Just Imagine....

          Think of the imagination as a muscle. If you don't use it, you lose it. But how does one exercise the imagination? It's easy. Tell stories. You don't have to write them down. All you have to do is think them.
          "It's hard enough to write stories," you say. "Now I have to think them, too?" Actually, thinking stories is much easier than writing them. For one, it's impossible to spell something wrong, and you can't edit anyway. For another, you don't have to create a plot beforehand. Just do it as you go. And since you're only thinking the story, if things get boring, you can restart or back up or choose a different story. The best part, though, of thinking stories, is that nobody sees them but you. So go wild. Imagine something you'd never write down, because it's too childish, or because it's about real people, or because it's too long or too short or too slow or too violent.
          It's also fun. Say you're on a seven-hour car trip, or in an airplane flying cross-country, or lying in bed wide awake at ten o'clock at night. In all these instances, telling a story in your head is an easy way to entertain yourself. And once you've practiced enough, your mind starts making up stories whenever you have a moment of inactivity, which is a useful skill for when life gets a little boring and you want to space out. (Watch out, however, because it can get a little annoying when you have a story stuck in your head while you're trying to have a conversation.)
          Try it. Sit down and stare off into space, and think of your book characters, a little before or after the story you're telling, and put them into a funny or tragic scenario. Who knows, this might become a prologue, epilogue, or short story some day.