by Maggie Goins

Created on: May 29, 2008

You get an eery sense of it: a battered door slightly ajar, a flickering yellow light, a voice drifting from within, singing a soft, sad song... Are you curious and brave enough to go through that door? Will you open your mind, let the story come forth and be told?

The human mind is way too complicated for most of us to understand, holding quantities of information and memories way beyond the average writer's comprehension. Some believe there really are no new stories, that all stories have already been told and passed from generation to generation to have become part of our deepest memories. Sometimes I agree, even though I would prefer to believe I am solely responsible for whatever comes out of my mind and ends up on my computer. Even on the days I felt especially creative, I had to admit, though, that the story, the characters, and the setting seem to have already been there, as I was, and I needed only let it all come from somewhere so I could get the words down and in good working order.

Before you ask me if I brought enough for everybody, have you ever sat down to write and the words literally fell out of you or woken from a dream and grabbed a pencil to write wonderful stuff all down before it got away or kept writing, even when you had no idea where you were headed? Then you've been there, wherever there actually is, and know what I mean.

Planning, outlining, and mapping out a story first is the preferred method of many successful writers. I agree it is very important to keep our story in order and to make sure our information is accurate, of course, as long as we don't spend all our time on those aspects. The feel of the story, our voice, the development of our characters... those come from some kind of a creative flow.

I believe the creative flow is there, whether we acknowledge it or not. Can anyone write this way, just by letting a story flow from some place? I don't know, but I think anyone who loves to write should give it a try and find out for themselves. First of all, you need to believe this can work and want it to happen, without somehow being afraid of where it will lead. Next, relax and be ready to write down whatever you feel, think, and imagine, in whatever form the story is in at the time. Seeing what you then have to work with may amaze you as you tone it up and revise it into its best shape. You have nothing to lose and perhaps your most incredible and enjoyable writing to gain.

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