When one first considers the notion of writing a book, it can be overwhelming. You think of all the ideas that will have to fill all of the pages, and it’s daunting. Then, that one idea finally occurs to you and sets the brainstorming into motion.
But how do you stumble on that breakthrough? Is it really just so-called magic?
Everybody has their own process, and it may even vary from project to project. At the core of it, though, a key is fascination. Fascination alone comes in many forms, and we’re all struck by it some degree every day. Technology and its plethora of avenues could be termed the ultimate fascinator, but that type of fascination is typically short-term and may actually impede one’s imagination instead of fuel it.
Rather, fascination that sparks creativity requires you to allow yourself to be enveloped by it, which can be more of a challenge than it seems. Why? When we were kids, so many things caught our attention, and we’d often question and muse over it for as long as our short attention spans would permit. Sometimes, our parents grew tired of detailing the subject and might tell us, “Just forget about it.”
Now, I’m not saying our parents robbed us of our ability to ruminate. They were busy adults, and today, so are we. Thus, we’re inclined to forge onward with our pursuits, not waste time idly contemplating a particular topic and its intricacies.
On top of that, we no longer need to mull things over because of technology. A curiosity pops into our heads, and our thumbs type it into a search engine. After we read a summary of its history and every little fact we want to learn about it, we dismiss it and go on with our day, likely forgetting we ever queried it. While such advancements aid in research we eventually have to do for our writing, they can take away the urge to study something for ourselves and create our own possibilities.
The one caveat to finding the kind of fascination that drives your creativity is you can’t always manufacture it. You might have an open mindset to be captivated by a subject, and perhaps others have had success with that matter. Just the same, the fascination bug simply doesn’t bite us, and we have no desire to muse over it. We shouldn’t be ashamed nor should we strain to foster fascination for it, since our lack of zeal for the subject will usually show in our work. On the contrary, we ought to move on and open ourselves up to other interests that may capture our fascination more.
Even though society and the many distractions around us impel us to keep moving on, we do well to tap back into the curious, fascinated children we once were. Not only can it further our creativity, but it can also make us continue to grow as an individual instead of just adopting everyone else’s views. Whether you’re an artist or not, others will appreciate it when you share that fascination in however you choose to express it. Like developing a good recipe, take time to experiment with it and make it your own, enjoying the taste-tests along the way!
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