• How do you unlock your imagination?

• Where can you find good subject matter?

• How can you stop procrastinating and start writing?

• Where can you find a good subject to help you write your Fantasy/Fiction story?

• How can you avoid Writers Block?

• How can you keep your writing from becoming dull and boring?

• How could you be a better writer with this book?

How can you keep from making the same old mistakes over and over?

First and foremost, this is not a “how to” write a book course. I will be helping you through your creative process, imagination and conceptualization skills.

May I ask three simple questions?

• When you were a kid in school, did you ever look out the window and just daydream?

• As an adult, has your daydreaming become less frequent and more difficult to achieve, or even non-existent?

• Can you still remember the thrill of how vivid your imagination could be?

PIRATES

I was one of those lads that kept getting caught staring out the window at school, daydreaming. Sometimes it would be imagining I was the Captain of a pirate ship and other times it would be a famous clown in a traveling Circus. Either way, it was always so vivid and real to me.

I can still remember visiting my cousin's one hot summer in the Okanagan. They lived on a farm and had an old horse-drawn, flatbed, hay-wagon out back of the main house. My seven cousin's and I would climb up onto it and pretend we were pirates on the high seas. The hay-wagon would actually transform into a pirate sailing ship.

We could see the riggings, the mainsail, and even the skull ‘n’ cross bones flag. The interesting part was, we didn’t see the water until one of us jumped off or pretended to fall off. We didn’t see cousin Billy’s black eye patch, until he said he had one, then we could all see it as plain as day.

Now, here is where the imagining part comes in.

Cousin Mary pretended to fall overboard and could barely swim. We all looked over the side and could actually see her floundering in the pretend water. None of us knew what to do, or what was going to happen next, (just like Fantasy/Fiction writing.) My cousin's and I looked at each other, not knowing how to solve the problem.

It wasn’t long before cousin Mary climbed back up onto the hay-wagon herself. Jumpinginto the middle of the wagon she loudly proclaimed, “I was just about to drown when a flying fish came to my rescue and I flew up here on its’ back. Thanks flying fish, bye!”

We all witnessed at that moment, the flying fish she was talking about, as it re-entered the imaginary water.

• In this game, no one knew what to expect next.

• The story as-it-were, took on a life of its’ own.

• You can never know when a story might turn unexpectedly or what will inspire a new chain of events.

Can you see where I am going with this?

• Everyone has been a kid and almost every kid imagines.

• Remember when you were a kid?

• Do you remember any imaginary friends or games you used to play?

• This alone, could be a great source for Fantasy/Fiction writing.

• No, you can’t remember back that far?

• Easy enough. Ask your parents or siblings and if you cannot do that, then ask a friend if they had ever played make-believe games as a kid.

• Ask everyone you can and then take copious notes of their imaginary childhood stories and games.

• Guess what? Most of them would be flattered if you used some of their childhood memories in your writing.