Imaginative Storm Blog
Our philosophy - our writers
The Imaginative Storm is all about generating material rather than trying to “write well.” We encourage you to write randomly, to write what you don’t know, to open up your pen to the gifts of your imagination. We like to call it a dance between the rational mind and the imaginative mind, with the imaginative mind leading the dance.
Most of the posts below are pieces written in 10 minutes by people who attend our Saturday “Prompt of the Week” Zoom session. We’ve chosen them to show you the power and freshness that the Imaginative Storm method generates.
Some pieces are obviously raw material, studded with powerful images and turns of phrase; other pieces are so tight and coherent that it seems impossible that they came out that way, straight onto the page. Even though the goal of Imaginative Storm writing is not to create a finished piece in 10 minutes, sometimes we just can’t help it!
Karima Diane Alavi, “Enchanted Buddha Fish”
So I’m standing in front of the Buddhist Master / who’s ignoring me
Write playfully
Playfulness creates opportunities for fabulous mistakes. It gives you the confidence to include the weird things—the idiosyncrasies and quirks that bring your writing alive and give it your signature. You know those moments when you read another writer’s work and say to yourself, “How did they think of that?!” Guess what: they probably didn’t “think of it.” It wasn’t the result of willful effort. It just came to them because they’d trained their rational mind to welcome the gifts of their imagination.
Allegra Huston, “The Taos of Living Wonkily”
The hand-lettered sign says “Coming later.” It used to say “Coming soon” but years ago “later” got stuck on top. Whatever it is may never come, but that’s fine. Those of us who love Taos can appreciate the wait.
Write what you don’t know
When you’re living life, all kinds of things are happening that you’re unaware of. Zillions of possibilities exist in every direction. Only in retrospect do you have a clear conception of what happened and how you feel about it. So, when you’re writing about a past event and wanting a reader to connect with it, you have to find a way of getting yourself back into that moment-to-moment uncertainty. You have to travel back to the present of your past.
