Dream-Writing

Aimee Stahlberg

For the last several weeks, I’ve had dreams that I write really awful gangster stories. They somehow turned into novels, plays, and movie scripts, too. They contained the elements of story that I had been trained to look for, care about: functional dialogue, plot, three-dimensional characters, change. These stories were nothing typical of anything I’d ever write. And when I say that they were bad, I mean it. They were so genre specific that even I rolled my eyes at them. They were “that same old story.”

When I woke up each morning, I’d be confused and frustrated. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t have dreams about my novel-in-stories, my characters. Why did my mind need to wrap itself around a bunch of men that I didn’t care about? Why did I need to wear myself writing in my sleep moments of action that I could swear I’d seen done a million times before? This was something I couldn’t even control!

But when I got to my writing each day, I noticed something exciting and different about it. I was able to get into the strong writing more quickly. I didn’t need to waste time on sentences that I didn’t want to use. I didn’t need to struggle with wondering what my character was really supposed to sound like, or what she was trying to say. It came out easily and naturally. Best of all, it came out quickly.

And then the big discoveries came. I suddenly understood why characters needed to be in relationships with specific people. I also understood their histories in a way that never made sense before. This nonsensical dream-writing was somehow saving the time I normally needed to spend writing journal after journal on the same story from different ages, different POVs trying to discover something new. It was saving me time, making me more efficient. It kept me from wasting real energy. It was allowing me to make sense out of forms while I put it to the page, and remember what tools I had at my disposal from having practiced my craft as much as I have.

So, while it may have seemed annoying to have had these dreams, I can’t deny that maybe I am lucky. Maybe this has helped me have my breakthroughs that I’ve had. Maybe this is part of what I need in order to be a successful writer.

So far the dreams haven’t stopped, and neither has the writing. I guess I’ll keep them for now.

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