Ten Ways To Train Your Imagination

 I love it when I sit down at my table, holding my pen and seeing the words flowing nonstop. It feels at that moment that my pen is faster than my mind and faster than the clock. It also seems that all is left is me, my pen, the light of the sun dancing on the sound of music playing in the background, and my hourglass froze in time. 

After I shared with you in my last post my desire to write a book, it’s time to share how this desire manifests through an action plan. 

Let’s plant a seed. How to come up with an idea for a book?

1. Make peace with any idea that might come up: not all of your ideas will be perfect, but allow them to be; maybe they are paving the way.

2. Be Free and have fun: With writing, it’s time to put your logical mind aside, at least in this first phase. You need to give your unconscious mind a voice to express itself.

3. Wake your sense of wonder: get in touch with your inner child. As Picasso says, “All children are born artists; the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.”

4. Use “what if”:  In his book “La formation de l’acteur (An actor prepares),” Stanislavski talks about the use of “If” to train your imagination.

 “the secret of “if” resides first in the fact that it uses neither threat nor force and does not oblige the actor to do anything,” noted Stanislavski. “If” provokes an interior and actual activity based on natural facts.

Using “If” is an easy and fun way to unlock your creativity.

• Choose an ordinary circumstance of your daily life.

• Insert “if” inside that circumstance and imagine what if something irregular happens?

• write it down; now you have an idea ready to be developed. 

5. Play Around: Choose 5 items from your room and write a story about each one of them. It doesn’t have to be honest, yet it could be… It’s up to you!

6. Write about yourself: I’m sure that something interesting has happened to you lately, in the past week, month or year. It could be a new skill you learned, a new discovery you made, a new person you met, a new lesson you learned, a funny incident that made you laugh or cry… what was it? Tell a story.

7. Choose your own ending: as a child and because of the electricity shortage in my country (problem still unresolved), I often couldn’t finish a movie I was watching on TV; what was the solution? 

Create my ending! 

Choose any story you like… it could be the worst story you’ve ever read, and try to improve it. 

8. Life is full of inspiring people: Some people around you might have unique personalities and traits that you don’t usually encounter. Someone popped into your mind? Great! Grab your pen and tell us their story. It could be a made-up story… you’re the creator… have fun.

9. Go out: Staying stuck in front of your blank paper won’t help. Forcing an idea won’t make it happen. You need to let go. What about having a walk in nature, visiting a friend, your favorite place, or going on a ride to nowhere? Get out of your comfort zone. 

10. Observe! Don’t look at things. Observe them: get in touch with things… I know that you might have wondered about life many times, but have you ever wondered about the life of a grain of sand stuck inside an hourglass, tired of people turning it around as they please? What if that grain of sand had a voice and spoke? What if she leaves the hourglass? How can her decision affect the other sands? How is it going to affect time?

Writing is a journey that I enjoy sharing with you. Subscribe to my newsletter to get notified of my latest posts.

Don’t worry about getting it right! Just write. 

Ninette Abi Atallah