GO WITH YOUR INNER CHILD
Growing up, I was the eldest of five children and was required to entertain the youngest as babysitter and second mother. Maybe that is the reason I became a writer. I learned to use my imagination at an early age.
Have you ever thought of your childhood play time? I was the kid who turned into the teenager who became the adult who made up stories, told little white lies when younger in order to dodge punishment (or to see my parent's faces grow pale) and, as long as I could make believe with voice or on paper, I was never bored. I was curious and observant and noticed details others (especially my siblings) swore were never there.
Some details we notice at crazy times and from the weirdest places, are the fuel for great short stories and novels. Even personal essays that drive our relatives wild because they swear it never happened that way. The details are what makes the story.
Did you see that shoe beside the road? One shoe? How did it get there? Who wore it? Could she be limping around on one high-heel shoe. There's a story there and you can tell it.
As children, we played, walked around, merely lived in tune with our senses. If you don't believe me, watch a child out on a walk lift up their nose and take a deep breath walking by a bakery, bury their nose in a rose, or wrinkle that same smeller when they get a wiff of a dairy. A child rubs sand between their hands to feel the texture, eats dirto or an ice cream cone for taste, and laughs at a clown's antics or daddy playing peek-a-boo. They are experts at using their senses.
Children easily make connections. Would you reach out and touch a starfish without hesitation, hold your hand next to it and say, "They're the same shape?" If you wink at a child, would you consider yourself a blinking light? If oatmeal cookies are your favorite, would you create the same shape out of clay? Look at your childhood, or the world through a child's eye, and realize just how creative you really are.
A child runs, laughs loudly, cries with big tears and deep sobs, and plays pretend vigorously. Their emotions are on the surface--often too much so according to their parents. Use that same emotion in your writing.
Be a child again. Connect with your inner child self. Your muse will thank you.
Have you ever thought of your childhood play time? I was the kid who turned into the teenager who became the adult who made up stories, told little white lies when younger in order to dodge punishment (or to see my parent's faces grow pale) and, as long as I could make believe with voice or on paper, I was never bored. I was curious and observant and noticed details others (especially my siblings) swore were never there.
Some details we notice at crazy times and from the weirdest places, are the fuel for great short stories and novels. Even personal essays that drive our relatives wild because they swear it never happened that way. The details are what makes the story.
Did you see that shoe beside the road? One shoe? How did it get there? Who wore it? Could she be limping around on one high-heel shoe. There's a story there and you can tell it.
As children, we played, walked around, merely lived in tune with our senses. If you don't believe me, watch a child out on a walk lift up their nose and take a deep breath walking by a bakery, bury their nose in a rose, or wrinkle that same smeller when they get a wiff of a dairy. A child rubs sand between their hands to feel the texture, eats dirto or an ice cream cone for taste, and laughs at a clown's antics or daddy playing peek-a-boo. They are experts at using their senses.
Children easily make connections. Would you reach out and touch a starfish without hesitation, hold your hand next to it and say, "They're the same shape?" If you wink at a child, would you consider yourself a blinking light? If oatmeal cookies are your favorite, would you create the same shape out of clay? Look at your childhood, or the world through a child's eye, and realize just how creative you really are.
A child runs, laughs loudly, cries with big tears and deep sobs, and plays pretend vigorously. Their emotions are on the surface--often too much so according to their parents. Use that same emotion in your writing.
Be a child again. Connect with your inner child self. Your muse will thank you.
Labels: childhood, connection, emotions, muse, Writing
posted by Barb | 8:27 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home