This short self assessment will tell you where to start!
((However, it may be wise to note that in the case you have a problem in one or two particular areas, you may want to look at the above table of contents before trying this, to save time and to see if it is a short exercise, or if you can skip right to it.))
Can you imagine a square?
Yes? Continue on to the next question.
No? Go to Exercise one.
Can you make the square into a cube?
Yes? Continue to the next question.
No? Go to Exercise one.
Can you change the color of the cube?
Yes? Continue on to the next question.
No? Go to Exercise two.
Can you add a border or design to the cube?
Yes? Continue on to the next question.
No? Go to Exercise two.
Can you make your cube bigger or smaller?
If you can make your cube bigger, but not smaller, go to exercise three.
If you can make your cube smaller, but not bigger, go to exercise four.
If you can do neither, go to exercise three.
If you can do both, continue on to the next question.
Can you create different shapes?
Yes? Continue on to the next question.
No? Go to Exercise five.
Do you have a wonderland?
Yes? You don't need this guide.
No? Go to Exercise six.
So you want to visualize, and you don't know where to start. Hopefully this guide will change that for you a little! If these first exercises are too easy, you can just skim them and go forward. We're going to start with a square, but by the end you'll hopefully have a whole world! This is not a sure guide, and may not work for you. This is just one way to do it.
So, visualize your square. It can be on paper, it can be on nothing at all, just a flat square. It can be any color, any color at all. If you can't seem to do it at all, go down a paragraph. Hold that square there, as long as you can, then look away, and let it go. Do something else for a few minutes, then try to summon that square back.
Can you do it? If not, try this. If so, skip this next section.
If you can't bring your square back, or can't visualize it at all, take a look at the picture below.
Now stare at this square for a moment, see how its lines... line up. See its details.
Okay, so there aren't many details here, it's just a square, and it's just... there. But! But!- This square is about to be your friend. You want to look at the square, and you want to memorize it, and then you want to put it in your mind. You want to stare at it, you want to zoom in on it, get closer to it, and you want to imagine its... blueness.
Now, try to dissolve it, lose it, and bring it back. If you can't do it... it's right here. Practice until you can. Then move on.
Okay, if you're onto this step, then you have successfully visualized your square. Now we're going to make it into a cube! So take your square, and imagine that you're pulling out one side to it, perpendicular. Is it moving?
Good! If not, try this. Imagine another square, then move it so it is facing the first square. Fill in the gap, but make sure they're the same distance from each other. If that doesn't work, try building the square face by face.
Now, do the same thing as above, dissolve it, and remake it, dissolve it, and remake it.
((Note, if you find it hard to do the above, try with a dot. You can take a marker and draw one on a piece of paper, or look up a picture. Then stare at that until you can see it in your mind. On paper turn the dot into a line. Stare at that until you can see it in your mind. Then, make another line, coming off of the dot, so you have half of a square, or a slightly off L. Continue this process until you have a square in front of you. When this is done, see if you can get another marker and color it in.))
Is focus your problem? Well, I may have a solution! If you keep trying this exercise, you may get better!
Think of a sentence or a list, or maybe a word, a sentence that you like. It can be a quote, it can be a grocery list, it can be your favorite word. Now write it down. Look at it for a moment, study the way the letters curve, the way it looks. Maybe say it aloud, taste it in that way you can taste words, and then close your eyes, or turn around and look at a wall. Start thinking of that sentence, the way it looked, the way it sounded, the way it felt when you said it. Think of nothing else, for as long as you can.
If you find your thoughts veering, or you realize that you're suddenly thinking about puppies, or thunder, or any other random thing, then turn back around, look at the sentence, say it again, remind yourself what you're doing, and then think of it.
Turn it into a game! Set a timer, and see how long you can hold the thought of that sentence in your head. Every time you repeat this exercise your focus may improve.
So you have your cube that you can dissolve, and remake the exact same way. Now it's time to change it!
Alright, so we're going to focus on the color of your cube now. You're going to want to change it's color now. Change it to yellow, or if it's yellow, then change it to blue. ((Note, if you find this hard to do, change it to grey, or a color closer to blue.)) Then change it to any color you want.
Dissolve this cube and bring it back with it's new color.
Then give your cube an outline, thick black lines, pale green ones, bold blue ones... the color and type is up to you! (Outlines meaning the lines on the edges of the cube below)
Version One
If realism is the problem, than this exercise may be for you!
Imagine a cartoon or CGI pine tree, maybe it's even a stick figure pinetree. Now, imagine that there's a film over your vision, a nasty, yucky, orange film that you have to clean.
Imagine wiping it away, and with every wipe your image gets more realistic.
Once you have a mostly realistic image there, focus on it, imagine it's every detail. How do it's needles look? It's bark?
Zoom in and out of it, trying to keep that clarity and realism. Do this until you can keep it that way consistently.
Keep trying and practicing this exercise with different objects and different things, and you will find that your ability to create realistic things improves!
Realistically, there is no limit.
Version Two
Another way is a version I like to call the ripple effect. To start the ripple effect, make a fist in your mindspace. Then, flick your fingers outwards, so that you have a hand that looks like you're about to cast a spell, or use telekinesis to move something with your hand.
Take the cartoon image in your head, in my case, a cat, and move your hand forward, flicking your hand like taught above. Pretend that there's a barrier between you and that object, in your mindspace, and that object is cartoonism. Strike the barrier and imagine a wave rippling from that spot that your hand hit outward. Where the wave travels, your scene changes to realistic.
