Picture taken by me in Ibiza in 2016, Modified using Deepdreamgenerator
We are the architects,
the dream weavers,
exhaling a story's breath
from subconscious' subtext.
Written by me @raj808, just now 😂
This week's prompt is a double whammy. Please feel free to respond with either poetry or fiction. It is also more of a creative exercise if I'm honest. A technique that some of you might have heard about before which can really help unleash your creativity.
As suggested in my verse above, I'm talking about harnessing the power of your subconscious by keeping a dream journal. This tried and tested method is something I discovered in 2003 in my first year of study at university, when we were tasked with keeping an extensive dream journal. As part of a module called observation and discovery, we were asked to write out our dreams in minute detail before attempting to analyse them in the context of what was happening in our lives. From these journals stories were born, kicking and screaming from our unconscious like a babe taking it's first tentative breath. We were then asked to workshop each other's stories providing critical feedback to improve and tighten the plots, structure etc.
I'm asking nothing so arduous of anyone here, although if you want to take it that far it can be both a powerful and enjoyable catalyst for self-discovery.
I have discovered over the past fifteen years that this technique can be used in many ways for a writer. Sure you can go whole hog recounting the circumstance of a dream with characters, locations and narrative. Often this can produce a short story from just one dream, or a surrealist poem, dependent on how well a person’s recall is and how visual their imaginative process.
But this does take a fair chunk of time.
Another less time consuming way of harnessing the subconscious themes playing out in your nightly REM cycle is to note brief bullet points from four or five nights of remembered dreams.
This can sometimes work just as well as detailed narratives of your nightly wanderings. With briefer bullet point note taking themes, plot ideas and characters evolve with each day's additional notes.
I generally do a mix of both as my dreams can be very vivid, and sometimes the note format just doesn't hack it (check out my dream journal below).
As you can see above, only Saturday's dream was recorded in brief bullet point format. Monday and Tuesday's dreams were very detailed and vivid so I made more extensive notes.
For those who never remember their dreams, I have your back!
Unfortunately you might not like the technique to remember some of your nightly adventures. It involves setting an alarm at different times during late night to early morning until you find that point where you are deeply in a rapid eye movement sleep cycle. The truth is that everyone dreams, but most people only remember the dreams that wake them. Or the last dream of the night when they wake up naturally.
Is this guy for real? He's asking us to set an alarm for 3am for a writing challenge? 😉
In all seriousness, no I'm not. Everyone has a life outside this crazy online world. I just thought I'd mention it as that technique does work, and having personally explored lucid dreaming there are a similar set of techniques that can induce lucid dreams. But I digress, and we're rapidly spiraling down the proverbial @raj808 rabbit hole.
Your challenge if you should choose to accept it!
- Keep a dream journal for at least 3-4 days.
- Record the details either in bullet points, or full narrative if you feel you have the time.
- Write a story or poem based upon what you record in your journal.
- Publish it to The Ink Well.
I will be actively reading all of the stories and poems, looking for the best to submit to @ocd
Daily Community Curation magazine.
This prompt challenge will last for a week until next Tuesday's prompt.
Thanks for reading.
I would like to invite any lovers of poetry and short stories to visit the new hive community I started with @stormlight24 called The Ink Well.
Also, with the advent of https://hive.vote/ it is now possible to follow The Ink Well curation trail on Hive blockchain. It works just the same as steemauto; simply navigate to the curation trail section and search for theinkwell (all one word with no @ symbol) and our trail will pop up as an option.
Similarly delegations are possible on Hive using the fantastic https://peakd.com/ Hive Blockchain front end. If you wish to delegate to @theinkwell that supports creative writing on Hive by voting all of our contributors, you can do this from the wallet section of https://peakd.com/
At the moment I'm not 100% sure who has delegated what amount to the @theinkwell community as the tools are still under development to check these stats accurately. But through talking to people and asking around I know who to thank. There is also a mystery delegate of at least 500 hive power (maybe more) which is captivating my mystery writer's mind with a tickle stick of intrigue 😉
A big thank you to all our confirmed delegations from:
@felt.buzz @riverflows @trucklife-family and me @raj808.
Please let me know in comments if you're a mystery delegate, or reach out via discord where my name is the same as my hive username, and I'll add you to the list of thanks.
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Sigh. I took in so much in a single read. First off, did you say fifteen years? This newbie salutes your mature pens. Kindly share how you conquered perfectionism if you suffered from any :D
Dreams. Never thought of going there for content creation, fiction or poetry. I have had a difficult time sleeping since my teens and I have had the most craziest and weirdest of dreams. I remember some to detail and others just vanish or become this unexplainable feeling like I know something.
What a good place to dig for horror films and dark poetry. I might just accept this challenge!
Great place to dig, indeed - mine those dreams like it's the Gold Rush. :) @mvkean has a friend, Carl, upright jazz bassist and composer, who also writes poetry based on his dreams. One from his chapbook (published!) is easy to love and remember:
Ok, I don't remember it that well after all. But the simplicity of it - the feeling it evokes - that, I recall!
There's not such thing. Just a never ending journey we're all on together, especially as story tellers/poets.
It is interesting to hear about your sleep cycle and it might be perfect for you as a creative exercise. A tip is to keep a notepad and pen just next to your bed. sometimes I wake in the night after really vivid dreams and I can just jot down bullet points like I explained in this post, before dropping bavk off to sleep. The longer ones usually come after a dream before waking in the morning.
I look forward to the dark poetry or tales of horror. D'you know, I don't think we've had a horror short story yet at The Ink Well.
Best of luck and enjoy the process 🙂
Damn. I have been out here waiting to feel less irrelevant with every piece I post I share. I better start getting used to never getting used to this!
I am thinking of exploring and exploiting my own nightmares and sometimes scarcely I might add, beautiful dreams thanks to you. Let's see how that goes.
Oh fun! So get our dreams, use them to write something? Will give it a shot.
Excellent @riverflows.
I look forward to reading for sure! I had every intention of joining in with this and creating something from that scrawl pictured in this post 😉... but I'm gonna have to play it by ear for now.
I had a burst of energy and inspiration a few hours ago hence my post for theycallmedan's initiative thingy. But I don't know when or if I'll get another.
Eternally hopeful, I think tomorrow would be a good time 🤣
Yeah, inspiration coming and going right now - and not feeling creative on the creative writing front right now! Ennui has hit.
Hello, hope everyone is doing well, wherever you are in the world. Here's mine for this week...
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@iamraincrystal/dreams-are-my-reality
Ooh, I nearly forgot to add my story link. Here it is: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@jayna/night-terror
Here is my entry
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@prechyrukky/my-dream-journal
Late again, and even so, it's incomplete - but there's too much to pack into one post. Dreams! Nightmares! Those portals to Wonderland or down the rabbit hole. Here we go: https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@carolkean/revelations-in-the-night-the-ink-well-creative-writing-challenge-the-stuff-of-which-dreams-are-made