Having just said one thing in the previous tip (that it is easier to write about something we have experienced than it is to write about something we have not) I would like to now say the opposite!

You see, for certain writers, imagining is easier than recalling.  This is mysterious, I grant you.  But elves know it to be true.

If you suspect you are one of these writers, and you are given the writing prompt:

Describe how to build a snowman

consider all of the options available to you.

• You are not a human, but a field mouse coming out of a den during winter.  You are building a field-mouse-sized snowman and even one wet, spring snowflake feels heavy and difficult to carry for a tiny whiskered architect.

• You are building a snowman in summer, and you have to do it from the shavings of ice cubes from your icebox.  You quickly transport the shavings out to the shade in your garage, the coolest place you can find, but they are melting, and you’ve only got minutes before they become a grease-stained puddle. You need to build this snowman, though, because he knows the answer to a question that you must have answered.

• The snowman is slowly coming alive as you build it, reaching for things and helping you with his spindly twig arms.

The possibilities really are too many to list!

For the writing assignment to be complete, you still have to build a snowman.  But, if familiar circumstances make you feel stuck and invented circumstances make you feel free, ask your teacher if you can work with a writing prompt in this way.

New idea: Invent anything and everything around a writing prompt.  Find one fantastical idea that leads you to more.  Let your imagination run!

For those of us who do not invent as easily, it is very entertaining to visit the situations created by those who do.