Imagination

When the muse comes out to play

Imagination has always had powers of resurrection that no science can match. ~ Ingrid Bengis

How true.

Our imaginations can conjure up some amazing things. But, like a little child, it needs to have room to roam and play. I had the good fortune of growing up in a tiny community just outside the city limits of a small logging town in northeastern California in the late 40s and 50s. Every day I’d roam those forested hills with my dog Blackie. We’d play all kinds of imaginative games. I was never bored. I got to know every rock and tree, flower and bush.

I had ample input of material to stimulate my imagination from movies and stories my mother read to me in the years before I learned to read myself.

My earliest memories involve running from tree to tree, escaping or pursuing the bad guys. Movies fueled my imagination and I could play for hours, creating and acting out stories.

Often I’d leap from rock to rock to avoid alligators in the imagined swamp below or climb a tree to escape being captured.

I’d lead a posse in pursuit of bank robbers or pretend I was Tarzan swinging through the trees.

The games were endless. I never knew boredom and could always entertain myself. Often I’d forget to come home until I heard my mother calling or she came looking for me.

One of my favorite memories involved a stack of wood blocks from the local mill. It comprised lumber end cuts of various sizes and shapes. Dad had a dump-truck load of them delivered to fuel our wood cookstove. I had great fun imagining each block to be a supply to stock my fort for the day when the Indians attacked (yes, we called them “Indians” in those days, and no one seemed to mind, not even the Native Americans.)

Years later, a similar pile of wood blocks at a friend’s house allowed us to provision our spaceship before blasting off into outer space. This was in the early fifties.

Thinking about my imagination, and how I grew up, I’ve discovered some ways to fuel it:

1. Exercise it — Play games that require imagination.

Board games, card games, role-playing games and video games will do.

2. Watch movies and read or listen to audio books

When I was a kid, my friend Homer, who was several years older, and I went to the “picture show” every Saturday afternoon. The double feature ran from 1:00 to 4:30. The show included two feature films, an introductory newsreel, some commercials for local businesses, a cartoon, and a short serial like “Commander Cody” or “Sky King” or “The Three Stooges” or “The Little Rascals.” For the quarter it cost, we got our money’s worth. The movies were often Westerns (Cowboy and Indian movies, we called them.)

Today my imagination is still fueled by movies, but now books and stories from Medium and elsewhere also flash across the screen in my mind. I’m not highly original, but if I read a story or see a movie, I’ll often think, Ah, now there’s something to write about.

3. Daydream

Let your mind wander. More on this later.

So, what inspired me to write about imagination?

A conversation with two friends on Zoom about how our memories are deteriorating got me to thinking. I remember things from my early childhood much better than some recent events.

I was an imaginative kid.

I remember my mother reading to me daily. The Mother West Wind stories and Heidi were among my favorites. I also enjoyed stories about Uncle Remus and Br’er Rabbit.

As I thought about my memory loss, I noticed that my imagination has suffered as well. For example, I have an idea for a story I want to write, but I’m having trouble imagining what happens. This is nothing new.

I know some writers have the full scope of the story in mind before they start to write. I remember reading that J. K. Rowling sat down and outlined her entire series of Harry Potter books just after The Sorcerer’s Stone was accepted for publication by Scholastic. I’m not one who can do that.

Imagination at work

Though my career as an engineer involved project management, which required detailed planning, when it comes to writing, I have trouble coming up with an outline. I guess I’m what writers call a “pantser” — I don’t know what I’m going to write until I sit down and start writing. At least, if I do, I’m not conscious of what it is. I usually have a topic or title, and maybe a few key points. But not until I start putting words on paper or screen do I know what I’m going to say. One thought leads to another and eventually, hopefully, a decent story emerges.

You’d think that as my memory fades I would turn more to outlining and note-taking to bolster it, but that hasn’t been the case, and I don’t suspect that will change for this old dog.

