MMWUC for December 3, 2007
EXERCISE: "Tis our season," Dickens shouts, prodding Scrooge in the butt with the Grinch's pointy shoes. An army of elves march up the aisle, singing songs of grandmothers run over by reindeer and dragging a tied-up Macaulay Caulkin behind them as a sacrificial offering. Bill Murray shares a beer with the Grime Reaper and Jack Skellington on a sticky floor. Frosty the snowman slides in on an electric razor head running over Rudolph while John Boy Walton heads for bed at nine in the morning calling to his siblings. Dickens turns. "Close your eyes students, take a deep breath, and relax. For the next ten minutes, write from the protagonist's POV, 'While he slept, the events of the day streamed through his mind...'."
MUSINGS: Do you capture your dreams? If you don't, why not? They are a rich fertile ground of disassociated thoughts that sometimes lead to magical journals and perhaps novels. It isn't easy at first, but I find, if I talk about them immediately upon waking up or write them down, bits and pieces, fragments, leap out and stay with me longer. A few dreams, or really fragments of dreams, have made it into stories. Make your dreams work for you. After all, you rent them room in your brain for free.
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3 comments:
Nearly all the dreams I remember are nightmares (the product of seeing/subconsciously worrying about too much terrible stuff, I guess). And since I don't like to read the stuff of nightmares, I have no interest in writing it. ;)
I do know of people who work directly from their dreams. (A friend named John told me he often dreamed story ideas and bits of stories. Also, NYT bestselling author, Sharon Sala said her stories come from her dreams.)
There is scientific fact behind what you say about repeating your dreams to remember them, Rich. There is some kind of brain chemical that disipates upon wakening taking your dream with it . . . unless you fix it in your memory by thinking about it and repeating it.
Damn! Rick, your blog has the most contorted letters to copy when trying to send a reply!
LOL...I assure you I have no control over the YAHOO verification program. Or, did I dream that, wait, the memory is fading. I'm melting, melting.
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