Imagination

[charmstar]

I didn't know where else to put this but its something I have thought for years and years, as an amateur sribe myself, that quite simply surely Enid Blyton should go down in history as having the most prolific imagination for an author. The wealth of characters that she created, the varying backgrounds, the stories within stories and most of all the sheer volume of books that she produced in her lifetime surely can't be matched by any other author ... can they?

[Belly]

Agree. CS Lewis and E Nesbit spring to mind as other 'imaginative' writers. Enid seemed to be able to identify with children in a way other author's didn't quite.

As an aside, are you able to use Enid's 'cinema screen' techinique as a writer?

I have just joined a writing group and find that I suffer from terrible writer's block. Nothing I write is ever good enough, etc. I really want to get over it but get bogged down with trying to create something brilliant which I can never quite do, etc.

The thing is in dreams I write fluently. It all comes to me I see the action and can narrate it!

[hope189]

The thing is in dreams I write fluently. It all comes to me I see the action and can narrate it!

Today morning at about 7:00 I decided to take a break from studying and have a nap. I was half asleep when I had a dream (or whatever you can call it) about the Three Investigators. I was narrating the story and it all came to me very easily! But when I woke up and tried to contimue doing it, I found that I had got stuck and couldn't proceed with the story at all.

[Belly]

Absolutely understand! It is all so vivid when I dream, I wouldn't need to search for description and if I could only recall in the same detail it would be tremendously enjoyable to get it all on paper.

My dream was quite Jane Austenesqe and 'began' with a young girl, standing under an arched doorway, confiding in an older woman that she was pregnant. It was raining and the rain was bouncing off the younger girls bonnet etc..... The water was running in rivluets down the girl's neck catching on her light brown curls that were escaping from her bonnet. There was an incredibly tense atmosphere, this was a tragedy to the young, unmarried girl concerned.

A few on here, Moonraker (?) Always say that they don't see Enid's 'techinque' as that difficult to fathom or uncommon. How I wish that were true for me!

[Rob Houghton]

It sounds as if you are actually describing your dream as you would have seen it in your imagination, which is extremely similar to what I think Enid was describing when she likened it to a 'cinema screen'. When I write that's exactly the sort of detail I can see as I write, except that i don't consider it to be anything special, just my imagination. You have to be able to see the characters, settings, hear the words. Usually the 'actors' in my imagination speak the right words, but sometimes I have to 'tweak' them to get them right. As you write you must see what's happening, or else you get what people call 'writers block'. That, for me, is when the imaginative 'screen' in my mind goes grey and misty and nothing can be seen clearly.

A story can only come when it is ready. Enid's strength seems to be that she could conjure it up from nothing, whereas most of us have to wait for the 'muse' to come to us before we can write. Sometimes I have plots bubbling round in my head for months or even years before I commit them to paper, whereas Enid could commit them to paper straight away, because she was writing to her own tried and tested formula.

[Belly]

I think that is a real gift, Robert.

I find it difficult to describe. When I write I can't 'see' characters in my imagination I can sense them, feel them and maybe sometimes hear them. When I dream I see them as clearly as I am seeing this screen with emoticons to the right etc. Just like watching a movie or watching people interact in front of you.

I'll try to give an example. I wrote a short story recently about a party thrown by a couple of expat Singaporean socialites. It had a fancy dress theme of 'legendary lovers'. As all the couples arrived John and Yoko etc I could imagine what they might look like, what costumes they would have chosen etc. Even now as I recall it I can see flashes of couples arriving at a party. The story for me refuses to unfold. I have to force the narrative if I am to write it. I can get snatches of dialogue down on paper that I am happy with. I can 'imagine' the conversations but I can't see the characters as fully formed entities chatting and moving on to the next part of the story.

It is as if the characters lack movement so I can't narrate what's unfolding - a series of frozen frames. Sometimes the pictures in those 'frozen frames' can be vivid.

I think to watch a movie that you then get to narrate is having an imaginative, rare, gift. That said I wonder if it is something you can teach yourself?

[Philip Mannering]

When I read the books at the age of ten years old, Enid Blyton inspired me become a writer. Nearly three years since then, I've written quite a few average short stories of 2,000 and upward length. At first I wrote planning beforehand. But that bored me too much, so I just started a story with the basic idea, not the plot. I thought that was better, and currently everything I write is according the screen in the head. I must say I agree with Robert. I don't think it's really a very great gift. I can write dialogue easily with this method of the screen - I can see how they're talking and how their expressions are formed, what words they use, etc. Where I struggle with sometimes is pure description, it makes me want to refine it. But that only happens when I look at the screen. If I don't (I mean, if I look just at the keyboard), it's nothing to worry. That's why I've found a habit of not looking at the screen (although sometimes I find that's the cause for heavy typos... ).

Now I think of it, I can tell better than I can write. I mean, sometimes I get a good idea of a scene, imagine it perfectly, with perfect words, but when I turn to write it the words written aren't as great as the words imagined, if you know what I mean. Enid Blyton, though, was such a supreme storyteller that reading her words makes me imagine that she has a load of kids sitting nearby, and she is reading the story aloud. Perfect combination, I wish I could do that.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

Now I think of it, I can tell better than I can write. I mean, sometimes I get a good idea of a scene, imagine it perfectly, with perfect words, but when I turn to write it the words written aren't as great as the words imagined, if you know what I mean. Enid Blyton, though, was such a supreme storyteller that reading her words makes me imagine that she has a load of kids sitting nearby, and she is reading the story aloud. Perfect combination, I wish I could do that.

Well, isn't that how Blyton described herself "I am your storyteller".

Where I live, live storytelling is becoming a popular form of entertainment, both in pubs and the Earthouse (Iron Age style hut that seats 250). There is something quite different to the intimacy of one person telling a tale (without reading) to the remoteness of TV.

