Imagination grows by exercise.

"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young."
-W. Somerset Maugham

When I was younger, I had more trouble with the blank page than I do now. Now, I often just sit down and just start to write and a short story or even a book comes out of nowhere. Before, I could never do that. I have a whole set of beliefs why that is so but I really don't know why except I have been at it for a long time and the muscles needed to create are just there when in years past they weren't.

Some of it is due to the journal writing I do everyday. Some of it is due to the dreaming of stories that I do in my head and some of it is due to the books that I read. Some of it is due to the living that I now have. The rest I just don't know. What I do know and evidently Maugham knew as well is the older I get, the better I am at writing.

A friend who has been at it for a long time attributes it to accessing the unconscious because she feels that is where the stories comes from. She also feels that she uses her shadows more as she grows older because she is not afraid of her memories as much as she used to be. I think there is validity in that.

Writers need to read and they need to write and they need to do this everyday. Being alive is important but sharpening the tools that each writer uses for his or her craft is important too. I teach writing on a college level and one of the things that I teach is editing. That is part of writing and developing the eyes so that they see what is actually on the paper so they can change it, if necessary, to reflect what the writer wants to see is part of it. The more you do it, the better you get because your eyes (and ears) grow older and more mature at it. But first, they must be exposed to good writing, your own.

Everything I do and that includes writing, thinking, reading involves doing it so many times that I get better at it. I don't give up if someone says I am no good at it. I just keep doing it. The wrinkles keep coming, The gray and white hair keeps coming into the hair and the years pile up every year but that is going to happen whether or not I write at all. I would rather spend my life writing and getting better at it than not writing at all.