my imaginary city essay

My Imaginary City

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My “imaginary” city. The utility I would suggest it as an ideal imaginary city as close as conceivable to Eco City, despite the fact that there are a few contrasts. For instance, because of force interest, I suggest that the city have a photovoltaic force station, however in such frantic occasions, energy will come from close by towns and other force plants in the state It is bought from. To give spotless and solid water to residents and sightseers, we need to carry out water purging plants and sewage treatment plants.

To forestall flooding, the city was based on the floodplain. The occupants of my city altogether are decent having wonderful and obliging auras. We esteem our city significantly because of the reality we have individuals who esteem others, who have a sensation of stress, empathy, compassion or respect for other people. We have fellowships and comprehension between individuals with various societies, races customs and practices, we as a whole love to be joined together and to live in harmony and fraternity. There is no inclination of aggression, contempt and envy. Everybody appears to want for bliss for other people.

The main part of my ideal city is the appropriate arrangement of turnpikes, metros, walkways for shipping people in general all through the city. The expressway will give public vehicle to individuals living external the city, like neighborhoods, however it likewise permits maneuvers and transports to ship people in general inside the city. Since the parkway is open and it is intended to interface public transportation all through the city, traffic can stream proficiently and securely. The second is the tram generally utilized for city trips. The tram needs to interface with the website architecture of the city’s base and rapidly transport countless individuals starting with one webpage then onto the next website. It should give modest and dependable opportunity to home and day by day clients. At last, the walkways are generally utilized in open transportation, so they are intended to be protected and swarmed. The walkway is corresponding to every one of the streets in the city and gives a protected spot.

As far as I might be concerned, America has consistently been a spot to acknowledge and empower variety. It is a variety of foundations, viewpoints, and ways of life. New York city tram, I went through six years there (the city, not the metro) is consistently a genuine model: regardless of whether you are an attendant or broker, whether you live in Gramercy Park or Harlem, dark or white, homosexuality A man or a straight man, you are a New Yorker *. Your circumstance is not the same as different circumstances when you are on the tram.

It started and I looked for the best spot to live. My best option is Valencia (Spain). I have been there a few times and I truly like every one of the attractions in the city. In any case, this time, I won’t be protected and agreeable. This time it will be striking. Eventually, Valencia will be there as long as I need it. However, Bansko additionally shows that he is a great town. Climbing, paragliding, and so on, and above all, is the spot to call home. Basically for some time

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How to Write About a Fictional City

Last Updated: October 5, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Stephanie Wong Ken, MFA . Stephanie Wong Ken is a writer based in Canada. Stephanie's writing has appeared in Joyland, Catapult, Pithead Chapel, Cosmonaut's Avenue, and other publications. She holds an MFA in Fiction and Creative Writing from Portland State University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 98,324 times.

Writing about a fictional city can be a difficult challenge. We all know that real cities are sections of land with a population. But in order to create a fictional city and use it in a story, you will need to access your imagination and focus on the details of the city to get it right.

Looking at Examples of Fictional Cities

• The fictional city of Basin City or Sin City in Frank Miller’s Sin City .
• The fictional city of King’s Landing in George R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones .
• The fictional city of Oz (The Emerald City) in L.Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz .
• The fictional city of The Shire in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit .

• Most fictional cities are described using a map drawn by the author or by an illustrator working with the author. Examine the maps provided of the fictional cities and notice the level of detail that is put into the maps. For example, the map provided in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit includes the names of places in the language of the novel as well as major landmarks and structures in the fictional area.
• Look at the naming of the areas or streets in the fictional city. The names in a fictional city can carry a lot of importance, as the names come to symbolize certain aspects of the world of the book. For example, the naming of “Sin City” in Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels indicates that the area is known for its sinful inhabitants. The name tells the reader something about the area and what to expect from the characters that live in the area.
• Note how the author describes the city. Does she use certain descriptions to characterize the city? In The Game of Thrones by George R. Martin, for example, King’s Landing is described as dirty and smelly, but it is also the seat of the throne. These descriptions create an interesting contrast for the reader.

