Imagination is the mental manipulation of all our inner thoughts and ideas. We see it develop in young children when they pick up a banana and pretend it is a telephone or make up a story about a green dragon who lives in their closet.

Imagination draws on the unique combinations of images, words, and experiences stored in our brains. The more we read, the more we experience, the more we learn, the richer, and more creative our imaginations become.

A powerful imagination is a brain brimming over with images and information.

As writers, we already have rich imaginations or we wouldn’t have any stories to write. The trick is to find ways to increase and direct our imagination in ways related to what we are writing so that the ideas flow out on our pages. Visualization, as described by Jane Piirto, is a powerful way to get those ideas to flow.

Visualization or Seeing with the Mind’s Eye

Visualization is powerful stuff. It allows us to:

• Relive past experiences
• Perceive possible future events
• Train our bodies to make certain moves
• Prepare our mind for a future event
• Place ourselves in a specific mental state at will

Visualization has been shown to activate the same neural pathways as actual movement and sensory intake would. If we visualize ourselves running, the same electrical signals are sent to our muscles as would be if we were actually running. Elite athletes use visualization all the time.

Just because the word visualization is used, sensory information is equally evocative. Smell, taste, sound, and touch are tied to our emotional circuits and are even more powerful than visual images in visualization exercises.

We develop our imaginations by stuffing our brains full of experiences.

Visualization in Practice

Visualization is a skill that can be strengthened with practice. Here are some exercises to try.

Object Visualization

• Select a real object. A lit candle or a fruit is often used. But it can be any real object, even one described in your story.
• Step one: Place the object in front of you. Gaze at it until you feel you know every nuance of the object. Now close your eyes and imagine that object in your mind. Imagine you are touching it, smelling it, manipulating it, tasting it if that is possible, swallowing it, listening to it, etc.
• Step two: Without the object present, reimagine it with all your senses. How would you describe that object in words?
• Step three: Free write a description of the object.

Why do this? This exercise will develop your sensory imagery imagination. You will write deeper, richer, descriptions in your story.

Story Setting Visualization

• Sit in a quiet place
• Close your eyes and relax
• Visualize a place in your story (either real or imaginary). And imagine you are a character in it
• Explore the location. What do you see, smell, hear, taste, feel beneath your fingers and your feet?
• Assess: How easy was it to stay in your setting? Did you explore it? Change it? Where you surprised at how long or short a time you spent there? Did you forget about your current surroundings and enter the state of flow? How will this change the way you describe that setting?
• Free write a description of how it felt to be there.

Why do this? Often setting descriptions are not tied to the POV character. This exercise guarantees you will write the description as your character would experience it.

SUMMARY

Honing our ability to focus and deeply experience an event or object is one way to feed our imaginations. Visualization is a powerful tool to use. With practice, your power to imagine can become strong enough that you can visualize an object or place in the process of writing.

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Have you ever tried visualization?