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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

speaking of dreaming

what do you think about using dreams? Do you use them in your writing? What about when you read about dreams in books other people have written? Like them? Hate them?

And what do you think dreams are? A mish-mash of memory, hope, and fear? Or synapses misfiring.

I forget where I read it but there was an article about dreams that basically said something to that effect. And I might have gone along with the idea if my dreams weren't so specific, so appropriate, and ultimately, revealing.

Tell me what you think about dreams, and writing.

12 comments:

  1. I always think dreams are the visualisations of emotions. So if I am angsty about work, my dreams will be angsty ones etc. I never quite remember the dreams exactly but I do remember how I feel as I wake up and even during.

    Take care
    x

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  2. I do use dreams in my work. That's where I get ideas or snippets of ideas. I could only remember scary dreams. Do I like reading about them in books. No. Though I'm guilty of writing a few in my own ms.

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  3. Happy, yes.

    Old Kitty, I agree.

    E. I think it's hard to do dreams well in books but like you I do use them. Hopefully my crit partners will tell me when they're not working :)

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  4. I'll sometimes use imagery or ideas from dreams, but I integrate them in such a way that it isn't necessarily "dreamlike" in the story.

    As for what dreams are, I think they're whatever you were thinking about before falling asleep mashed together with other subconscious thoughts. Or not. :-P

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  5. My dreams are usually a mess! And reality often invades at some point and takes over.

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  6. There are mornings when I WISH I could hold onto the clarity of a dream long enough to write the main stuff down! :-)

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  7. Every once in awhile I'll remember a snippet of a dream that inspires a bit of writing. I tend to prefer that in-between stage of waking and dreaming more. In that state I can control the images but still have that dreamlike quality -- if that makes any sense. :P

    I don't mind a short dream description in a novel if it is really poignant and symbolic of something important, but so often they are just rambling, fantasy scenes.

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  8. I can't ever remember my own dreams, but I have used dreams in my writing. I think they reveal a little part of us, so I'm hoping they reveal a little bit of my character's, too!

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  9. I'd believe in the synapses misfiring if it wasn't for the fact that I often dream of things that specifically frighten or worry me ... and often the dreams recur. When I was young, I watched my grandfather's mushroom house burn down. (He was a mushroom grower by profession.) For years after that, I used to dream that I was walking from my house to his house (he lived next door) and I would look back and see my own house on fire.

    If dreams are just random electrical impulses, why the same image, over and over?

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  10. My boss, who is also a psychologist but who works with adults, said that dreams are our brains' way of clearing out the "activation" of the day or recent events. That makes sense to me. I often have dreams related in some peripheral way to things that are going on in my life.

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