Compartmentalize Imagination

What's the best way to shut down when not writing? Does the storyline keep playing out in your head? Are the characters begging you to come back and finish their part in the story? Is this you?

Well, that's not exactly how it works for me. But sometimes I do have to compartmentalize.

Several blog articles ago, I talked about being forced to go to the dentist office and not just any dentist, but a surgical one. As I glanced around, I could imagine myself falling out of the dentist chair and crashing violently through the huge bay second story window. After moving down the hall, I also saw someone lying flat on what looked like an operating table with only their feet sticking out from under a blanket. I couldn't peek all the way into the room, but enough to tell the person was lying perfectly still. My first thought was, you don't make it out alive. In my mind, I could easily imagine a morgue, and oddly enough, it was the only room that didn't have a single window. The only thing missing was a toe tag! In this particular case, my imagination was running rampant with fear. I started rambling this off to my friend in an attempt to get rid of nervous energy when he stared me down until finally he commented, "What a fertile imagination, can't take you anywhere." There was some truth in what he said. As a writer, when can we shut it off?

Now, I'm working on my next book and it involves crashing elevators, faulty escalators and harrowing scenes. Every time I enter an elevator I think of all the possibilities and let my imagination take me where it will, because I'm writing about it. Even though we know the difference between fact and fiction, our brain has to relive those scenes again and again as we write and edit continually. Compound that with being tired or other stresses in life and I have to admit, at times, when the elevator jerks more than it should or takes extra long stalls before going to the next floor, it can bring on a few anxieties as my mind spirals to these worst case scenarios. How nice it would be to be a romance writer.



Compartmentalize, to divide and conquer. As a writer and author, most things bleed into writing. But to compartmentalize, we can shut down one aspect that might bring us stress and detach ourselves easily. Not to mention, we won't create unrealistic and utterly ridiculous fears. Unless you're a romance writer, who chooses to take work with them on an elevator or escalator. But even then, dodging security or getting a tidbit caught in one contraption or another can be quite harrowing in and of itself.

There is time for everything in life. There is a time to speak, a time to be silent, a time to laugh, and there is a time to write. Compartmentalizing our imagination allows for focus, so we can truly enjoy other moments in life just as meaningful.




Any comments or questions? Leave one below and let me know.




SK Thomas is a writer, author, book reviewer and the curious creative complex brain behind this blog.


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