There was a young boy, probably aged 14, who wanted to be a writer. He approached his friends who were brilliant writers, regularly contributing to the school paper and semi-annual literary magazine, and asked: “How do you do it? How do you write?”
Their answer was simple: “Imagination.”
Today, that 14 year old kid who wanted to be a writer has written quite a number of short stories and essays. He is also writing this blog.
See, a big part of writing is making things up and going from there. If you are a bored person working in an office, daydream for a little while. What would happen if terrorists suddenly attacked your building? Which of your officemates would panic? Who would be calm and think of a plan to get out of the office safely? Who would cry and accept death instantly? Who would die trying to become a hero?
If you are a nurse, what would happen if all the Doctors simultaneously quit their jobs? What scandal would ensue? What happens to the patients? What about their secretaries?
What if all the inhabitants of this world are zombies? And what would happen if the ones we thought were zombies were the real human beings? Pushing it further, what if there is a world under the ground where zombies live and “surface-dwellers” scare them?
This is what author and Cracked.com editor David Wong calls the “daydream” muscle. When you keep imagining things, you daydreams become more detailed and more plausible.
So go ahead, imagine a little bit.
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