Becoming real

I always loved the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, the stuffed toy bunny who wanted to become real. He was so beloved that he became worn and threadbare. That was what made him a real bunny by the end of the story.

Unfortunately, wearing out a story or book idea until it is threadbare can have the opposite effect. I know a lot of people who will not talk about their books, particularly plots, because they are afraid that by talking about them they will wear them out. They will kill the magic.

I think this may be true, but I’m such a notice box (an English term for someone who loves attention) that it’s always hard for me to keep my story under wraps. I am always dying to share.

I can’t seem to help myself. Maybe it’s because I am the same kid who coveted those gold and green and blue stars the teacher would put on my school papers, the kid who couldn’t wait for show and tell. A…notice box.

And I have to admit, I love it when something becomes real.

Three days ago there was no such thing as an abandoned biker bar called the Silver Spur Tavern. There was no gray GMC Yukon hurtling down the lonely road the tavern was on, a five-year-old child named Lynette Sokolof strapped in the back seat.

There was no Highway Patrol officer feeling her way through the abandoned bar, her shoes almost skating on broken glass, the smell of bat-guano in her nostrils, going on the “dark ride” of her life.

(A “dark ride” is a carnival term for rides like Disney’s Haunted House, where people either walk or ride gondolas through the dark and ghosts and goblins jump out at them and scare them to death.)

I loved the idea of my officer interviewing a carnival worker and realizing that her own dark ride had been real, and it had ended in death.

See? I told you I couldn’t help myself!

This is a question for authors, but of course readers can weigh in, too.

Do you refuse to talk about even the bare bones of your story because you might lose interest in it once it has been exposed to light?

Are stories really like vampires?