If you find yourself stumped for creative flow, if there is a large log jam in the river of creativity don't despair! One of the most effective ways I have found to overcome this is to create a memory river.

A memory river is simply taking one word and allowing other things to flow from it. Write a paragraph or a line, or even a poem on what the word evokes. Let it flow- don't worry about spelling or getting facts straight- you can fix it later. The important thing is the spontaneous trickle which comes from your memory and plants itself in the written word.

Take the word: book. Here is what my memory flowed with.

Book

The newness of books is one of the things I liked about school- the way they would snap and crackle when you opened. Them. New books had smell to them- untouched undiscovered. They held all the secrets and I was the first person to absorb these. So you can imagine as a child how I hated getting textbooks that had been used before. With the sweat on the hands by others, scribbles in the margins and pages missing. I hated getting used books. Then one particularly hard year in math I got a text book that someone had nicely penciled in the answers to. After many weeks I discovered this person was right ninety nine percent of the time. That sold me on old books and I became an old book lover from then on.

My favorite childhood book- even before he was a household name - was Richard's Scarey's "a home for a bunny" I owned a well eared cover and had most of it memorized. I lost it when we moved from Saskatchewan to B.C. and mom dumped it out. When my kids were old enough we went to the library and there it was! My favorite book. I must have taken it out 5 times that year and even after the kids grew tired f it I would read it to myself- there was comfort in those pages.

I have too many. I can't help it. Every time I see a book stand at a Sally Ann or a swap and shop I'm there. I covet them, as my friends. I guard them closely from ones who would own them( including my daughter who had nimble fingers) and I lend them out only after I have savored my fill. But even in sharing I am anxious. Will they take good care of them ( I once lent an antique book of poems out to someone with a small child and the pages got ripped) and more importantly will they see the magic that I saw in the book? Its nice to share and then recollect the story with someone, so I do share , selfishly, but only with folks I trust.

What type of images flow into you when you hear the word "book"?

One final word. Like a river, some things are too good not to share. I started sharing a word a day with three other writer friends with mine to see what images they could come up with. We have done concrete words like book, chair, spring but also words that take us deeper, words like faith, church, love and despair. We delight in reading each others, shared over the electronic highway.

So what then do you do with your word rivers? Why not take them and make them into writing. Personal essays and fiction pieces have evolved from mine (and sold to publishers!) More than that the discussions on various words with the group and what they see in them have leant themselves to in-depth articles, some as joint writing ventures. Words have become basis for poems and even settings for characters. How deep I want to dive is up to me. How about you? Even if it is only a word to start with, what types of things can you make from your memory river?

Well must run- time to flow- today's word is electric and I can't wait to switch on the current in my mind. Have fun!