The power of imagination...

… is vast and, in many respects, incomprehensible to a non-scientist such as me.  It is also the principal tool of my trade…

Portrait of Ellen Terry by G. F. Watts NPG

I believe it was the Shakespearian actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928) who said that 'Imagination, industry (hard work), and intelligence - the three I's - are all indispensable to the actor, but of these three the greatest is, without any doubt, imagination.'

As an actor myself I whole-heartedly agree with her.  However, I would go one step further and say that a writer has an equally pressing need for not only imagination but intelligence and industry too.  Just to muddy the water further, there have been numerous debates about how Ms Terry's pronouncement may be applied to other creatives within theatre, film and TV. I'm definitely on the side of those who say 'it's not just actors'.

I have always believed that imagination is an incredibly powerful tool.  As such, it needs to be used wisely and applied with appropriately differing degrees.  Just as I would never put a whole tub of butter on a single slice of toast, I don't always let it be known where my mind is going when a friend says something that sets my imagination soaring into the wild unknown. To do otherwise could mean certain death to the friendship!

Similarly, as a writer and a life-long lover of stories, I constantly employ my imagination.  When I'm writing my central character, Jacques Forêt, I think in his voice and with his fabulously gentle accent.  At any moment in the manuscript, I know how he behaves, how he's dressed and I can see and hear him in my mind.  Of course, not all of that minutiae needs to be added to the text.  Does any reader really want to know that Jacques wears Pierre Cardin underpants?  No, I don't think they do.  But I know and that level of detail helps with the portrayal of the character.  As the stories progress I actually feel his pain, his frustration with his colleagues or his suspects and his restrained joy when he finally concludes his case.  Similarly, I understand his phobias – not because I have the same ones myself, but because we all have our own quirks and I know how mine affect me.  It’s not that difficult to work out how Jacques’ phobias affect him.

My secondary characters are with me just as vividly as Jacques when I’m writing their scenes. And some of the best scenes to write are where I have a number of characters all contributing to a conversation at once.  The mental agility required for that can be draining sometimes. Mentally hopping between one character and another as I draft does slow me down a little, but it is always satisfying to get to the end of a complex scene of that nature – even if the words are not necessarily all in the right order!

Reviewing and revising a draft is part of editing which in turn is integral to the writing process as a whole.  That’s the industry that Ellen Terry mentions.   I know she was talking about learning lines, remembering positioning on stage and attending rehearsals and character research.  But the writer does those things too.  The first draft is the rehearsal for the second and so on.  The edits are the equivalent of the director’s improvements until the draft is good enough to submit.  The final draft is the dress rehearsal and the launch of the published story is the first night.

Ellen Terry was right in her contention that imagination is the greatest of all three traits.  Once the book is done, the imagination is there working on the next.  Once the plod of going through the manuscript is complete the imagination is still available at all times for any task we choose to give it to do.  Once we stop writing altogether, for whatever reason, the imagination will still be there to take us anywhere we choose.  And when we choose not to travel in our heads of our own free will, there will always be books to prompt our ageing imaginations back into life for an hour or two if we want.