Of all of the different writing tools I have one of my favorites, if not thee favorite, is the art of immersion. Looking up the word immersion in the dictionary will describe immersion in its simplest form as, “deep mental involvement!” Usually the term is used to describe a method of learning a foreign language by committing oneself to the complete culture of the language you are trying to learn. Even moving to that country and becoming fully absorbed in the foods, traditions, and living habits of the people from that country.

I like to take this same approach with my writing and try my best to become completely immersed in the feeling of what it may have been like to be a writer post WW II. I feel like it was a time of incredible growth with both journalism, and cultural shifting going on in our country. A rebirth and new life being pumped into a post war nation. I have recently found that listening to select playlists from this era has aided immensely with my efforts to feel the part of the writer.

I am a believer in the fear of a world missing out on so many stories from a generation that choose to go silent with many of the experiences from what many consider to be the, “greatest generation.” I know from my own personal experience that my dad took many of his stories with him into old age and eventually his passing. Perhaps one of my greatest regrets is not having an opportunity to ask him many of the questions I still have about all of his experience as a young man in the early days of the Army Air Corp.

Now when I sit to tell stories I can hear in my head the Klickety-Klack of a typewriter, visualize a smoked filled room, reporters in rolled up sleeves, Clark Kent hats, and cigarettes hanging from the corners of their mouths. Outside, the pitter patter of rain, heavy traffic with car horns blaring, and newsboys yelling to us to read all about it! Is that Nat King Cole playing on the radio in the background?

Some could argue of a simpler time when instant gratification came in the form of a Swanson’s TV Dinner, Saturday mornings where for cartoons, and Sunday night’s belonged to the Wonderful World of Disney! Magazines and newspapers filled the newsstand , and Playboy magazine was covered in a brown wrapper tucked away behind the counter.

Drugstores had lunch counters with soda fountains and there were coffee shops all along the main streets and back roads of a country so proud to remind us, “Don’t Bee a Litter Bug!” As you can see the art of immersion can help with the details of what you want to stand out in your story. For me it is my writing, for you it can be anything you want.

I don’t ever want to lose my ability to be as much a part of the story I am trying to tell. Sure there will be times when things can border on the exotic side, and perhaps other times when the struggle to become a part of how you want your story to be received will take a lot more work then just recalling an earlier time in your life.

The world will always be open to new adventures, new experiences for us to explore. There is a little adventurer in all of us. Become a modern day Marco Polo, even if your adventuring keeps you close to home, remember, there are stories to be told around every corner we are willing to venture around! Go ahead, get wet!

Talk soon…

G