should i give up ?

[booksandtea]

After being at home looking after my son with AS and being unwell myself for years i decided to finally get out and do something for myself , try something new . so , i have started on a creative writing course . i have only been to one class so far and for next week we are to have a go at writing a short story .
i now realise that i have NO IMAGINATION whatsoever :(
i used to years ago.. i think. Nope, i cannot seem to write at all or come up with anything .
dh , ds , my mum , they are all like ' oh you could do this , or that blah blah ' but i want my short story not theirs and i'm thinking now that my brain just doesn't work like that , that i am more factual .
Should i just forget it or am i wrong ? can creativity emerge ?
please talk to me , i'm feeling like a massive failure .

Hi books I did a creative writing course and found I had limited imagination having experienced infertility and mc (have 2 dd's now) I found myself obsessed with this subject and wrote poems and short stories around this theme. It was a bit one dimensional but I did find myself branching out a bit and now nearing the end of the first draft of my novel yes you guessed it based on the above but with a historical perspective too. Usually when a project is set there is a theme ie 'guilty' for example which starts the thinking process off you could then get a piece of paper with guilty written in the middle and put sub bubbles coming out - brainstorming ideas might come that way and you don't have to go with any of it, just ideas. Also you could start off writing about what you know about AS for example. Lastly and its difficult try not to worry what people think write in your own style everyone in the class had different genres but that's what made it interesting ie one woman wrote horsey stories while someone else wrote fantasy about warlocks etc. What do you feel strongly about? life experiences or just escapism etc just make it your own good luck, I hope you enjoy the course but you've not failed if its not for you perhaps you just need to try a few things; have fun discovering about you X

Write about the facts - one man's fact is another man's fiction and no one has to read it except you (unless you want them to)

Could you start by writing something that has happened to you, and see what you can add in?
So start by a football match you went to watch, and then add an interesting spectator or something.
It's often easier if you have a clue as to what to start writing about, an open ended topic is really hard.

I teach adults (similar subject) and would never set this for week 2 homework! That's really hard!

I find that creativity is in short supply when I get too immersed in my day to day monotonous crap. If I read a couple of really good books and spend a bit of time on myself I find myself far less stumped for ideas/motivation to create!

thanks for the replies , im going to give these suggestions a go . i really would love to write something !

I'd add to the above that creativity is a bt like a muscle, if you haven't used it for a while it might take some time to get up to speed. Don't be so hard on yourself

I would think about what genre suits you too. I was trying to write contemporary fiction but had zero ideas. It was all a bit flat. Then I discovered YA fiction. The ideas are coming! Maybe think about what you read and what your interests are; crime, historical, romance, sci-go and start from there??

I've been writing for years and have always started with a character, not a story idea. Find your character then see what trouble you can put them in, even if it's something as crazy as their car being hijacked by aliens or as mundane as them going out to do their shopping.

i seem to be getting a character for e.g a middle aged woman taking on a cleaning job at someones house , things that could go wrong with that and then ...nothing . I cant seem to tie it all in and come up with an ending or a point to the story iyswim

Don't worry about an ending or a point. Just write and it'll come to you, I promise.

Op whenever I'm stuck ( and I write day in day out for a living so there are times I am just depleted) I ask myself what do I want to say.

Putting writing out to readers ( as opposed to for your own pleasure) is to start a conversation.

So what is excising you? I see from your OP that there is quite a bit .

Now ask how you could explore that. What character. What framework.

thanks for all the help . I have realised that if i get up early and start writing with my morning cup of tea ( usually i read ) my brain seems to work . I now have a little story in the pipeline ! although i don't know yet how it ends . Hopefully i will have something not too embarrassing to read out at lesson number 3 of my course .
I am actually really chuffed to be learning something new at last

I started an online creative writing course run by Futurelearn.

I'd say I definitely lack imagination, I am used to factual (scientific) writing.

I am finding that, as the course is progressing, I am getting more and more ideas. One of the things the course is focussing on is where to get ideas and inspiration from.

It definitely gets easier the more you get into it.