2. .

   DEVELOPING IMAGINATION

People  think that imagination is a special gift,  some  have it and others don’t.

Rubbish!

Everyone has it.   You need it to survive. How could you cross a road safely if you couldn’t imagine traffic?   How could you plan anything  if you couldn’t imagine how it turns out?

But  exactly what is it?   Is it a magical function of the mind?   Is it fuelled by something mysterious?   No. It’s just experience and  memories rearranged.   It’s people, places, things and events  in different clothing, fused together to create something original.

I like to think of  imagination as a muscle, the more you exercise it the more you can exercise it.

But this muscle works best when you relax.   So sit back, close your eyes, breathe and day-dream.   Yes,  day-dream…

When you day-dream what’s the very first thing that comes into your head??   So you see something?   Hear something?   Feel something? Taste something? Smell something ?

We always assume that  imagining means seeing something  in the mind’s eye.   Most people do imagine by seeing.   But not everyone.   We each of us one of our five senses is dominant and we often limit our imaginings to that sense.  Do you know what yours is?   Close your eyes and imagine  ad summer’s day.   What’s the very first thing that popped into your head?

Was it an image?   A sound? A feeling? A smell? A taste?   That first thing that pops into your head tells you what your dominant sense is.   Then you need to expand it.

Go back to that very first thing that came into your head.   Close your eyes.

What  can you see?   What colours?   What shapes?   What things?  People? Animals? What place?   Keep looking until you have observed everything you can .

What can you hear?   Talk? Music? Wind? Weather? Birdsong? Cars?  Machines?   Keep listening until you’ve heard everything in the scene.

What can you feel?   What sensation do you feel on your skin? What emotion do you fell inside?

What can you smell?   Perfume?  Sea?  Drains?  Sweat?  Food?  Growth? Decay? Smoke?

What can you taste?  Coffee?  Cigarettes?  Sugar? Garlic?   Ozone?

Now that first thing has expanded, evolved and become something much more substantial.

And that’s something else that helps you to imagine.   Go with the very first thought that comes to mind.   Or if.d there’s a bit of a whirl of thoughts go with the one that keeps coming back.  It may not be what you expect, or what you want.   It may seem wrong or silly or irrelevant but stick with it.   Trust it, trust yourself.  It may not be what you end up with but it will always lead you to the right place.

Practise imagining……pump up that imaginative muscle.

Next time we’ll get down to the actual writing .

.