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| Zan Marie Steadham copyright 2010 |
To write is to dream....
That is how my morning pages started off this morning and what followed was an outpouring of understanding of how my stories are all connected. Cherry Hill is a lovely town, but hiding in it's streets and houses are all flavors of nightmare, abuse, and wounds unhealed. And all of this comes from a simple dream of a retired teacher meeting an abused child during a church-hosted party for foster children. There's so much fertile ground for my books. All the Cherry Hill stories come from that dream. When Laura Grace met Samantha in that dream, I found a town full of hidden stories. Stories that had been hidden for various reasons.
Laura Grace tries to hide how much pain she has lived due to grief for her husband and childlessness. Samantha hides from a life of abuse. To feel would be beyond painful, but to hide means the wound isn't open and subject to further damage. But it isn't open to healing either.
Rosemary hides abuse because if she admits it's happening, she will have to say that the appearance of domestic bliss is all a lie. If she can hide the pain behind the perfect family facade, she thinks she will be able to control it. Her son Dean hides his abuse because to show fear invites a heavier load of it from his father and older brothers.
Mack hides long ago abuse among the memories of combat and his grief for Sandra. It's another pain that can't heal until opened to sunshine and new love.
I could go on with several more of my characters' hidden hurts.
What about you? Have dreams influenced your stories?
Do your characters have a few dreams or nightmares that need exploring?
There are dreams in my story but I've never had a story come to me in a dream.
ReplyDeleteThey're wild when they do. You can blame all things Cherry Hill on that very vivid dream. I was looking out of Laura Grace's eyes and seeing Samantha for the first time. ; )
DeleteI definitely need to explore my characters nightmares! It makes them so much stronger, and it's always maliciously fun to make them face their greatest fear. ;)
ReplyDeleteGreatest fear or memory of torment--either one is a great way to open a character's heart and mind for viewing. Sweet dreams, or should I say, beware the dark, Madeline?
DeleteI love that idea, even though it's a sad one, that there's more lurking under the streets and behind the windows than we realise.
ReplyDeleteLots of my stories have seemed to come from dreams lately, where it's the entire story or just a scene or two. Sometimes they turn out very different when I come to write that scene in the wip!
Love the photo :-)
I know what you mean, Deniz. The inital dream is only a jumping off point. Where that leap into the unknown takes us is the journey that we love. ; )
DeleteYears ago I had a compelling dream about an ex-boyfriend and woke up and wrote it all down. I turned it into one of my favorite stories I've ever written! I also think that using character dreams can be a great window into their psyches.
ReplyDeleteThe abused child in my story has horrendous nightmares and it's only after one of those that she talks about what happended to her. Her sleeping brain has to breach the walls around her blocks before she can relay the past.
DeleteI've never thought of dreams as fodder for writing. They are usually crazy weird madness. I guess some of them could be though. What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I've never really thought about using them either until a clear story starter came out of the blue. I don't question it now. ; )
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