Treat your imagination with kindness

It's a bit like a shy kid who won't come out if he thinks he's being criticised. And we're often so rough on ourselves, telling ourselves that our writing is rubbish and that we're not happy with it. Your subconscious mind believes every word so tell it, so be careful what you think! I think writing is probably one of those activities in which we never feel we're perfect. Sometimes we think it's absolutely shocking, but we must get into the habit of respecting our brain's sensitive Creative Chamber. In those low phases, we could tell ourselves, "It's all come out OK before and I'm sure it will this time, too." Trust yourself. And don't wait for 100% acceptance of your writing in your own head because it'll never come.

I was quite encouraged by this quote from Philip Yancey on the subject of creative writing.

"For three hours I strained to develop three dimensional characters and purge cliches from their dialogue. A raw beginner at fiction, I was getting a terrific headache from the effort. Naturally, I used the excuse to stop writing and walk across to a coffee shop. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that all the people in the coffee shop were two dimensional characters who talked in cliche! None seemed nearly as interesting to me as the people who populated my story. I fled back to the security of the false reality awaiting me in my basement office."

Don't look at the entire picture.

Imagination is also a bit like an artistic soul who hates huge commitments. Although it is a huge commitment to work on a big project, I've fooled my imagination into thinking that I'm only working on small, little bits, but just doing it often.

In other words, when I'm working on my novels I break it down into small chunks, working scene by scene, chapter by chapter. I pour my energy into one scene at a time. This is the easiest attitude I've learned to have while writing novels, because in the past, I've become impatient, thinking, "This'll be so long, it'll take over a year and that's if I work every day! I'll never be through!"

What I do now is give myself a small weekly goal of getting through a particular scene or chapter and forget about the big picture. For example, on a Monday morning, I might decide, "By Friday night I'll finish the part where P. walks into the cafeteria and finds C. sitting there with E." Then by Friday night, that four page episode within a chapter will be finished, and I'll be happy because I've done what I intended to do. Working in chunks has helped me to feel as if I'm always achieving something and I don't have that, "I still haven't finished" frustration eating me at the end of each week. The imagination hates to feel swamped.

And I've had to learn not to be in too big a hurry to finish. I absolutely love my characters. They become like best friends and I always love to have feedback from readers about their actions. Sometimes it's frustrating when I have to wait so long for that to be forthcoming. But I need to remind myself that I should be enjoying the process. It's supposed to take awhile, and gives me all the time to enjoy them.

I'll have another installment on Harnessing the Imagination before too long.