Imagination #2. Singing. Operating Instructions. Diaries.

Living the Comma

Living the Comma is a writers community connecting people with a creative process, a writing practice, and a spiritual path.

A theme ties the weekly Living the Comma newsletter with monthly meetings. Each theme will be explored in each newsletter and meeting. A weekly writing activity will be drawn from the monthly theme. Weekly writing activity responses can be shared in comments section to each newsletter and in monthly meetings.

Living the Comma Meeting Dates and Monthly Themes: September 1 — Beginning. October 13 — Imagination. November 3 — Gratitude. December 1 — Joy. January 5 — Wintering. February 2 — Love. March 2 — Grace. April 6 — Breath. May 4 — Finishing.

Meetings occur at Virginia Highland Church from 7:00 to 8:30 EST. 

OUR NEXT FACE-TO-FACE MEETING WILL BE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2026. Join via our VIRTUAL MEETING LINK if you cannot be present in person.

Writers Hour — a weekly hour to write together — will commence again on Thursday, October 22th from 12:00-1:00 EST and occur every Thursday from 12:00-1:00 EST through May. Here is the link for October 22! Join us.

The Living the Comma newsletter is published weekly.

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On Imagination

Imagination! who can sing thy force? — from Phillis Wheatley’s, “On Imagination”

My father recently reminded me about the world I created with my neighbor friends in the woods behind my elementary school, Fun City. Fun City was a series of paths that wound around Lancassange Creek. We had convinced ourselves that a dilapidated cabin could be found deep in Fun City. In our mind’s eye, inside the cabin lived a scary old man we saw walking slowly back-and-forth past the windows. We knew one day he would chase us out of the woods and we would have to run for our lives. 

As a young writer and theatre kid — prone to being stardust and steel from an early age — I built the muscles of imagination. I learned other worlds are possible. I learned we are only bound by our mind’s limits. I learned that words have power. I learned that we can create an as if and a not yet. I learned that imagination has the velocity and force of a mental train.

Such is thy pow’r, nor are thine orders vain,

O thou the leader of the mental train:

In full perfection all thy works are wrought, 

And thine the scepter o’er the realms of thought. — from Phillis Wheatley’s “On Imagination.”

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The Operating Instructions

I think imagination is the single most useful tool mankind possesses. It beats the opposable thumb. I can imagine living without my thumbs, but not without my imagination. — from Ursula le Guin’s, “The Operating Instructions” 

Early in the essay, “The Operating Instructions,” le Guin asserts, “The imagination is an essential tool of the mind, a fundamental way of thinking, an indispensable means of becoming and remaining human.” She explains, “Children have imagination to start with, as they have body, intellect, the capacity for language: things essential to their humanity, things they need to learn to use, how to use well. Such teaching, training, and practice should begin in infancy and go on throughout life.” Within this, “Words are the wings both intellect and imagination fly on” and “literacy is considered a beginning not an end. … Literacy is so you can read the operating instructions.”

A people that doesn’t live at the center of the world, as defined and described by its poets and storytellers, is in a bad way. The center of the world is where you live fully, where you know how things are done, how things are done rightly, done well. 

A child who doesn’t know where the center is — where home is, what home is — that child is in a very bad way.

Home isn’t Mom and Dad and Sis and Bud. Home isn’t where they have to let you in. It is not a place at all. Home is imaginary.

Home, imagined, comes to be. It is real, realer than any other place, but you can’t get to it unless your people show you how to imagine it — whoever your people are. They may not be your relatives. They may never have spoken your language. They may have been dead for a thousand years. They may be nothing but words printed on paper, ghosts of voices, shadows of minds. — from Ursula le Guin’s, “The Operating Instructions” 

At the end of her essay, le Guin explains, “All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills, we need guides to show us how. without them, our lives get made up for us by other people.”

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Imagination in Action

We have here, imagination in action; it is like opening a watch and being able to study the continuous uninterfering operation of wheels amid wheels. — From Marianne Moore’s, “Imagination in Action.”

Marianne Moore’s, “Imagination in Action” provides analysis of the Brazilian classic, Life as a Little Girl, the diary of socialite Helena Morley. Translator Elizabeth Bishop weaves the diary into a poetic form. A diary is imagination in action. Paying attention is imagination in action. Detail is imagination in action. Noticing is imagination in action. Telling a story is imagination in action. 

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Writing Exercise — Imagination Stories

Living the Comma Writing Exercises are inspired by the Beyond with Jane Ratcliff, The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad, Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert, the Mondays are Free writing project by Ross Gay and Patrick Rosal, The Clearing by Katherine May, and Writing in the Dark with Jeannine Ouelette communities. 

Step 1: Operating Instructions — Imagination

What would operating instructions for imagination look like? They would include the parts of imagination. Think about when you assemble furniture and have to lay out the nuts and bolts and screws on the floor to make sure all the right parts are there. What are the necessary parts of imagination? Next, think through the steps of imagination. Where does imagination start? What comes next? What comes next? What comes next? Focus on your imagination story above. Break it down piece-by-piece, element-by-element, action-by-action, turn-by-turn. Build toward an invention, a creation, a miracle, a discovery, an epiphany.

Step 2: Let Your Imagination Run Wild

Write about a time when your imagination ran wild. Write about freedom and abandon. Write about safety and comfort. Write about courage and fearlessness. Write about light and dark. Write about magical moments — like becoming a parent, crossing the finish line of a marathon, receiving a diploma, or publishing a book. Make sure to include detail and description. Let the story be soft and gently held. Let it be a recent story or one from long ago. Let it be the story as it occurred — or — the story with bells and whistles, intrigue and ecstasy, popcorn and candy. 

Step 3: Tell Your Imagination Story, Again

Now, think about sharing your imagination story. Picture your audience. A best friend. A stranger at an airport. Your cousin in Nebraska. Your child. Your grandchild. Your mother. Your grandmother. Your TED talk listeners. Your next door neighbor. Your writing group friends. Your students in your first grade class. Create a real or imaginary audience. Make a definite decision and allow your narrative frame to shape your imagination story. 

Step 4: Craft Your Imagination Story

Select which imagination story you want to work with — your operating instructions, your diaryesque story, or your audience-focused story. Look at your chosen Imagination Story in total. Think about imagination’s essentials. On what wheels does imagination turn? How do we tell our Imagination Stories so plainly and clearly and movingly that imagination just might change the world?

Step 5: Share Your Imagination Story

Take a moment to read your note aloud again and again and again. When/if ready post your note in the comments to this message. Consider sharing it with our writing group on November 2nd. 

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Thank you for continuing to explore imagination with me. We cannot create a world we cannot imagine. Big ideas — justice, peace, love — are possible with imagination. 

From the heart of the comma,

Katie

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