Then your cartoon/CGI scene will hopefully turn realistic.
If these don't work, don't get frustrated! They are simply symbolic, ways I found that work for me. Try to come up with your own way to fix the cartoon/CGIness of your imagination.
Do you have your new-color-with-bordered-edges cube? If not, revisit exercise 2, and try again. If so, excellent. In a few exercises, we'll get to making a rectangle, but for now, we're just going to be working on making your cube/box bigger.
Imagine your box, bring it up and go to the section where it's sitting. Now, imagine that you can make your box bigger, because, well, you can. Make it two times bigger, than three, than four. You can make it as big as you want!
If you can't seem to get your box any bigger than it already is, then you can do it manually. Pull up on one side, then the next, and do this for every side until your cube is a larger version of the old one!
Also, one last note. Don't shrink your cube back down, even if you're able to.
Have you ever known a person is behind you, even though you didn't see them? Can you feel them? This is an example of presence, and presence is something you need to be aware of for the next exercise. Not all things have presence, but many things do. Even inanimate objects can have presence, it just isn't as strong as that of a living thing. Now, try to feel your cube's presence. It has one, I assure you. Got it? Good.
If not, try to focus on the presence of other people before going back to your cube's presence.
Focus on the presence of your cube. Then, do what you did with making it larger, but make it smaller. Hold onto that presence, then make your cube so small you can't see it.
Press down on the sides if you can't get it small right away, collapse it, make it so tiny, cut it in half, whatever you need to do to get it smaller. So small that you can't see it. Let go of your cube then, go do something else for 15 however many minutes you want, and then come back. Focus on it, is the presence still there? If so, continue on. If not, remake your cube and start over.
(Alternate title: The Wonderland is Not the Real World)
The statement above may seem pretty obvious, but to really show you what I mean, you must first zoom in on your cube until it appears the same size as it was before you shrank it. Draw closer and closer, and watch it get bigger and bigger.
By doing the above, you have changed your perspective in such a way that would be hard to do in the real world, if not impossible. Now, zoom out again.
Your box is gone, isn't it?
Everything is perspective, and perspective is not the same in the wonderland.
Now, make your cube larger. Larger even still, until it is towering over your small perspective. Then make your perspective larger.
Do you see how things are not the same? By zooming in and out, you can remake the simplest things.
So, cubes are boring, right? Yeah, we can probably all agree with that. So, that's why we're going to try making other shapes. Perhaps your mind works in a way that allows you to create other shapes, if so, good for you! Feel free to skip this step. If not, well, then, we have a few different options.
Have you ever heard that quote about carving away what isn't the shape? Or in the case of the quoter, the statue? That's our base here. We're going to take off what isn't needed in the shape of your choice. So imagine your cube, and let's say you want to make a triangle. Imagine a giant blade, or knife, or some other thing coming down and slicing away what isn't needed.
The red on the above drawing would be where you would cut, and the triangle would be what you're left with. You can do this to make any shape, it just might be harder, with say, a circle.
Imagine your rectangle is made of clay, and that you can pick up this clay, touch it. Take a chunk, leaving a missing place in your rectangle. Roll it in your hands. Make a sphere, make a triangle. Smoosh it like play dough and use your hands to make it into shapes. Fold it and mold it, make circles and squares, rectangles and stars.
In the same way you made your rectangle, make your new shape. Let's say you're trying to make a triangle. Imagine it flat, and then pull it out of the flat, make it 3D.
Practice making objects until you no longer need to rely on these methods and can conjure them up from thin... wonderland air.
Consider for a moment, what you want to look like in your wonderland. Do you want brown hair? Blonde hair? Blue eyes? Green? Gray? Do you want to be human? Do you want to look like yourself?
(Note from LB: sorry friends, all of these links are dead, and I also want to note that some folks just... can't craft their internal images, including us. We seem to fall on the extreme end, where our headspace will actively injure us if we try. So don't feel bad if you can't do this.)
Option A: I want to look like myself
Option B: I want to look like something inhuman
Option D: What I want to look like isn't listed.
Alternate title: Build, Build My Minions
Now that you know how to make different shapes in the Wonderland you can try to make everyday items, like forks or clouds. If you find yourself unable to do this, fashion shapes that look like them. For example, rectangles can be a snowflake, and that triangle-square house you drew in your first year of school is about to be your best friend. You can start with these objects, going as in detail as you want.
So, you can hopefully now build many shapes and objects. If not, please revisit "Shapes and Objects." Now, we're going to build a portal, because who wants their wonderland in this place stuffed full of random shapes? No, this was your testing ground. You can skip this part and just work on the same space you have been, just go to the next paragraph if you want to, but if you'd like a new editing place, start by making a shape. It can be a circle, a square, an arch. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that, but you can complicate it by adding designs, swirls, borders.
After that, step through it and imagine yourself appearing in a blank space, no colors, no anything. Then, add a sky, turn it blue. Add clouds, maybe outer space. Then begin the map. Will you have all grassland? Or a forest? Some swamps? Lakes? Oceans? It's up to you. When your feet touch down on the ground for the first time, start some weather. Maybe rain, wind, or snow.
Now that you have your wonderland, you can start imagining your characters. This will go in much the same way as you put yourself in, but without putting your personality into it. Tulpas can also choose their own form, making one appear by themselves. Give them the freedom to choose what they look like.
Congratulations! You've successfully made a wonderland. To continue this, you can add buildings to your wonderland, statues, and more. Hopefully this guide helped you, and thanks for reading! If some things are hard, just keep trying.