writercises | Entries tagged with dream

Original Posting 2022/01/01

Happy New Year!

Yep, it's that time again. Celebrations, lots of fun, and... maybe a little pause to consider what you want to accomplish this year. I'm seeing several writers regroup, making lists of things they want to tackle this year, and thought maybe you might like to do that...

I mean, one of the things about New Year's resolutions is that they are goals you set for yourself, and you get to decide how public or private you want to keep them. But it is a good turning point to sit back and consider...

Do you want to join a writing group? There are online versions around. Critiques, writing prompts, and other helps to keep you going. (Psst? Take a look at https://moreoddsthanends.home.blog/ if you want to join in a weekly challenge!)

Or maybe you just want to set yourself a goal of writing at a certain time or place regularly? Lots of people find that discipline useful.

Maybe take a book, or some other guideline, and work your way through the approach they suggest? Hero's Journey, Save the Cat!, there is a lot of guidance out there, take your pick. But set yourself a goal, and work on it!

For that matter, take the plunge and plan on posting something here on Writers from time to time! Weekly, monthly, whatever works for you. As I used to suggest, either a post about technique (aka tech!) or a submission (sub!) are good ways to participate.

Heck, close your eyes, and let your dreams take wing. What kinds of things could you see yourself doing, what do you wish you were doing, what do you really want to try? I'm sure there are many ways to go, and you can make your own this year!

Anyway, might be a good time to sit back, and think about what you want to achieve this year. Then think about how to do it, what are the steps, the habits, all that to get there. And, of course, decide to start. One step, just to get started....

Write!

mbarker

Original posting Jan. 26, 2018

Oddly, this started with a dream. In my dream, I was sitting in a town council meeting (no, I am not now or ever have been on a town council. I have been a reporter covering them...). Anyway, one of the members looked around and said, "Someone bought the old Wilson place. They say they are going to reform it." Several people shook their head, and another member said, "If they let them out again..." At which point, someone nodded and said, "We have to stop them!" Which is where I woke up.

Okay? So, your job, if you feel up to it, is simple. Just take this little sketch, and expand it. Where is this town? Who is in the meeting? Who has bought the old Wilson place? And, of course, who or what do the council members fear will be released if someone reforms the place? And what will happen?

Of course, you should feel free to go ahead and finish your story. Do the ghosts (werewolves, vampires, aliens, podpeople, who is it?) take over the world? How do the council members explain why the stranger shouldn't reform the old place?

Go for it!

mbarker

Original posting Oct. 28, 2017

Okay! Here's a fragment from a recent dream that I had.

The car raced away from the building. Behind us, I saw two missiles hit. The first one looked almost as if someone had yanked an old water tower up from somewhere and somehow thrown it like a javelin. The other was sleeker, more like a comic book sketch of a missile than a real missile, but still scary. They both hit near the building behind us, and the explosions, the flames, the rising clouds of smoke spurred us on.

So... who's in the car? Where did these comic book missiles come from? Who is in the building that got hit? For that matter, what is the building that got hit? Where did all this take place?

And, of course, what happens next?

Go ahead, explain that dream... no Freudian interpretations, okay?

tink

mbarker

Original Posting Oct. 10, 2017

And as we slither closer, ever closer to the deadline for the Writers Halloween Contest (remember, get those stories and poems in by October 20!), we take another look at William F. Nolan's book about How to Write Horror Fiction.

Chapter 3 is about horrible imaginings. William starts out with this paragraph...

"Horror is all around us. It fills the news of the day. Woman kidnapped and killed. School bus tumbles over cliff. Terrorist attack destroys church. Commercial airliner goes down and mountains. Cancer claims more victims. Coed brutally raped on campus. Police officers shot in drug sweep. Border raid wipes out village…."

Whoosh. And that was back in 1990! Then William talks about a real-life horror from his life. Murder/suicide in Kansas City.

Horror surrounds us. And William points out that this may be why horror is so popular and effective. "They provide mass therapy, a way to deal with the everyday horrors we all encounter. Horror fiction offers us a way to survive. We are able to control the horror in a way we can never do in real life."

