The Art of Fiction:
Dream A Little Dream

While nearly every writer is fascinated by dreams, most haven’t considered the many ways dreams can help us with our fiction. But because I wrote the Keep It Simple Guide to Dreams, and because my book about writing fiction, The Mind of Your Story (which originated right here, in my Authorlink columns), explores (among many other subjects) how our night visions can feed our daily bread, I’ve considered dreams from many angles. Over my next few columns—and in an exclusive Authorlink.com online class beginning March 21st—I’ll be sharing some of the ways you can use your dreams for your writing.

The first step may seem self-evident, but if you can’t recall your dreams, you can’t use them. So let’s begin with some proven methods that will help you learn to rope in those elusive stories of the night.

Ask Your Dreams A Question

Remembering your dreams begins with opening a dialogue between imagistic right brain and verbal left brain, and a first step is to ask your dreams a question before you fall asleep. Start with something simple but nonetheless nagging: Should we vacation closer to home this year? or, What if my character decides to move to Tulsa? When you awaken and can’t remember any dreams, see if you feel as if your question has been answered. If so, go on to the next step, Catch A Falling Dream.

Catch A Falling Dream

Dreams take place in imagistic right brain, but once we awaken, pushy and verbal left brain takes over. This means that when Central Command (aka, the prefrontal cortex) sends a question off to all corners of our brains, left brain is going to holler, “Me! Me!” whether or not it knows the answer.

Right brain, however, can bide its time — because time isn’t a concept with which it bothers. When left brain finally gives up and marches on to the next assignment, right brain will lob its knowledge straight to home plate, where it will seem to appear from “out of nowhere.” The phrase “out of nowhere” signals that right brain has scored a home run.

To catch our dreams more quickly, then, we need to put left brain back to sleep. The best time to do this is when we first awaken. Try a mental white-out, using the image of an eraser or windshield wiper. Or, simply re-assume the exact position you were in when you awoke (this is easier than you think). Sometimes, writing a few words in a dream journal is enough to trigger all of a missing dream’s images. The main thing, though, is not to try.

Take Back the Night

The next time one of these “out of nowhere” dream images pops up, take a moment to write it down. It doesn’t have to be lengthy. Just note enough that the entire image will return when you read what you wrote. One of my seminal dreams was one in which my brothers were shaking a ladder I was climbing to the attic. In another, I was in a tree in a flowing white dress, watching a gathering of people in a Buffalo park. Each of these quick notes brings the entire dream –and all it represents – back to me, as if it were unfolding once again.

In my May/June column, I’ll show you some ways you can use your dream journals for your dreams. Till then, sweet dreams.