IMAGINATION IS OUR
GREATEST TOOL
(BY DEBY ADAIR)
Imagination is our greatest tool. When you create something
meaningful, you share it with the world, even if no one ever sees your final
effort. When we imagine, and then create, we are stating by our thoughts and
actions who we are, and that person follows us around day and night for
everyone else to see, interact and share with.
If we have music in us, then we strum, sing or write our lyrics. If we
have art in us then we sketch, draw or paint. And if we write, we are usually
sharing our deepest thoughts and projections.
Writing is a tool that can captivate an audience in a way that no
other art does. A book presents an opportunity to immerse ourselves, sometimes
completely, into the lives of others, and in the process, it changes us
forever…we have now walked in another’s shoes and we will never be the same
again. Although it may be argued that a movie will do a similar thing, the difference
between reading a story and watching a story, is that a reader must
go that extra mile and play the movie in their head, their way, with only the writer’s word to prompt the screen inside
the mind.
As writers, we hold the world in the palms of our hands and, like all
projections, how we do it is what counts.
Remember that what you write will reach inside the minds and hearts of
others and, by the power of your words, resonate. How do you choose to create
what resonates in others?
Writing is something that comes from within a writer; a deep need to
share a story, a theme, experience or something which the writer themselves
chooses to explore.
When writers ask me how to deal with writer’s block, I have one
response: Writer’s block comes to you
because you are trying to write what isn’t you. When a writer ‘blocks’ they
are experiencing these key things: fear, self doubt and a desire to please
others.
When writers ask me how they should fix their writers block, or
indeed, why is it such extremely hard work to write, then my responses are
simplistic, based on the need to change
something that they’re doing.
At first, my answers can be met with some resistance. ie: Often, a
writer has a preconceived idea of what kind of writer they are, or want to be,
and that may be the problem… in not knowing what you truly should be writing as opposed to what you think you should be writing. ‘Writers block’ will always begin
there.
Do you love writing? Does the written word in and of itself give you
incredible joy? Does the thought of composing a sentence and describing a
moment, a scene, a sensation, a palette of colour, transport you with
inspiration and excitement? What entices you, the writer, to capture an
audience and transport them?
I’ll ask a question: Can you effectively captivate with something you
don’t know, or don’t understand or have never come close to experiencing?
Perhaps, or perhaps not.
During the process of writing, part of the joy is for us as writers to
explore how a scene, projection, moment or situation may occur, creating that
rush of creativity, the adrenalin and thrill that actually makes us want to
write!
If you have decided that writing is in fact for you, that you have the
guts, determination and the hard-driven discipline required to master your much
loved skill, but you sit down to write and falter, then you must ask yourself
why.
A highly skilled young University student asked me to read a piece of
their work and to offer a critique. It was an evocative piece. Very dramatic,
very intense, extremely wordy, descriptive, exciting… but it lacked something. It didn’t ring true. It was a good piece
of writing but I was left unmoved. I thought carefully about the piece before I
gave her my critique.
Finally, this was my response: When you write, the most important
thing to remember is not to try to impress
the reader but to find your own individual style. Don’t try to write with someone
else’s style. Don’t copy the sort of writing that will outwardly
impress you but feel to the reader as if they’ve read your book at least a
hundred times everywhere else!
Write what you know. Write
what you feel. By all means, use the
power of your imagination, but don’t try to construct what isn’t innately a
part of you because it will read cleverly, but not reach hearts and, as
writers, our job is to reach hearts, otherwise we have just added to a high
pile of pulp.
When a writer writes from deep inside themselves, reaching into what
they know, how they’ve grown, the insights, the hurts, the joys, the depths of
their being, then they lose writer’s block. They may have decided to sit down
and write that great money-spinner and instead, written a poignant or
meaningful story of something that jogs a memory of a day in their schoolyard.
The piece they actually may end up writing may seem totally un-commercial,
however, it may leave the writer, and ultimately the reader, deeply satisfied.
I assure you that when you write from your inner truth you will always become a
better writer and that is what really matters in the long run. You want to
reach the hearts and minds of your readers.
When people read, no matter what the genre, they unconsciously go
there to learn something, even if they feel they only want to be entertained.
When they read, they want to leave your
book/short story/poem, prose or paragraph, and feel that it was a moment in
time that you loaned them and which they have captured; that borrowing from
your ‘knowing’ it will leave them stronger, better able to face the world. Write what you own… share with us, the reader, what you know and feel.
Writers often ask me why they can’t seem to get the discipline of the
thing. My response, based on experiencing the roller coaster of life, is this:
No matter what is happening in your life, and
I mean no matter what, write something every single day; every single day
go to your work and at least sit with pen in hand, with computer open and
ready; if you find nothing there, then edit something you have previously
written; look at your writing and be ruthless with it; teach yourself to know
if that flowery sentence is valid or just satisfying an itch to be vocal; train
yourself in excellent sentence structure and that often, less is more.
Readers these days want to get to the point… so learn the skill of
writing brilliantly with a sentence well built, rather than a paragraph that
repeats itself.
Take the pain from losing loved ones, your illness, a job you hate,
the spiteful neighbour and use it to write! Don’t wait for
when life will get good, for when you live in the right house, have the right
amount of money, have the perfect relationship, have wonderful heath… all or some
of those things may never happen, so write! Be your own best creator!
Write something, even if it’s for two minutes a day, every single day
until the hardship of the discipline becomes your addiction and your high… then
you have learned the true love affair of writing and have built a solid
relationship that will let you call yourself a writer, a marriage where you
have learned to merge words with the love of making it happen.
Remember, the entire fantastic residue of living, is stored within all
of us. Don’t write about things you don’t know just because you think that’s
what readers want, and worse, because someone else got rich from it… write what
YOU know and, if you do it thoroughly, seriously and with real craft and
commitment, readers will love your tale about the day you dropped your lunch at
school and ten kids laughed at you but one stepped forward to help… because
when it’s genuine, we, the reader will know it and cheer you on!
Deby Adair © 27.08.2012
About the Author
Deby
Adair is an author, artist, graphic artist and equestrian. An avid follower of
the mystical and mysterious, Deby Adair has always loved the purity and truth
of unicorns and their archetypal majesty. A past professional equestrian, Deby
loves all animals and champions animal rights, the environment and human
rights. She believes we must take care of our natural world.
An
avid reader all her life, Deby began writing stories, poetry and prose from a
very young age, the WISH trilogy is based on many works of writing and art
which she produced as a girl but later embellished and created into her three
novels.
Writing
this trilogy and creating a vast collection of wonderful, exciting art works
has occupied her for many years now. We hope you enjoy her much loved books and
wonderful artwork as much as Deby enjoyed creating them!