Daydream

As for imagination, I daydream a lot. I always have. But seldom is my daydreaming directed and productive. A thought occurs and one thought leads to another. Pretty soon I’m lost in a world thousands of miles away or decades in the past. It’s at times like these that I often hear from my wife, “You’re not listening to me” or “Earth to Bob” or simply “Hello!”

At times focusing my daydreams or pursuing a single thought or thread seems beyond me. Come to think of it, in school I had trouble staying on task. I’d much rather sit and daydream and have homework than do it in class as some kids did. I needed the right environment to concentrate. It had to be clean and well organized and contain my writing paraphernalia and later my cigarettes and ashtray.

Perhaps the dulling of imagination comes from spending so many days grappling with real world engineering and life problems. True, those problems do require imagination and its cousin ingenuity to solve. But for me they were typically left-brained problems requiring math and science. Working with the right side of my brain may be what’s proving a challenge. Or maybe it simply means I’ve got what one writer called a “lazy brain.”

I have no problem imagining scenes and characters and action in the books I read. So long as there are words or images to guide me, I do fine. It’s only when I seek to create that I falter. Then I often find myself gazing into a dark abyss where I see nothing and come up empty.

Creation and imagination

However, give me a pen and paper or a keyboard and computer, and I can begin to create. In a way, I feel like a sculptor, but not the kind who knows what lies hidden inside a chunk of marble and works to free it. No, I chip away to discover what’s hidden not knowing what form will emerge.

Can you relate?

Directing the imagination

I find directing my imagination an almost hopeless task.

As I think about it I see that the problem is not a lack of imagination so much as my inability to control and direct it. I wonder, do you and other artists suffer from the same malady? If so, I hope you’ll leave me a note and tell me about it. Is there hope?

How do you deal with a faulty memory and a head-strong imagination that wants to go where it will and not where you want it to go?

The Muse

For me, my imagination and the muse are the same.

Many writers speak of having a Muse. For them the writing process is like taking dictation. I’ve never had that pleasure. Or maybe I have and just didn’t realize it.

If I have a Muse, I imagine him to be like Stephen King’s: an old guy down in the basement who sits around smoking cigars and occasionally tosses up a nugget for me to write.

Some days I want to toss a flash-bang down there and wake him up in hopes that he’ll give me something good to work with.

Christmas anyone?

Another writing metaphor comes to mind (compliments of my Muse or imagination.) Writing is like decorating a Christmas tree. The tree comes with trunk and branches, but we get to decide on the decorations and where to hang them.

And maybe my Muse is like Santa Clause, bringing me gifts all wrapped up and tied with a bow. I have to unwrap the packages to see what they contain.

In Conclusion

As a wise friend once said, “Beginning is half done.” I’ve often found that to be true. It might, like this story, take a while to complete, but once you begin, if you will persevere, you’ll eventually succeed and complete the task.

If you’re struggling with your writing, as I’ve been, maybe you need to apply the Nike logo “Just Do It.”

But, if you’re like me you’ll do a lot of complaining and blaming — not enough time, no good ideas, damn muse is asleep — before you sit down and do the ABC of writing and apply butt to chair and fingers to keyboard or pen.

Summary

In closing, to fuel your imagination:

• Play games that require imagination
• Read novels and watch videos
• Daydream
• Imagine your muse awake and active (you may need a flash-bang here)
• Get busy and decorate that tree (Just Do It!)

[This story first occurred to me in July. Then life occurred and other things took precedence. I had planned to publish it in July with the subtitle “Christmas in July.” But the days got away from me, and here it is mid-August. I hope you enjoyed it and got something out of it. As with many things I write, I do so because I want to learn about that topic.

Lately, my lazy imagination has gotten my attention, so I wanted to explore that topic. What do you think? Did I get a base hit? I know it’s not a home run, but hopefully it’s not a strike-out either. You be the judge. Let me know what you think.]

Happy Reading, Writing, Imagining and Connecting, dear friends!