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!

Allegra Huston Allegra Huston

“A pulsating sky”: find writing inspiration everywhere

Where can you find inspiration for your writing? Anywhere! Everywhere! From the snow outside your door to the whirring data banks at CERN, the quantum physics research facility—which was the prompt we offered in our Prompt of the Week online gathering when Susie Shipman wrote this atmospheric piece.

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Allegra Huston Allegra Huston

A taxonomy of Chinese ghosts

There are those who like to disengage their heads and allow them to fly about, mostly in the setting of a bedroom. ..

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James Navé James Navé

Write without trying

When you’re curious, you forget about writing well. You just want to see what comes out. Curiosity and the inner critic cannot coexist.

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