imaginative way, but I’m blocked by that specific phrasing.
To me lying is deception. I’m not going to write an imaginative story, or create an alternate reality, or rewrite history in a way that you’ll actually believe it’s a truth. You should KNOW that it’s not a truthful representation, and thus it shouldn’t be considered lying. Lies are done purposefully.
The definition of lying is deliberately untruthful; deceitful; false: …
Ick. No. That is not what imagination is. That is not what writing is.
Then it got me thinking about power of words. What if the prompt had been phrased more like ‘imagine’, or ‘create’, or ‘rewrite history’? Those things are fun, great ideas, and for a writer, they’re motivating! Why is lying associated with that? Leave lying out of imagination. My creativity is stifled because now I am mulling ideas in my head about how we’re lied to our entire lives by anyone who ever told us a story.
Words stick with people. They HURT people. It’s not about them being sensitive. It’s not about whether people take things too personally. It’s all the negative connotations that go along with causing people pain and suffering, no matter how severe.
If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all. Yassss….
The pen is mightier than the sword. Yassss…
If I’m not writing about truths, then what is this blog here for?
♥ Daphne
Same Old Daph 