Playing pretend

As I've said before, I think one of the great things about being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to have imaginary friends as a grown up. When I was little, I had a lot of imaginary friends (what you get when you combine having an overactive imagination with being a lonely child). There was Space Man—an obese copper space robot with a penchant for naughtiness. There was Fred, who skateboarded around on the school roof as I sat in my second grade class at Toler Elementary. There was a vampire named Frank, and a little white mouse whose name I can't recall, and a myriad of other magical characters who populated my childhood over the years. The thing is, while most children outgrow these fictitious friends, I didn't. Instead I internalized them. They became characters in stories—not actually real, but emotionally real. Admittedly, Space Man did fade away (after getting me into all sorts of trouble by cutting holes in everyone's underpants, thanks dude), but he was replaced by other characters, stronger voices and stories.

I think that playing pretend is such an important part of childhood. It encourages empathy by putting you in someone else's shoes and head. And of course it promotes creativity, which is important for its own sake as well as being helpful in tasks like problem-solving.

But what about playing pretend as a grown up? As fiction writers, we pretend every day. We pretend into being whole worlds, whole lives.

What I'm really curious to know is, do you pretend in other areas of your life too? Because I'll be honest, I do.

Examples: Sometimes, if there are lots of chores to be done, I pretend I'm Amish (they love chores!). Sometimes I'm not cooking dinner for Big Chimp and me; I'm cooking for the lords and ladies of Downton Abbey (because I'm a scullery maid now, but one day I'll learn to type and go to secretary school. As soon as the war's over). Sometimes I'm not a lone library assistant on the train home from work, I'm a NINJA IN DISGUISE SO DON'T FREAKIN' MESS WITH ME!! Or, you know, sometimes I'm a secret agent or a magician or a faerie or an alien or a killer whale trainer at Sea World.

Pretending: is it a healthy way of releasing creative energy (I think so), or is it (as one of my former psychologists suggested) a worrying avoidance of the real world? Do you other creative people play pretend in your everyday life? If yes, tell me in the comments!