Warning: if you’re afraid of heights, this video will make you squirm. I just watched it, and I’m still whimpering. (It’s six minutes long. And it’s stunning.)
People ask me where I get my ideas. Here’s where: from my fears. I think about what gives me the willies, and I write about it. This lets me face what scares me — safely. I pour it out on the page.
I inflict it on my readers.
Heights aren’t my thing. When I took my kids on the Swiss gondola ride at Disneyland, I wanted to duct tape them to the floor of the car. However, small spaces don’t bother me. So, in my new novel (Watch out! Shameless self promotion ahead!) The Dirty Secrets Club, I created a heroine who’s my opposite. Jo Beckett is claustrophobic. But she loves rock climbing. To her, heights are the place to find the widest open, most unconstrained spaces of all. In writing the book, I took everything I feel when looking down (agh… ohhh, God…) and gave it to Jo when she faces the prospect of getting in an elevator. And I tried to understand how she could thrill to the challenge and rush of getting above it all.
Of course, in a thriller, facing one’s fears should involve a visceral, life-threatening experience.
And no matter how much I try to cope with my hatred of heights by writing about it, no matter how well I eventually desensitize myself to the thought of dropping hundreds of feet into a ravine, I’m not walking El Camino del Rey. No way.
UPDATE: In the comments, Ken asks, “Where is that place?” It’s in southern Spain, and is used as the path to the rock climbing at El Chorro.
7 responses so far ↓
Dan // May 11, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Meg - I’m with you. I’ve always had a problem with heights.
Ok, ‘a problem’ may be an understatement. I don’t like the 3rd step of a step-ladder. I’ve got it bad.
I had a white-knuckle grip on the arms of my chair while watching this video. Are these hikers mad? Where there was a walkway to use, it was cracked and crumbling… What the hell are they thinking?
Snart // May 11, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Now that I would do. Okay, the last three holes would slow me down a bit, and jumping down that last step might give me pause, but I’d so do this!
I’m certain I’m afraid of ever being buried alive. But beyond that, I’m not sure what I’m afraid of.
However, I’d never want my husband or kids to walk that path, but that’s fear for them, not for myself.
Kate // May 11, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Ah, at last I discover the REAL reason you didn’t want me to become a cheerleader. You were afraid I’d be on top of the pyramid!
Monita // May 12, 2008 at 1:32 am
That video is awesome, as long as I don’t have to do it! I didn’t know I had claustrophobia until I went up in the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. You and two others are locked into a tiny box, knee-bone to knee-bone, and it slowly ratchets its way to the top of the Arch. At the top you get to look straight down, while you feel the Arch slowly sway in the wind. Which is also where I found out I was afraid of heights. When we got back down, we found out the next car was caught in a power failure. Claustrophobia in the dark–Yeek!
Ken // May 12, 2008 at 7:31 am
Awesome. Where is that place?
Patti // May 12, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Oh dear. I’m not sure exactly what it is I’m afraid of. The gaping holes that require one to be a member of the Flying Wallendas (not too many of them left) or the precision jumping made me sweat. A few years ago as the little train paused at the top of the tallest roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland (coaster that secures passengers with just a bar across the lap), I had two equally clear and insistent thoughts. The first was that I should get off right now–there was a little platform with a nice railing–and the second was that the first was not a good idea. I had to force myself to stay in the seat and sat with teeth gritted as we descended at high speed from a great height. I was fine on other roller coasters that had the over-the-shoulder harness.
gargoyle // May 12, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I watched that video a few days ago. The worst was when I had the video on full screen - big mistake. “clenched” was the most apt word- every single part of me tightened up, down to the individual cells. The nausea has returned every time the video has crossed my mind since.
Once a decade or so, I’ll ride a roller coaster, just to say that I have done it. But I don’t really like them at all. Nope, not at all.
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