t’s interesting, I am author of 10 books. Some are fiction and some are non-fiction, and then I also sell kids books.so I have quite a range of book writing experience.
So when I started writing a fresh new fiction novel. I really wanted something different to my normal stories. I love to grow and upskill so why not create a story that is so wild, so imaginative and thrilling that it excites me to write it?
So I started writing my next fiction novel and do you know what happened? I wrote this super cool, just absolute imaginative scene. And then I thought … should I delete it? Now, I did hand write this down so luckily I wasn’t typing it because deleting it, it would be simply gone.
I thought about the scene do a few days and this is what I concluded:
Just because the scene is so imaginative, doesn’t mean my readers will not love it!
I love to write what I love. So if my imagination is that creative and I do love the scene, why wouldn’t I keep it in?
It’s very interesting the psychology of writing. I have always struggled with the fear of giving my best. So I take it down a notch in everything I do but at the same time I am a perfectionist.
So it’s like self-sabotage. I knew I could have done better but I was scared to do my best because I could be better and that brings new fears - what if people don’t like the better version of what I am bringing to the table? Which is a part of myself. When I do something I put my heart into it. So you can imagine if someone’s is better and they are rewarded for it in front of me, this is a huge blow to my ego.
So it’s about breaking through the above self-sabotage stigma. Instead of pulling back and not submitting my best work. I have to challenge my thinking and go why not? Why not just give my best no matter the outcome? If I know I have my best than I can be absolutely proud of that. There is no squirming in my seat if someone reads what I wrote and I know it’s not my best. Also, it was absolute fun to create such an imaginative scene and isn't that what writing and reading is all about? Just having a tonne of fun and entertainment?
For non-fiction writers, sure you will need a level of imagination like how to write certain content that is a bit more enticing to read. However the level of imagination used shouldn’t be too relied upon. And it obviously depends on the type of non-fiction content. For example, when I wrote Melanie Toye’s Christmas craft book, I did need to use imagination to create the types of craft I wanted in the book. But I also needed methodology to write the instructions of how to make the craft. So it really depends on the type of content that you are writing on how much imagination you should activate. Because non-fiction should be factual content that is why generally (pending the topic) imagination is used less.
If you are writing a fiction story - press the button to activate your imagination to its fullest. Where would you not activate the full imagination? If you are story is supposed to be real life, well adding a mystical creature to the story, may not work (but it may if you want to change your fiction story to mystical / fantasy category). But would real life really add a mystical creature? That’s why you should work out what category your story is going to be before you start writing. And then uncap your imagination.
If you are looking into writing a fiction novel and need some guidance, look into my online writing course for beginners to help.
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