Ramping up imagination

Get ready for an Imagination Celebration!

It can’t already be November! It’s the month of my favorite celebration. Thanksgiving — our celebration of family. Oh, yay! Yay! It’s TURKEY MONTH — speaking of which, we have wild turkeys who want to try to sit on our wood fence only to discover they’re way too clumsy and clumpy and so they teeter to off within moments. But at least they try.

Trying is about all I — or we — can ask of imagination on some days and so, especially because this is National Novel Writing month and so many are climbing on board with the goal to write pages everyday, I thought it fitting to give you some writing starters to help you stay on this writing fence:

If you’re a fan of Julia Cameron’s, and even if you’re not, you’ve heard of The Artist’s Way and writing three pages a day.

Go sit in a pile of leaves under a tree with a notebook. If you’re not in the mood to write, try tracing some of the leaves into your journal. Write down the colors you see, smells you smell. Dig down with your fingers into the leaves. Were they damp? Dry? Did they crumble in your hand? Write about all the sensory elements.

Bake something –anything — write down the details from coring an apple for pie to stirring extra chocolate, or maybe a bit of expresso, into your brownies. Then write about the same experience from a different character’s perspective. Who enjoyed baking more? Why? (If you want, you can send me leftovers!)

Turn off the television, computer and phone for a day and write about the silence. Do you feel connected or disconneted? Is there a character lurking in that silence trying to get your to tell his or her story?

Finally, make it a goal — today, tomorrow, everyday — to write before you get sucked into the busy-ness of routine.

Now go to it!