Where Do Authors Get Their Ideas?
Ever had writers block? Hardly surprising! With the amount of material that encroaches into our macro environment in this modern world, and pushes in on us from every angle, it is to be expected that there is sometimes no space for anything else; for our own thoughts, ideas, and imagination. So how do authors get it back? Or is it the end of the road?
Definitely not. With a little time and attention, we can harness our waning imagination, supercharge it, and send it spinning out of orbit.
Here are our three tips to send your imagination skyward….
Read
Read?-How does reading about other people’s imagination supercharge our own? Reading broadens our imagination by stimulating the right side of our brain. Roger W. Sperry, an eminent neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and Nobel laureate, discovered functional differences between each side of the brain. The right side of the brain is credited with controlling intuition, creativity, holistic thinking, and feelings visualisation-in short, imagination. By stimulating this side of the brain, reading literally opens our minds to new possibilities and new ideas by helping us experience and analyse the world through others’ lives. Becoming engrossed in a novel for instance enhances connectivity in the brain and improves brain function and thinking processes.
Think
Yes think! – But in a new way. Locate your thoughts. Throw away logic and push away preconceived ideas. Allow your mind to wander, and meditate on those thoughts. Science suggests that meditation releases endorphins. In this way your mind and body allow you to let go of the mundane, the stress, and the anxiety that crowds in on you and clouds your imagination. When meditating, allow your mind to visualise wherever it wanders, and to hear, feel and see your thoughts, the sound of the story your mind is making, and the resulting bodily sensations. Cultivating this type of mindfulness will heighten your senses and switch on your imagination.
Observe
They say there is nothing new under the sun. We will probably never know. But imagination does not need to be new. Imagination is the action of forming new ideas, images or concepts. What better raw material is there than what we observe? Become a people watcher-Watch people in detail; their body language, their mannerisms, their nuances. Observe nature, a powerful lion, a tiny bug. Then think of them in a different way. Turn everything on its head. Go back to thinking. In no time, you will be writing……
