I'm not a particularly visual person--I never notice that my husband has had a haircut, for instance--but visualizing has always touched a powerful chord in me. I also find that it helps many writers.
One visualization I have used is to ask blocked writers to close their eyes and imagine themselves in a place they particularly love out in nature and spend time immersing themselves in the setting, using all their senses.
Here's the process:
Look around you and notice the intensity of color in things. What else do you see? What pleases you most?
Listen for the sounds of wind and life around you.
Sniff the air and notice what scents you enjoy the most.
Touch trees, flowers, water--whatever attracts you.
Taste something growing there.
Notice the energy all around you and breathe it in.
Feel your self on the ground or in the water, starting to move. Feels your muscles carrying you where you want to go. Are you smiling? Enjoy the sense of motion as you swim or walk or run or skip or float. Vary what you are doing.
You are going to bring this memory back with you and hold it in your body when you return to your writing. Pick something in your visualization that will represent the whole experience for you. Maybe it's a particular tree that seems well-rooted and bends in the wind yet keeping growing upward. Maybe it's a kayak that will hold you and carry you swiftly across a lake, propelled by the wind as much as by a paddle.
Yes, there is effort involved, but it's not grim and unnatural. It's energy that you can tap into from a constantly renewable source.
Try it and share your experience with us.
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