So, how do we separate horror from things that are just sad, unpleasant, disgusting? Well, it's really approach in handling. Horror fiction entertains, along with some chills and thrills. So where might you look for ideas?

Your childhood! As kids, there's a lot of things that are pretty scary. What's in the closet, what's under the bed, what's down the stairs? Think about what you were afraid of as a child, then put that fear in a story.

Grown-up fears? Well, there are primal fears – darkness, being abandoned, dangerous creatures, death. Being lost, waking up alone and helpless somewhere strange, becoming old, finding out that people are not really what you thought they were… What things frighten you as an adult?

How about dreams? Sure, dreams can be scary. Ideas, scenes, bits and pieces. Just grab them fast, because dreams seem to evaporate when you wake up.

Keep a notebook. Plot ideas, of course, in bits and pieces of overheard conversation, description, thoughts you had, story titles, travel notes, research data, scenes and dialogue, odd facts, memories, whatever excites you.

How about the do-it-yourself ending? Here William suggests reading just part of a story, the first half, then set it aside and write your own ending. If it's exciting enough, go back and write your own beginning. Even if the story isn't unique enough, you'll still learn a lot about structure, plotting, and some ideas.

William also suggests taking a look at a list of supernatural beliefs that J. N. Williamson put together as a background for his fiction. 22 possible seeds for your horror! I'm not going to list them all here, you'll need to read the book. But, reincarnation, voodoo, ghosts, fairies, vampires, alien invasion, mummies… There's a few, just for fun.

Finally, William reminds us that having an idea doesn't mean we have a plot. An idea is a seed. How do you turn it into a plot? Ask yourself questions! Who, what, why, where, when, and how are your friends. Figure out what's happening here. Build a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Mix well with characters, locale, threat, and resolution. And bingo! You've got a plot and the story. Now write.

tink

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original Posting 27 Dec 2010

Hum...

Over here http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/12/23/you-cant-teach-passion/, David B. Coe blogged about "You Can't Teach Passion." And...

For some reason, the title, "You Can't Teach Passion," kind of itched whenever I saw it. So I've been thinking about why that feels like fingernails on a blackboard to me.

I think I can probably agree with David that we can't teach passion, if we're talking about teaching as "sage on the stage" lecture presentations designed to fill time with the teacher talking and the students scribbling, sleeping, or staring into space, but probably not really engaged. Unfortunately, too many of us have learned to define teaching and learning in those terms.

On the other hand, that kind of teaching often does a very good job of eliminating passion. Even someone who has a dream, a vision, a fire burning often finds that kind of teaching acting as a tremendously effective dream quencher, blackout curtain, and fire extinguisher. Take a kid who's lively, outgoing, interested in the world around them, set them down in a orderly classroom with good teaching discipline, and pretty soon you're likely to have a quiet drone.

But, despite the excellent methods of eliminating passion that we have developed (documented at length as killer phrases in What a Great Idea! 2.0 by Chic Thompson -- that's nonsense, that's irrelevant, that's unproven, that's dangerous, that's not salable, etc. etc. etc. all of which say "No" to passion), we've also got some ways to encourage passion. See Michalko's Thinkertoys, Roger van Oech's A Whack on the Back of the Head and A Kick In the Seat of the Pants, or Edward de Bono's various books, among others. Ways to take that little flicker of interest and excitement, to blow gently on it and provide tinder to help it grow into a raging flame. To give passion creative outlets and let the dream become reality.

You can't teach passion. But you can quench it, so easily. And, on the gripping hand, you can encourage passion. Heck, you might even find a teacher cheering you on. And that's real learning.

(Who is still trying to figure out why the notion that some people don't have "the passion" or "the inspiration" or whatever it is makes me queasy. What do you think?)

Current Mood: passionate

The Place For My Writers Notes

Entries tagged with dream

FILL: Happy New Year! And what are you going to do this year?

EXERCISE: If they let them out...

EXERCISE: While I pondered, weak and weary...

TECH: How to Write Horror Fiction 03

FILL: You can't teach passion?

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