IMAGINATION IS EVERYTHING

How to create without writing; and fall asleep faster!

Imagination is everything for a writer. Finding the time to sit down and write amongst the noise of an assiduous career and a family (both of which are prosperous and enjoyable for me) isn’t easy.  I work on my stories when I can, but there’s much a writer can do when they’re not writing to also create.

It’s the power of the imagination that can be used when you’re not writing.
When there’s never an abundance of time for a writer to be able to write, the ability to hone your skills and use the imagination as the key to the next story you wish to write can be everything. Doing it is simple; it’s simply a matter of timing.

Creating without writing

Given that time is a valuable thing, and is in finite supply when you have a family and a prosperous but busy career, the ability to keep the momentum of writing flowing is never easy. I’ve been using a trick for a long time now that allows me to create when I cannot write, and I use the power to create to allow me to continue to work on my current projects at the same time as creating my next project.
 
It’s a skill that anyone can harness, and it can prepare you for your next project as you work through your current one that, as many writers will attest to, can take a great deal of time and effort. During the editing phase, it’s easy to become distracted by the next novel and the next idea. By simply harnessing your desire to create the new project as you work hard through your current one isn’t rocket science at all when you do it at the right time.
 
Night-time imagination

The power of night-time imagination is how I harness and develop my fresh ideas as I work through the editing phase of my current project. At the end of the day, when I’ve read a little of whatever book I’m reading at night, I turn off the light and I imagine. I imagine the narrative and the dialogue of my next project without writing anything down. I imagine the stories that may develop and make up my next novel. I imagine the things that could happen in the world I want to create. It doesn’t have to be exact, but allowing that world to manifest in the mind as often as possible allows it to build itself.
 
It takes time and it takes going over scenarios in your head, but after spending months of a little time at night as you wait to fall asleep just imagining the next story, you can develop, in your head, your next creation. I should add that my own memory is awful (I’m a habitual note-maker), so the fact that this works for me should mean it can work for you.
 
I’ve been doing this for what will be my next project I’ll begin work on as soon as my current project I’m editing is finished. Now, I have a solid bank of memories as to how the events may play out in the new world I’ve created. Nothing is final, and nothing is polished; but the ideas are there, and when it comes to putting pen to paper – or, fingers to keyboard – I have enough in my mind to call upon in terms of the many things I’ve imagined to start work on my next project when I’m ready.
 
It’s as simple as that. I have no idea if I’m preaching to the choir here, but this is what I do.
 
Imagination is everything. Spend the time you use trying to fall asleep thinking about your next project and what could happen. Just build the world inside your head. What you think of may never even make it into your next novel, but imagine it’s happening in the world you’re creating, and it can all help to shape the novel to come. That way, when you come to writing it, you may, like me, have a whole world and a whole host of ideas already inside your head just waiting to be unlocked.
 
It’s also a great way to help you fall asleep without the worries of the real world getting you down and keeping you up, which is also something many of us creative types can suffer from. I know I have.
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JM