• Creating a fictional city will also allow you to use elements of a real city you know well, such as your hometown, and twist them around so they become fictional. If you are very familiar and comfortable in a certain real-life area, you can then use what you know and change them slightly to create a fictional world.
• Creating a fictional city will also improve your writing overall, as the more believable your city is in your book, the more believable the world of your book will be to readers. Making a convincing fictional city will strengthen your characters as well, as you can shape the city to fit with the actions and perspectives of your characters.

Creating the Basics of the Fictional City

• You may choose a name that feels generic and sort of “every small town” if you want your story to have a more universal feel to it. A name like Milton or Abbsortford, for example, does not tell readers too much about the town other than it is likely small and in North America. Avoid using a name like Springfield, as this immediately makes readers think of The Simpsons, which may not fit with your story.
• Consider a name that fits the region or area where your fictional city is located. If your city is located in Germany, for example, you may select a German name or a German term that could also function as a name. If your city is located in Canada, you may select a Canadian city that exists and change the name slightly to create a fictional name.
• Avoid names that seem obvious, such as Vengeance or Hell, as the reader will be alerted right away to the meaning behind the name. The use of obvious names can be effective if the town acts in contrast to the name. For example, a town named Hell that has the nicest, most pleasant townspeople.

• Who founded the city? This could be a lone explorer who stumbled on the land or Native peoples who built up the city piece by piece using basic tools. Think about the individual or individuals responsible for founding the city.
• When was the city founded? This can help you get a better sense of the development of the city, as a city founded 100 years ago will have a denser history than a city founded 15 years ago.
• Why was the city founded? Answering this question can help you better describe the city’s past. Maybe the city was founded through colonization, where a foreign explorer claimed the land and colonized it. Or maybe the city was founded by people who discovered empty land and built it up on their own. The reasons for the city’s existence will help you get a better sense of your characters, as they may have personal ties and connections to the city due to how the city was founded and why it was founded.
• How old is the city? The age of the city is another important element. An older city may have city planning details that have been preserved, while a newer city may have very few old buildings and an experimental approach to city planning.

• You should also think about the climate of the city. Is it hot and humid or cold and dry? The climate may also depend on the time of year when your story is taking place. If your story takes place in the middle of winter in a fictional town located in Northern California, for example, it may be warm during the day and cooler at night.

• Consider the racial and ethnic groups in your city. Are there more African American individuals than Latinos or Caucasians? Do certain ethnic groups live in certain areas of the city? Are there areas where certain ethnic groups are not allowed or feel uncomfortable being in?
• Think about the class dynamics in your city. This could mean a character who is middle-class lives in a certain area of the city and a character of an upper class lives in a more lavish or expensive area of the city. Your fictional city may be divided by class, with certain areas off-limits to all classes except for one class.

• You may also notate landscape details, like a mountain range that borders the city or sand dunes that protect the city from the outside. Try to add as many details as possible, as this will help you build a more convincing fictional world.
• If you have a friend who is talented at illustration, you may ask them to help you draw a map of the city in more detail. You can also use online resources to help you build the map. Use a program like Photoshop, for example, to cut and paste images from the internet to create a map or a physical representation of the city.

Adding the Specifics of the Fictional City

• You should also think about what the town is known for, according to the outside world. Maybe the city is known as the center of commerce or has one of the most renowned sports teams.
• Consider what locals love or enjoy about the city, as this will make it feel more unique. What are the hotspots and cool hang out areas in the city? What are the locals proud of in terms of their city and what are they ashamed of or afraid of in their city?

• For example, maybe your character spends a lot of time at the private school located in the city center. Take the time to think about small details of the school, from how the building appears within the surrounding area to the school colors and the school mascot. Focus on the area around the school and the layout of the school, including classrooms and areas your character spends a lot of time in.

• For example, maybe your city has a polluted river that runs through the area. Think of how it smells as you walk by the river. Have your characters comment on the stench of the river and the way the river looks or sounds.
• Your story will likely involve several locations or settings that recur. Focus on using the five senses to describe these recurring settings well, as this will help the world of the story feel more convincing.

• For example, your characters may spend time in a dense urban area in the city. The area may be populated with strange creatures and monsters but it may also have elements you may find in a real-life urban area, like buildings, streets, and alleyways. Having real-life details and imagined details together can make it easier to build a believable world.

