Corporations brainstorm to uncover new ideas.
They even take employees on retreats and oftentimes pay psychologists and artist incredible amounts of money to stimulate and present ways in which employees can think out of the box.
Why then do writers and authors not give ourselves more time to daydream and brainstorm into planning our stories?
Perhaps we are too eager to see our words in print.
But what are stories without imagination?
As computer and digital technology simplify the process for seeing our words in print on either the page of a book or the screen of a computer or a digital device it is imperative that writers spend more time for our stories to gestate in the recesses of our unconscious.
In this our imaginations can deliver entertaining stories that take our readers into worlds and universes they never considered.
Good novels and stories provide an escape from the humdrum of life’s daily routine. If we are to craft and deliver stories that lift boredom and excite the reader to continue turning pages, we ourselves must allow our minds time away from the weighted concerns of the business of selling novels.
All writers must ensure a sustainable livelihood. Yet as artists the product we offer to the world is directly rooted in our creativity. Thus it is imperative that we nurture our imagination.
Part of cultivating our imagination requires time for free association, a space in which to run and play with our inner children.
This may appear irresponsible. In reality this is requires immense skill, a capacity that in so do doing yields the very thing for which readers and would-be consumers pay dearly.
A story or novel written with excellent grammar, and clear sentences with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed does not an engaging story make.
Not that this is any excuse for not utilizing spell check and our dictionary.
Use of computer improvements and digital developments such as spell and grammar check ideally provide more time for us to swim with the muse, to bask in the sun of our thoughts undaunted by the inner critic such that we can create a magic carpet jettisoning readers to worlds delivered from the wombs of our imaginations.
Like the corporations who pay sizable fees to creativity consultants, readers look to writers as with all other artists, to present them with alternate ways of viewing the world.
Without the time to lie in the grass of our day dreams and visions we will never touch on any reality beyond the one to which readers and would-be consumers are accustomed.
The key to financial success in writing fiction lies in brainstorming our novels before committing words to paper or screen.
How much time do you provide for brainstorming a novel you want to write?
Have you ever written a novel that once in print you wished to have spent more time creating it?
How rushed do you feel to get your stories out into the world?