Q: What’s easier for you — imagining a happier world, or a darker one?
A: It’s much easier for me to imagine a darker world. I think that’s for a couple of reasons. For one, I have depression and anxiety and my brain is somewhat predisposed to see the negatives in things. But it’s also more interesting for me, as a writer, to imagine dark worlds because their conflicts provide the necessary soil to nourish a story. I suppose a happy world isn’t necessarily free of conflict, but I’ll confess that my ideal has less of it. So, imagining a darker world is easier, but when it comes to putting in the work, I’ll gladly make the effort to bring about a happier one.
Ian Donnell Arbuckle’s story “The Hissing Trees”
in Metaphorosis Friday, 12 August 2022.
Subscribe now for e-mail updates!
