Buttons of Possibility

What is it with kids and buttons?

I don't have kids, but I've observed this everywhere, in kids of all stamps and sizes. In elevators, at ATMs, telephones, doors for the disabled - no matter where, some kid is dying to press the button.

What's the attraction? As adults, we know that the blase results of pressing any button are pretty much dull. An elevator will go up. The ATM will beep. Big deal. Don't kids know that?

No, they don't. A kid thinks anything can happen - that's my theory. Maybe I'll press this button and it will rain. Maybe I'll press this button and everyone will turn green. Maybe I'll press this button and I'll turn invisible. Maybe -

Every time. Kids live in a world where you could go through a wardrobe and find another world, or a guy could take you up in a great glass elevator. As adults, we lose that.

Except when I'm writing. And for me, that's the attraction, the reason I keep doing it. On my way to my boring, grown-up day job, I'm on an explorer's ship, or I'm gallivanting around Regency London. I could be capturing the heart of a gorgeous man and listening to his words of devotion. I could be battling villains and triumphing evil. For that too-short time, I get to be a kid again before I have to to to work and earn my bread.

It's also the reason I can't outline too much before writing. With every scene I enter, the first thing I do is push the button. Once I push it, anything can happen. Maybe in this scene everyone will turn green. Maybe in this scene the hero will become invisible. Maybe in this scene... An outline, for me, takes that away. In this scene, they'll argue. In the next scene, they'll make up. Too much like grown-up life for me.

Oh, I could try outlining. I'll be writing the scene just as I planned, and then the heroine will turn around and see a man staring intently at her from across the room, and she'll turn to her companion with fear in her voice and say, "We have to leave now," and then I want to know who was staring at her and why she's afraid, and stuff starts to happen. Story happens.

That's what happens when you push the buttons.

Anything at all. Think of it. What could be better?

Abby