With this work, it seems I start with something that really happened, I wanted to happen, or I feared would happen. Then I call upon my childhood training as a prank phone call maker and get down and devious.
By staying with a simple chronological narrative and a limited number of characters and settings, hopefully things will remain clear as the work progresses. I’ve had a lot of experience in imagining the worst. If you go far enough with that process the silliness becomes obvious.
A popular excercise for performing musicians racked with nerves at a performance is to imagine everyone in the audience is naked. Think about it. You’d see things you never dreamed of; a formerly well-dressed gentleman sitting there with a big black patch of sharpie marker where the hole in his silk dress sock was, perhaps a lovely woman with wig-head – just on the side where the fake pony tail attaches.
Anyway, imagining can be fun and quite useful.
Kay Dacus has some interesting takes on creativity on her site at http://kayedacus.com/2009/01/27/becoming-a-writer-creativity-inspiration/
Thanks for sharing that resource. I’m finding it difficult to come up with projects, let alone write about them.