• For example, if you have a character who needs to access a magical portal in the middle of the city to time travel, you should make sure the magical portal is described well in the fictional city. The magical portal should contain enough detail to be believable and your character should interact with it in an interesting way. This will ensure your fictional city is supporting your character’s needs and goals.

• Place your character in a situation where she has to walk around or interact with a certain section of the city. Or, have your character use a facility in the city that then allows her to describe how it feels to use the facility. This will give you the opportunity to have descriptions of the fictional city through the perspective of the character, which will feel more believable and convincing to the reader than simply telling the reader about the facility.
• You should also have your characters treat the more fantastical or strange elements of the fictional city casually and in a straightforward manner. If your fictional city is located under water, for example, a character who has lived in the city for a long period of time may not be surprised that he has to get in his submarine to visit with his neighbor. You can describe the character getting into the submarine and programming it for its destination in a casual, everyday kind of way. This will signal to the reader that submarines are common in this fictional city and used as a form of transportation without having to directly tell the reader that this is the case.

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/10/the-50-coolest-fictional-cities/
• ↑ http://thewritelife.com/worldbuilding/
• ↑ https://scottwrites.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/how-to-create-your-own-fake-town/
• ↑ http://www.springhole.net/writing/town-and-city-questions.htm
• ↑ http://io9.gizmodo.com/7-deadly-sins-of-worldbuilding-998817537
• ↑ http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/09/17/25-things-you-should-know-about-worldbuilding/

About This Article

To write about a fictional city, first think of a name that reflects your story world. For example, if your city is in Germany, you might use a German word for your name, or if it's in Canada, you could take an existing Canadian city and change it slightly. Next, write a historical record including details of why and when your city was founded. Then, write a description of your city to create a sense of its atmosphere, climate, and terrain. Finally, draw a map of your city, including major landmarks and where your main characters live and work. For more tips from our Creative Writing co-author, including how to add specific details, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Place — Description of an Imaginary Place: Ethereal Meadows

Description of an Imaginary Place: Ethereal Meadows

• Categories: My Favorite Place Place

About this sample

Words: 635 |

Published: Aug 24, 2023

Words: 635 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The lure of mystical landscapes, a symphony of nature's wonders, creatures of whimsical beauty, a haven of tranquility and reflection, endless horizons of exploration, an inspiration for creativity and wonder, conclusion: a realm beyond the possible.

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My City Essay In 150 To 200 words For Class 7 & 8

In this essay, we delve into the captivating qualities of a city. From its geographic location to its distinguishing features, we provide insight on what makes living in a metropolis worthwhile and memorable.

My City Essay (150 – 200 Words) For Students

1. Introduction Paragraph

The city I live in is an exciting place. With a never-ending hustle and bustle, there’s something for everyone: no matter the hour or your background, you’ll find yourself surrounded by diverse culture with much to explore! From sightseeing adventures to cozy cafes and restaurants – it truly is a melting pot of experiences.

2. Body Paragraphs

From crystal blue waters to breathtaking coastal hikes, my city offers something for everyone. With miles of pristine beachfront and a temperate climate perfect for outdoor activities like swimming, surfing, and hiking – there’s no shortage of adventure here! But that’s not all; the area is renowned its diverse culinary culture with unique local specialties found nowhere else in the world.

With its bustling nightlife, the city is an exciting destination to explore. From lively clubs and bars to captivating theaters, there’s always something new awaiting discovery around every corner.

My city is a vibrant hub of culture and expression, its population made up of individuals from all backgrounds. Here we find an exciting melting pot of languages to explore, with delicious cuisine that reflects the variety within our community; combined with awe-inspiring artwork representing cultures old and new.

The city is a living example of the wonders that history can bring. It’s home to many iconic landmarks and tourist attractions, all speaking volumes about its culture-rich past. Immerse yourself in its centuries-old heritage by visiting one of the numerous museums or historical sites it has on offer.

3.Conclusion

As a bustling and vibrant city, my home offers an endless array of cultural experiences with its diverse population. From the beaches to delicious cuisine – there’s something for everyone here! Boasting a thriving nightlife, it is no wonder why tourist flock from all over to get a taste of what this unique destination has on offer; I am truly proud to be living in such an inspiring place.