Viv

[Rob Houghton]

I think that is a real gift, Robert.

I find it difficult to describe. When I write I can't 'see' characters in my imagination I can sense them, feel them and maybe sometimes hear them. When I dream I see them as clearly as I am seeing this screen with emoticons to the right etc. Just like watching a movie or watching people interact in front of you.

I'll try to give an example. I wrote a short story recently about a party thrown by a couple of expat Singaporean socialites. It had a fancy dress theme of 'legendary lovers'. As all the couples arrived John and Yoko etc I could imagine what they might look like, what costumes they would have chosen etc. Even now as I recall it I can see flashes of couples arriving at a party. The story for me refuses to unfold. I have to force the narrative if I am to write it. I can get snatches of dialogue down on paper that I am happy with. I can 'imagine' the conversations but I can't see the characters as fully formed entities chatting and moving on to the next part of the story.

It is as if the characters lack movement so I can't narrate what's unfolding - a series of frozen frames. Sometimes the pictures in those 'frozen frames' can be vivid.

I think to watch a movie that you then get to narrate is having an imaginative, rare, gift. That said I wonder if it is something you can teach yourself?

Have you tried writing quite detailed character descriptions before you start the story? Think of names, hair colour, height, build etc. Think of their 'back story' even if you don't use it in the story you will write. Maybe then the characters will come alive for you. I admit that usually my characters are already formed in my mind when I start writing, because they've usually been around in my thoughts for some time, so I don't often write character studies, but a lot of creative writing teachers suggest this as a way to get to 'know' your characters.

Maybe what I have IS a gift, but I've always considered it pretty normal. It's all I've ever known since I was nine or ten. Don't get me wrong: I often DO plan longer stories and have a rough plan on paper before I start writing, but quite often my characters will take it in a new direction as I go along. I only ever plan a rough outline, with scenes roughly linked from begining to end (sometimes with a few gaps which I fill in as I go along). I never need to plan scenes though: they do just tend to play out in my mind, and I can immediately see how my characters move and speak, and when they stand up, or walk, or lean against a bridge etc. It doesnt always happen, and then the scene is a little more contrived, but luckily most of the time it flows.

A downside to this form of writing though, is, like Enid, once someone or something interferes with the process I lose the 'thread' and often find it hard to pick it up again. Its very much something I have to do while I'm 'in the mood' and can't really write to order.

[Belly]

Thanks, Robert. Yes, I've tried the 'back stories' thing and have done a writing course where we this was part of the course. I don't have any problems with imagining (hopefully) interesting characters it is just that they are fairly static. It is huge, hard graft for me to get them moving, writing then loses its pleasure somehow . It is like they are trapped somewhere but I know the workings of their minds and their background histories.

Many writers say their characters take on independent life in time. I see Enid's gift as more than this, she didn't worry about anything apart from getting down the unfolding action on paper.

At school teachers said I had a good imagination. In creative writing I found I could put myself in a place and write about what I saw about me etc and my emotions. I couldn't envisage any 'drama' really so not sure they were right.

I guess we all have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to this sort of thing. I've always known I want to write but am not sure where my talents, if any, lie. I also compare myself to many excellent writers out there famous and otherwise (I think Anita at the society is a fantastic writer for example) and know I could never come up to their standards so why bother etc? I realise this isn't a great attitude and I do think I have 'something' that is my own but have no idea how to express it or if I ever will successfully.

Sometimes the whole task of writing becomes an unpleasantly laborious to me. I want to have fun with my writing!

Gosh! What a ramble!

[Moonraker]

I have often wondered (but never tried) about making a list of twenty-one chapters, and naming them similarly to Enid's.

1 Hurrah! Holidays are here
2 A disappointment
3 A phone call
4 Exciting News
5 On the way!

And so on; you now have the framework of a story. I might try it one day...

[Julie2owlsdene]

What an interesting post.

I don't class myself as a writer, but what I have written - especially the Find-Outers in retirement for Keith's site - I find that I only have to start off with a bit of conversation and the rest just takes over. I never know how the ending will come about, the characters just seem to do everything for me. I guess the imagination is inside my head, but it just doesn't come across that way.

I've always loved writing, and wrote many stories when Sarah was young, but never really got round to sending any out to a publisher. The odd one I did send got rejected after a second reading, so I didn't bother again.

Great Chapters, Nigel.
1 Hurrah! Holidays are here
2 A disappointment
3 A phone call
4 Exciting News
5 On the way!
You just need to think about the story now.

[Enikyoga]

Philip,
Your imaginations about Enid Blyton’s reading to children are true. For instance, A Story
Party at Green Hedges dust jacket shows Enid Blyton reading to some kids at Green Hedges, her
home, while in her autobiography, The Story Of My Life (1952?, 115) actually shows her reading
to her daughters, Gillian and Imogen, as well as her friends. I strongly believe that the scenario
shown on NBC TV here in America on July 27, 2007 depicting J.K. Rowling reading to some
children in her Scotland Castle from her last Harry Potter book was a way of re-enacting Enid
Blyton’s reading setups almost two generations ago.

[Rob Houghton]

What an interesting post.

I've always loved writing, and wrote many stories when Sarah was young, but never really got round to sending any out to a publisher. The odd one I did send got rejected after a second reading, so I didn't bother again.

Julie: if your story was rejected after a second reading, that should have been looked on by you as a really encouraging rejection. If it went to a second reading it meant that someone thought the story good enough for a second read, which doesnt happen very often. You should have sent it out again!

[Belly]

Just to echo what Robert said, Julie. Many send out hundreds of manuscripts etc to have them rejected every time that was really encouraging and you should be inspired by that for a first attempt!