Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Imagination Color creating story machine.

This is topic Imagination Color creating story machine. in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by BudHAHA (Member # 1812) on :

I am interested in other peoples imagainations. I like to peek inside others minds if i get the chance. The swirling abyss of the uncountable non-existent worlds thriving off the imaginations that are tied down to living human biengs. I wish I could go and to a place to watch the images and stories that are spawned in someones nightmere, hallucinagenic drug use, or sporatic thought while drudging away at work.

What is imagination? where does it come from? Is there more in some people? How?

Answer.

Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :

The human brain is a goal-seeking pattern classification machine made of meat. Imagination is simply the process by which the brain combines old patterns to form new ones.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Gee Doc, that seems somehow rather bleak. True, but bleak. If Doc's analysis is correct, then some people DO have more imagination than others, and the reason is that some people's brains can combine old patterns and make new ones faster than others. Also, some people seem more inclined to form new patterns than others.

Come to think of it, I think that's true, even if it is bleak. I can also see age working on my imagination and I find it to be very sad. I want to think of imagination as an endless well, but I think I can see the bottom sometimes.

When I was young I would spend hours just dreaming. The world was so full of possibilities and I was the hero in dozens and dozens of my own stories. Writing came naturally to me as a result, the putting the dreams down on paper actually seemed to stiffle my imagination somewhat. I kept finding plot holes and reality issues that never came up in my own mind, at least not when I was a kid.

I'm not sure if that actually means I have less imagination or just pickier imagination. Keep in mine, imagination is not just used in art. Some of the most imaginative people I know are scientists, inventors, engineers, etc.

I once heard someone say that most inventors have spent their new ideas by the time they are thirty. This is said to be especially true of mathematicians, I'm not sure why. Anyway, it's just something tot hink about...

Posted by Joshua (Member # 321) on :

Well, it's been a long time since I posted here, though I do read the board fairly often.

Regarding the topic, I'll have to go with the old romantic theory that imagination is primarily a function of the soul rather than the body. If you want more detail on this, consult Coleridge's "Biographia Literaria", Owen Barfield's "Poetic Diction", or Percy Bysshe Shelley's /Defense of Poetry/.

Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :

Yes, some people naturally have more imagination than others, just as some people naturally are stronger than others and some people naturally are smarter than others.

So what? That doesn't mean you can't improve what nature gave you.

Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :

I think your imagination improves with practice (following the previous post). You get a topic, then start thinking about it, and go off on tangents. Sometimes I dream like that. It is like freewriting.

Not everyone imagines the same things. I know that seems obvious, but it helps to think about it. I'm willing to bet that Donald Trump has an imagination. You know that Robert Heinlein had one. They used them in different ways, with different results. Imagination and dreams, and dreaming, connected.

Then in Rocky Horror we are told "Don't dream it, be it." Don't just imagine it - write it down.

Sometimes dreams/imagination is an aimless wandering of our mind. Sometimes we choose what to imagine. Living life in peace?

I tend to think of imagination and creativity being linked. I don't think of myself as creative, but it's not true - I'm just creative in my own way. And my creations almost always start in my imagination - inventing from scratch, with only vague ideas to begin with. So I guess my imagination is better than I would think too.

I know people who don't read sf/f often say they can't get into it. They want to read something more connected to their own reality. I wouldn't say that means they have less imagination. Maybe they are less willing to use it - to accept certain conventions (yet how do we learn sf/f conventions until we have read sf/f???) and keep reading, unbothered by the strange and fantastic - where we are actually pulled in by the strange and fantastic visions of someone else's imagination. Why are we willing to suspend disbelief, actually wanting the "strange" when someone else's reaction is "oh come on" and to turn to something else?

Blue. Unicorn. Spacesuit. Touchdown! Just random thoughts at the moment - too bad someone already did unicorns in space!

[This message has been edited by punahougirl84 (edited January 03, 2004).]

Posted by Lord Darkstorm (Member # 1610) on :

If you bring it down to other terms, imagination and the ability to use it is creativity. Creativity involves a level of talent, the ability to see or hear things in a different way. Some people get lots of talent, and others get none, along with a vast range of people in between.

The difference in how much talent you have determines how much effort you have to put in after the creative talent runs out. I was once married to a woman who could draw things much faster than I could, and usually do a better job in less time. The difference turned out to be that I could still have a better finished work since I put the work into making it better, while she stopped when it became work.

So when you are staring at your monitor (or paper) and trying to figure out how to go on, or what to do next, keep at it. If you can get past the hard parts (the rewrites, the editing, and the comments you don't always want to hear) then you have a better chance than someone who quits.