SPRING OF THE IMAGINATION by James Mihaley

Despair, anger, regret, they stink like manure and are just as useful.  Spread them over your imagination.  Do it carefully, lovingly. 

The manure of the mind.  It will enrich your novel, improve the quality of your vegetables, increase the nutritional value of the phrases. 

Mind manure.

I have a bag for sale.  Want some?  You probably have enough already.  Store it in a ziplock pouch behind your left ear.  Do not throw it away.  I repeat.  Do not throw it away.  Onions and garlic love decomposed sorrow.  So do character and plot.  Fertilize your novel with your misfortune.  Fertilize your novel with your frustration.  Spread a thin layer over the first chapter and watch green shoots sprout and weave together into an opening paragraph.  Deal with the stench.  Just deal with it.

 Mind manure.  All your crap.  Use it, your frustrations, your rejections, your sorrow, your fear and heartbreak.  A good story begins with good fertilizer.  The stench creates the masterpiece. 

Spring of the Imagination. Time to plant seeds.  Time to fling them into the wind.  Time to scatter them across your journal. Cow dung.  Thought dung.  Let all your crap work in the service of your story.  Your anxiety, bitterness, everything you’ve been through, endured, put up with, tolerated, overcome, prevailed against.  All that crap.  My God, what fertilizer! 

Optimize your creativity by loading your wheelbarrow with crap, the crap you’ve been dealing with forever, all that has harassed you, besieged you, kicked you when you were down.  Use it!  Hop on your tractor and get to work.