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When I was a little kid, my best friend and I had some imaginary friends. Their names were Ferdinand and Isabella (hers and mine, respectively) and they were tiny dragons, just up to our knees. I don't remember what hers looked like, but mine was lime green and hot pink, and I have a vivid sense-memory of imagining how it would be to cuddle a dragon.
We'd play with Ferdy and Izzy, as we called them, constantly. Whenever we built forts out of our parents' furniture, they were dragon caverns. We'd tell each other stories about them. We drew elaborate maps of where they lived, and if we'd had access to video cameras, I'm sure we would have tried to make home movies about them. When we went to school and were asked to do writing assignments, we wrote about Ferdy and Izzy. There was no part of our lives that they didn't touch.
When my best friend and I sat down and told each other stories about our imaginary dragons, we were just doing what came naturally - imagining, dreaming, hoping. It was just as natural for us to get up from the couch and go do something to extend that story into the real world: "Okay, you build a couch fort. I'll draw the map. Then we'll record a song that Ferdy and Izzy like to sing on the tape-recorder. And then let's watch a movie about dragons!"
In the end, that's basically what transmedia storytelling is about. It's about letting a story get its tendrils into every part of your life, and it's about suspension of disbelief. My best friend and I didn't really believe that we had invisible dragons named Ferdinand and Isabella. We knew that they were just made-up imaginary friends. But we wanted so badly to believe! It was such a cool idea! And when we drew a map, or when we pretended we were feeding part of our lunches to our dragons, or when we watched a movie with special-effects dragons that looked photorealistic - the story-world drew a little closer to our world. We could suspend our disbelief a little more. We could almost feel the warmth of the dragons' bodies next to our own, could almost feel the puff of their smoky breath against our hands.
It's hard to recapture that feeling as an adult. It's really difficult for me - for anyone, I'd imagine - to drop my inhibitions and really believe in a story-world. But when I begin to see pieces of the world everywhere - then I begin to believe. When I watch a television show, and read a comic about it, and then discover that the characters are actually carrying on a conversation on a social network - that they'll respond to my comments! - I begin to believe. When I see ads that belong to the story-world, ads for True Blood or for Oceanic Airlines, I do a double-take. I think, is there really an Oceanic Airlines? When I receive a business card from Stark Enterprises, and I fill out a job application to work with Iron Man, and I actually get a call back - then I'm hooked. Then I'm in deep.
And that's not just true for me, either. After all - you played make-believe, too, didn't you? So you've already had the prototypical transmedia experience. You already know that once you believe in something with all your heart, you'll remember it forever.
about 1 month later:
Great story! It took me to my golden child years, when I used to play to be characters such as Tarzan and James West. Thank you for sharing.