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

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.

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!

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.