How to use your imagination when you write

"Yes, but I haven't got any imagination!" This is recurring wail from writing students and it tells me that they have imagination, but that they're not entering their imagination fully.

Imagination comes from the Latin verb to picture to oneself.

When you imagine, you're imagining something that isn't there to your physical senses. However, you can imagine that it is. :-)

Let's say that in your story, your hero is getting on a ship. Imagine the scene. Can you see, hear, smell, touch and taste the scene -- the dockside, the sea gulls, can you smell the salt in the air? The more fully you can imagine the scene, the more fully you're using your imagination.

Some writers imagine the scene as a movie: they focus, take close ups, pull the camera away, record, etc in their mind.

Other writers imagine entering the scene -- they're boarding the ship with their hero.

Your writing comes alive when you use your imagination, but you have to be willing to let go, and to enter your imagination fully.

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