In the heat of the fire, the fire in the heart

​Previously I shared my experience to make a bell out of an oxygen tank cylinder at a blacksmithing class and drawing a few analogies to writing.  This week I continue the blacksmithing theme.  In the beginning blacksmithing class the first two hours are spent on learning about fire.  The forges we used were open with a hand crank bellows to supply air.  The forge stands about waste high is forty inches long and twenty four inches wide and three inches deep.
Success in forging is based on the fire – the right heat over a long period of time.  We used a special charcoal that was small chunks about the size of peanuts.  To start the fire you crumple up some newspaper and make a small mountain of charcoal on top of it.  You light the newspaper and slowly turn the crank to give a small stream of air.  The paper flares up and the charcoal begins to bellow sooty smoke like one of the steel mills at the turn of the century.  With constant air the fire grows in the center of the charcoal mountain.  As the fire grows you push more charcoal up the mountain until it is about eight inches tall.  The key is to turn the crank at a constant speed letting the fire grow naturally.
When the fire in the center of the charcoal is a bright yellow you are already to forge metal.  I believe writers must have a fire in the heart in order to write.  There needs to be something that will sustain the writer through periods of uncertainty, doubt, depression, rejection, illness and a myriad of other maladies.  Like the charcoal the fire in the heart needs to burn bright yellow. 
The fiction writer’s fire is not inspiration, it is imagination.  Imagination is the capacity to create a place, characters, story, plot and scenes that are woven together into a story.  The fuel for imagination is life, all of the experiences a writer has that become translated into a work of fiction.
Keeping the charcoal a shining yellow takes practice and patience.  Keeping the writer’s imagination also takes practice and patience.  Imagination is a gift that like the forge fire must be nurtured.