Visualization Made Me Write!

Though it seems kind of silly NOW, when I first tried writing screenplays and books in the late '70's, I was always afraid of not actually DOING it.

Today, if somebody handed me $20k and said "Go write a book," I'd start immediately.  But back then, with much more free time, I had a constant fear of not getting started, not continuing, and not finishing. It must have been a pervasive fear of 20-something writers because even my film mentor Mike Sherlock (who seemed to write a screenplay every 48 hours) suffered from it... but, Mike had a cure!

Sherlock was New Agey in every possible way and beyond, so it's not surprising his advice would turn out to be a New Age Greatest Hit: Visualization. Most people have heard of this technique by now, and have used it to gain wealth (The Secret), combat illness, improve in sports, and in general live better, happier lives. But in 1979, it was quite new to me.

Basically, he told me to take a few moments before writing and visualize myself going through all the steps I'd be taking: gathering up paper and pens, sitting at my card-table desk, writing each page, and watching as my tiny stack of papers became a nice, hefty manuscript. (Somehow, seeing a pile of finished pages was the hardest part.)

In 1979 I'd moved into my very first apartment on Chandler in North Hollywood, right next to the train tracks.  There was a 7/11 two blocks away, a perfect opportunity for visualization. As I walked to get coffee or a snack, I followed Mike's advice. To my amazement, I DID end up writing and nearly finishing my book just as I'd imagined!  Again, it seems silly in retrospect that I was so fearful of flaking out on my project, but it was a fear I saw in many other aspiring writers as well, many of whom were mostly TALK.

ELMWOOD was originally titled Alex & Joe Joe, and went off on lots of stony tangents;  I felt it was my duty to describe every event in mind-numbing, sometimes surreal detail.  In the past couple years, my rewrites mostly consisted of cutting this stuff out, or bringing it closer to earth.

When I read the manuscript before uploading to Kindle, I was amazed at how many of the quotes and events were true to life. But that was possible because I was always the Archivist.  I knew Elmwood initially from 1969 to his departure in the summer of 1971.  That event was so devastating that I took solace in writing several histories of our group - the very first version was even called ELMWOOD.  Most the events I wrote about were still fresh in my mind, not to mention all the tapes I could reference.  Also, certain events like the Halloween confrontation with Start Walkin' or the "F the Nuns!" dance were folkloric even before Elmwood left.

Still sick, but off to work. Gotta make that paycheck... just give me a wide Berth!

UPDATE 2/22/13

So, I just read an article that says visualization actually has the OPPOSITE effect than intended... in fact, it tricks your mind into thinking you've already accomplished your goal, so you get lazy!

I generally don't argue with Science, but all I can say is that it worked for me! I really did have a great fear of not starting or finishing anything (and technically, it took me over 30 years to finish ELMWOOD) and visualization seemed useful at the time, and I've heard other anecdotal evidence from friends and other people over the years.  I wouldn't use it now because I just don't have much free time for my projects.