Maladaptive daydreaming on BBC - or just a future writer?

[Pollaidh]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the_daydream_that_never_stops

Did anyone else read this article on the BBC and think 'nothing so strange in that?' the kid just needs to learn to write? She's obviously taken the day-dreaming too far to escape her problems, but I'd be hopeful that the creative writing course she's sensibly signed up for will help.

Don't all writers prefer to spend time with their creations? Don't we all feel utterly bereft (to the point of depression) when we finish writing a book and have to leave our favourite characters behind? When they wrote about how a song or TV episode would propel the girl into hours of imagination, I thought that sounded pretty normal.

Are we all just maladapted daydreamers lucky enough to have found our daydreams can be written down and turned into stories? The inner imaginary life they described sounds to me pretty normal for a writer, but they seemed to find it so strange it suggests other people don't have these amazing events, stories, characters, dialogue going on in their brains.

Maybe when my DH tells me he has nothing in his head I ought to believe him!

[schmalex]

Yep, that's exactly what I thought. Sounds perfectly normal to me! I've always had an ongoing fantasy life going on in my head. Didn't realise other people didn't until I read that piece.

[TinkleWoed]

Me too, it must be a writer thing...I have always day dreamed. Find it baffling how others don't. How dull! However, I don't think it takes over my life, I function quite well and since channelling it into writing, I've managed to keep it apart from real life.

[HarrietVane99]

Yep, totally agree. I was reading that story thinking 'but isn't that quite normal?' l spent a lot of my childhood dreaming, I sometimes missed large chunks of lessons at school because I was lost in a daydream. I was physically present, but my mind was elsewhere.

I am a writer now, but I also have stories which are just for telling to myself. Like the young lady in the story, I retell them, like rereading a book, and sometimes change things.

The only reason to be concerned, I think, would be if someone was doing it excessively to avoid tackling problems, or became completely disengaged from real life. But that's true of anything done to excess.

[SusanTheGentle]

I used to be able to do this and grown up life beat it out of me. Real life is frankly not as good, I'm actively trying to get this skill back so I can write more/betterer again without being so self-conscious!

[LonginesPrime]

I do the daydreaming thing too, but not as much as when I was younger (life gets in the way).

The problem I have for this is the fact that getting the stories I dream up isn't a massive priority as I can remember all the details anyway. And so anyone who says 'you shouldn't write to get published, you should just write for yourself' leaves me thinking 'well, if it's just for me, why do I need to write it down?. Which leaves me with lots of daydreams and not much else!

I am writing again now, but I find I have to do it with a view to eventually, one day being published otherwise the actual writing stalls for me.

I must admit, I assumed everyone had 'daydreams' like this - it's always puzzled me when people say they're bored or wouldn't be able to live alone, etc, as I've always wondered why they couldn't just make up a world in their head and go explore it, but I guess we're the weirdos unusually talented creatives!

[Witchend]

I agree with lots of people here.
I've had a dream world I've retreated into regularly. Started on long journeys as a child, and still goes on. I'm usually driving now so I actively have to concentrate on not going into it.

For me there's various places that have different stories although similar characters often appear.
I could spend weeks on my own hidden in my head!

Dh (bless him!) hasn't a mite of imagination so doesn't understand this.