You Haven’t Outgrown Your Imagination

“My imagination isn’t what it used to be.”

Amanda and I are standing around a kitchen island, catching up at a friend’s winter party. Most of the guests know each other through a local writing group, so talk often turns to writing, writers, and everything that goes with it. Amanda shifts her feet and frowns.

“I just feel like my ideas aren’t as clever as they once were.”

I nod. I know how she feels, but I fundamentally disagree.

“It’s not that your imagination has gone downhill,” I say. “It’s that you haven’t given it space to breathe. It’s still there, I promise.”

I wasn’t just trying to make her feel better. I’ve had struggles with my own imagination and have come to learn that it’s a fluid thing–some days your brain is able to reach out its tentacles and piece together an imaginative story, some days not so much. I don’t think it’s random–I’m convinced imaginations can be fostered.

From my experience, an imagination is nourished by three things:

1. Space to explore
2. Practice
3. Creative immersion

Space to Explore

In Amanda’s case, she hadn’t had much time or space lately to let her mind wander freely. For the past couple years, she’d been working to earn her degree as a dietitian–not an easy feat when you’re working full-time. When your brain is occupied with learning new information, studying, earning a living, and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, imagination doesn’t stand a chance.

Imagination needs room to breathe. It needs quiet time and space.

I was in a similar position to Amanda a couple years ago. I was building my writing business, co-planning a wedding, stressing about money, and trying desperately to write fiction. You probably won’t be surprised when I tell you my fiction writing took a hit. My brain was in a constant fug, only able to go through the motions. I could keep up with writing other people’s blog posts and website copy, but I didn’t have an ounce of creative juice to spare.

The solution?

I gave myself space. Lots of space.

Two weeks after our wedding reception, my husband and I took to the woods with only our backpacks and faithful pup as company. The first four days, we hiked together. My brain started to loosen as we scrabbled up hillsides and tromped down plank paths in bogs. We cooked our dinners on a camp stove and ate our lunches on fallen logs or boulders. After four day, he left. I carried on.

For five more days, I hiked solo. I allowed my brain to go wherever it wished to go. At the time, I had the whisper of an idea for a Middle Grade novel and allowed myself to explore different avenues relating to it. Occasionally, I’d take a break and jot down my thoughts.

Before my big solo hike, I thought my imagination was a dead bug, shriveled and insubstantial. But the bug wasn’t dead after all; it was only hibernating.

Maybe you don’t have a string of days to go hiking (or maybe hiking isn’t your jam), but you can make a concerted effort to give your brain some space:

• When you go to the gym, don’t distract yourself with music* or podcasts; let your mind wander and see what crazy thoughts emerge (*alternatively, listen to relaxing instrumental music)
• Go for long walks and leave your cell phone behind
• Take mindful lunch breaks. Don’t check your email, read, or do anything but sit and think
• Practice meditation and/or yoga
• Instead of watching TV at night, scribble in a journal

Practice

This may seem odd, but the more you practice being imaginative, the more imaginative you will become. If you get in the habit of writing every morning, for instance, your creative brain will be primed to kick in at that hour.

I find that creativity begets creativity. If you regularly practice free writing (something I encourage everyone to do!), you’ll allow your brain to explore new territory in a no-restrictions kind of way. If you continually push your creative boundaries, those boundaries will continue to expand.

My personal recommendation: Write or do one creative activity every single day.

Creative Immersion

When you’re surrounded by creative folks, some of their creativity will naturally rub off on you. I’ve witnessed this first-hand in my writing groups–we collectively become better, more imaginative writers when we’re surrounded by constant creativity.

I belong to a few writing critique groups and one free-writing group that involves writing from prompts drawn from a box. In the free-writing group, several participants have noticeably improved their writing because 1) they’re practicing every week and 2) they are surrounded by a collective imagination–15 or 20 minds that travel to many different places when they hear a given prompt.

Another way to immerse yourself creatively? Step away from your laptop. Don’t write. Go have an experience.

Check out a museum, a concert, a park. Take a painting class. Have a night out at the symphony. By cross-pollinating yourself with different creative endeavors, you open your mind to different forms of creativity. Some of my best ideas have struck, for example, when I’m completely lost in the rhythms, light, and pulse of a concert.

Another example: the entire foundation of Ten Thousand Lines was formed while listening to an album on repeat while driving solo from Portland, Oregon to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Recapture Your Imagination

Just like Amanda, your imagination isn’t dead. It may be taking an extended snooze. It may need a little jolt of electricity or a nice long hug. But it’s there. It’s waiting. How will you commit to reawakening it and helping it grow?