Happiness is a warm keyboard=I live to and love to write

Writers have a need to understand words, to gather them like flowers in a literary garden of colorful, pungent, blooming, budding words. They carefully pick them to tell a story, structure a tale, by placing those words in a way that brings the reader in.

Characters light up with specific details and become dimensional. Some writers tell you that characters, once fully formed, can take on a life of their own. When you know your character, you'll know what they will and won’t do and then, the scenes unfold like pages turning or film frames clicking into place in your imagination.

But if starting a story seems daunting or you’re experiencing a block to your imagination as we all do, try this.

Picture a day, a day in any season…then imagine walking out your door and into that day…make it 360 in your image and visualize meeting people in it…think of a conversation with them and soon, a thread of a story will begin to form. Let your imagination go with it.

I call it awake-dreaming; it helps me relax my mind and allows me to create freely.

Sometimes it'll lead me into the start of a story, but even if only a short tale or a few paragraphs emerge, it’s still a good start to getting my thoughts flowing..

You can revisit that imaginary walk, expound on it or begin a whole new day; it’s ever changing and so much fun.

I’ll start a walk on a winter’s day and imagine what I see:

“The snow fell last night but I see the plows have already been through the neighborhood. There are hills of fresh snow, packed up higher than the cars parked at the curb. I hear children screaming in delight as they roll down the plow made, snowy mountains and I quickly dodge a snowball whizzing by me. I spot the laughing teenager the snowball was intended for and accept an apologetic wave from the teenager who’d thrown it off course.”

It’s not a masterpiece, certainly not a start to a story  but it's relaxing and fun because there's no pressure on this walk.

I love to imaagine the characters and scenes, plot substance and situations this way. It's how I write, by walking my mind into imagined stories where I can see possibilities, play with different scenarios and work out the logistics.

If I were to revisit the walk I start above, I’d look for a thread to pull a story from what I'm seeing. Is something more happening in the scene or is someone else coming into view that will peak my interest?

Let’s see if I can imagine a bit more….

“I turn away from that apologetic teenager and walk right into the path of someone I didn’t see. Someone I didn’t expect to be there....”

Is he someone I’ve known before…an ex…or someone I’ve never seen before, a stranger who intrigues me, or annoys me? I’ve yet to decide on his fate because we’ve had no banter. It takes those introductory lines of the characters to get a read on what their personalities are and what the conflict or attraction will be.

I love the start of a story; it’s like a pristine page or fresh fallen snow, waiting for me to make an imprint.

In that dream walk I can stop and start over at any point. If I lose all interest I can erase the landscape or add to it, because I can go where ever my imagination leads me. It’s empowering to walk into a world that’s all yours to create and direct.

If you're having a bout of writer's block try it and see if it works for you too.

Happy imagination walk! And thanks for listening.