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

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My City Essay | Essay on My City for Students and Children in English

February 14, 2024 by Prasanna

My City Essay: Cities are urban set-ups that provide us with a shelter and a livelihood. Almost every individual has a constant emotional connection with their towns. As we grow up, our cities become a part of us, an indispensable component that plays a significant role in building our characters and attitudes towards people and situations. Or cities sustain us and make us who we are.

You can read more  Essay Writing  about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Long and Short Essays on My City for Students and Kids in English

In this article, we have provided a detailed essay, a brief essay, and ten lines on the topic, my city, to help students write such pieces in their examinations. Given below is a long essay composed of 500 words and a short essay comprising 100-150 words on the topic in English.

Long Essay on My City 500 words in English

My City essay is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Kolkata has always been the city of joy and happiness. Kolkata has a rich cultural background, and the heritage associated with my city makes it valuable and beautiful. Kolkata, previously known as Calcutta, was the capital of India during the British rule. It is a city that has a rich cultural history and is the intellectual hub of India. The British made Calcutta the capital city because it was the center of education, business, and economics. Kolkata has produced brave hearts, which have fought our National Struggle ever so courageously and have helped get freedom from the British.

My city is unique, and it amazes me to think of how wholesome Kolkata truly is. It has everything one can wish for, and its people have a secure attachment to their city. Kolkata is famous for its lip-smacking food and ancient monuments, and it is also known as the City of Joy. Kolkata is the city of emotions and festivities.

Kolkata has her essence. Not everybody will recognize her true beauty. It is not as technologically advanced as Bangalore or as posh as Mumbai, but Kolkata is a city with a soul. She will touch you in ways unknown to humankind and will give you the solace you have always craved. Kolkata is excellent as a city. You can never get tired of Kolkata. Living here is like pursuing a long lost dream of culture and inheritance. Kolkata shapes you in the classiest ways possible.

Heritage colleges like the Presidency University, Rajabazar Science College, Jadavpur University, etc. ensure that students get an excellent education. Kolkata has tremendous patriotic fervor, and it was where the first students’ movement began. The colleges teach moral values besides academic curriculums. Students know what god for their country is.

Kolkata was also the central hub of the Naxalite movement. The city shapes people in a way that they refuse to accept injustice. Kolkata has a strong political base, and the people here would do anything to stand up for what is right. Apart from the educational role, Kolkata also has advanced business centers. Every year, a business meeting is organized in Kolkata, and the economy is strengthened.

My city has countless spectacles. Sitting by the river Ganges on a chilly winter night, staring at the city lights on the other side as cars and buses rush past us is surreal. Be it the iconic Rabindra Setu or the Dakshineshwar Temple, Kolkata has many structures that have endured the ravages of time.

Coming to historical monuments, Kolkata is home to the famous Victoria Memorial, which is one of the most celebrated monuments of all time. The Indian Museum, located near Esplanade, is again a structure that has mesmerized tourists. The Indian Museum is an excellent source of research and has countless wonders.

My city has woven its members in a string of love and values. Kolkata accepts everyone. The ever welcoming Academy Gates has given place to all artists with out-stretched arms. The smell of freshly brewed coffee in roadside cafes, the awe-striking Christmas decorations in Park Street, the inevitable Nostalgia in Coffee House, and the flood of amazing books in College Street, every bit of Kolkata inspires us to love ourselves and be better human beings.

Short Essay on My City 150 words in English

My City essay is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Kolkata is a city of wonder and amazement. It has countless marvels and beauty. To start with, the Shahid Minar is a world-famous monument dedicated to the Indian Freedom Struggle martyred soldiers. College Street is the largest book market in India, and everyone can find their desired books on college street.

The nostalgic coffee house was visited by maestros and geniuses like Mrinal Sen, Manna Dey, Satyajit Ray and more. The nostalgia etched into the walls still reverberates with renewed passion. The Esplanade building and the St Paul’s Cathedral historical monuments are popular among tourist spots. Kolkata is enriched with art and literature and is indeed the most beautiful of all cities.

