After so many years of education, we’ve become so well trained to think inside the box, encouragement to think outside the box isn’t enough.
Would you consider sliding down the banister or skipping out to the mailbox? How about driving a different route to work or the store? Try wearing your watch upside down or walking the opposite direction around the park. Look for ways to force yourself to pay attention so what you thought was ordinary can be seen as extraordinary.
We must see the world differently, or we will be boring writers like so many others, just following the style of what we’ve been taught and what we’ve read.
In September 2009, Frank Ball attended a Writing Intensive with literary agent Donald Maass in San Antonio. He was sitting on the front row, where he could see out the picture window to the River Walk below. Two men in white uniforms were sweeping the sidewalk. He was impressed by the city’s diligence in keeping the place clean for tourists, but that didn’t explain why Maass was smiling. What had he seen that Frank had missed? Maass began his explanation with what Frank had observed, and then he said, “There’s a crane down there, turning his head back and forth, supervising.” That’s when Frank realized he needed to become a better observer.
A child’s mind sees everything as something new. The adult mind tends to say, “Everything is pretty much the way I’ve seen it before.” If there’s nothing new under the sun, we have nothing to write about. But if we can restore our childlike mind, everything becomes interesting again, and we’ll never lack for something extraordinary to write about.