10 Lines on My City Essay in English

• Kolkata is an intellectual hub of India and is enriched with culture and art.
• The Rabindra Setu and the second Hooghly Bridge are ancient structures constructed over the river Ganges, forming links between Kolkata and Howrah.
• The Indian Museum is an ancient building and has several collections of fossils, scientific specimens, and archaeological discoveries, and so on.
• The New Market is a trendy shopping destination for people and is almost always in chaos.
• Kolkata is famous for its food. Roshogolla, biryani, phuchka, and tea are renowned in Kolkata.
• My city reveals hand-drawn rickshaws and yellow taxis, which are unique to Kolkata.  Trams are another unique mode of transport in Kolkata, and it is enjoyable to ride this.
• Kolkata is home to many freedom fighters. Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Surendranath Bannerjee, Khudiram, Master da Surya Sen and so on, all hail from this city.
• The people of this city have given our country four noble prizes, and one Oscar won by Satyajit Ray for his film, “Pather Panchali.”
• Kolkata is famous for the wide variety of fishes and condiments available here.
• Kolkata is an invaluable city, and it has always worked towards giving India a better place in the world Spectrum.

FAQ’s on My City Essay

Question 1. How is Kolkata as a city?

Answer: Kolkata is a beautiful place to live in and offers various privileges. It has something for every taste and is undoubtedly the city of joy and vibrancy.

Question 2. What are the health facilities available in Kolkata?

Answer: Kolkata has renowned doctors and hospitals. It also has government hospitals that offer free treatment for underprivileged people.

Question 3. Is Kolkata safe?

Answer: Kolkata is as safe as any other part of the country. Every city has crime circuits, and so does Kolkata. The safety of women is, however, greatly endangered.

Question 4. How can I find a proper city to settle?

Answer: Searching for a proper city must include its job opportunities, medical facilities, administrative standards, and educational options.

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Now Entering Make-Believe Country

Urbania, my imaginary land, gave a weird, curious, and somewhat lonely kid a shorthand for the world at large.

The flag of the invented realm created by the author’s late friend Jesús. Photo courtesy the author.

by JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ VARGAS | January 26, 2022

Last year, my friend Jesús passed away when he was hit by a car while riding his bike. He was one year older than me. We both had been college professors in Venezuela, where we developed a friendship over our shared humanities-focused geekery. Jesús was also the only other person I knew at the time who had constructed a world inside his mind as a hobby. When Jesús was buried, his casket was draped with the blue, white, and green of his make-believe country’s flag. As far as I know, what remains of the history of his imagined realm lies within some private Facebook conversations that I haven’t had the strength to go through.

I recently learned that the world-making activity Jesús and I shared is known as paracosm. According to a study cited by the Wall Street Journal , about 17 percent of children tend to develop a detailed personal universe that they outgrow later in life, not unlike an imaginary friend. Nonetheless, while a make-believe friend might be a companion, the imaginary world is more about the joy of discovery and curiosity, from conjuring a forest in your mind and wondering what creatures are lurking over the next hill to dreaming up a city far more exciting than the one you live in and wondering who lives there, what drives their lives, if they love someone, or if they are happy. Before you know it, you’re doodling wondrous beasts and crude maps, trying to make sense of the world inside your head.

Interestingly enough, the kids who developed a paracosm didn’t score any better than their peers in terms of intelligence, vocabulary, memory, or creativity. The only reported major difference from other children was that those who created paracosms showed having more problems at filtering out irrelevant thoughts.

Some famous writers who have mentioned making paracosms in their youth are Stanislaw Lem, Oxford don C.S. Lewis—with the help of his brother Warren—and Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë (with the help of their brother Branwell). Some of these unreal realms, unsurprisingly, were influenced by the children’s perspectives on the adult world that surrounded them. In a 1984 essay , Lem points out the irony of how he amused himself as a child in interwar Poland by creating fictitious passports, permits, and government memos only to have his family survive the Nazi takeover with the aid of forged documents. He wonders if these games were a reflection of “some unconscious sense of danger.”

The imaginary worlds of the two sets of siblings, meanwhile, mirrors the British culture, politics, attitudes, and imperialism of the time: The Brontës’ world of Glass Town was set in an imaginary West Africa (later moved to the Pacific Ocean) with characters based on British explorers, Napoleon, and the Duke of Wellington. The sisters’ earliest writings are the extensive correspondence and poems of the inhabitants of Glass Town. The Lewis’s world, Boxen, was born out of Warren’s tales about India and his more famous brother’s love of stories involving talking animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit .

My own paracosm started when I was a weird, curious, and somewhat lonely tween growing up in Maracay, a mid-sized city in Venezuela, in the early 2000s. My source of fascination was not India or Africa, but the United States. Or at least a distorted version filled with everything I found mesmerizing about a place I only knew through media. The setting was not some hypothetical ancient era or an idealized version of the Middle Ages, but vaguely reminiscent of the mid to late 20th century—the height of the American empire, so to speak. I named this nation Urbania.

In Urbania, there’s an equivalent city to New York and places analogous to New Orleans, California, and Texas. There are enormous cities filled with skyscrapers and subways, endless suburbs and prisons with electric chairs. There are wealthy industrialist families bound through fraternities and clubs, immigrants on crowded ocean liners looking to start a new life, and reactionary militias boiling on the fringe. There’s a colorful past that carries the sins of colonialism and endless foreign wars, which ultimately seal the country’s fate.

Characters and places, although imaginary, had names taken from all sorts of sources: Bertolt Brecht plays, classic black and white movies, Saturday Night Live cast members. When you were a middle-class tween in Venezuela in the early 2000s, you either studied a musical instrument, played sports or learned English. I did the latter and, as soon as I could, I began working on my imaginary universe in the language I’m writing these words because it felt “right.”

The adults around me, though supportive, were irked that I didn’t try to write about something closer to my own culture and reality. On one hand, I was a child of globalization. Like many millennials around the globe, I had prefabricated childhood ideas from watching The Simpsons and playing Pokémon. The very first book I read in its entirety was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone . When I was 7, I knew who Bill Clinton was but not the president of my own country.

On the other hand, I had a hard time connecting with other kids, didn’t have the best family situation, and tried to distance myself from a world that felt overwhelming. For me, Urbania offered an escape. It started out as a way to channel my creative impulses. I have always liked to tell stories. Urbania started out as a comic book, then a movie script and finally a book series with no clear beginning or end that has been started, abandoned, or lost dozens of times over 20 years. Despite working so many years on Urbania, I’ve never been able to even finish a short story set there.

However, I can’t say all those years I spent developing a universe in my head has been a waste of time. My protagonists were exploring their sexual orientation and gender performance way before I admitted to myself that I was attracted to men. Trying to flesh out my little realm of the unreal made me research history, geography, world cultures, mythology, religion, politics and linguistics, essentially turning it into a shorthand to try to understand the real world.

In my case, I started to write thanks to my paracosm, which is what eventually led me to become a journalist and to getting short stories published every now and then. There was a time when I was worried that I might pass on, like Jesús did, and felt concerned that the little scraps—the first chapters of novels that never had a follow-up, drawings of maps and flags in yellowish notebooks at my mother’s apartment—might end up as puzzle pieces for an image that was never fully completed. But now, if I never manage to publish a single word about the small world located in the back of my head I wouldn’t be upset.

Jesús, too, used his paracosm to relate to the world. He wasn’t a writer, he was a political scientist, but his life was defined by working hard and passionately on little things, always hoping something bigger and better was coming, and having an infinite love for humanity and what it has been able to achieve. That was one of the many things that made me relate to him. The make-believe country that was his own personal realm of the unreal was also an intellectual game where he could design and apply social and political ideas that appealed to him. The blue, white, and green flag he was buried with not only served as the symbol of his personal utopia, but also the banner that a better world was possible.

Talking with some friends and colleagues about my making worlds as a hobby, I realize it’s a far more common activity than I suspected for individuals with a natural passion, admiration, and curiosity about why people do what they do. Many of them aren’t writers like the Brontë sisters or Lewis. They are journalists, economists, historians, and many of them still continue to dream on. People might claim this activity is for a novel they are writing or for a tabletop game they play, but in all those cases I see the sign of the fellow traveler who enjoys more the endless journey to find out what’s over the next hill than hurrying to the purported destination.

I can’t help but think about the study cited by the Wall Street Journal and wonder: Maybe all those so-called irrelevant details that as children we were meant to filter out, really have helped us to gain a different, broader insight about the society we live in. Looking back, all that I have achieved, at least career-wise, has been indirectly derived from chronicling the rise and fall of Urbania, an imagined land that has given me so much in real life.

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