Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Book Dreaming- Where Do You Go When You Dream?



Can She Trust You With Her Dreams?


Look at her.  Where is she right now?

If you're a writer and she's reading your book, then she has left her daily life and is with you in the world you have gifted her.  But where exactly is that?  What is she experiencing?

She's in another world you say?

Is it a world where she is more beautiful, more intelligent, more action oriented?  Is she more in your world than she is in her here and now existence?

And let me ask you this- in your world, can she smell, can she feel emotion as well as the touch of another?  Can she taste and talk?  Can she sweat, can she shiver?

And who is in control in the world you have given her?  You or her?  Does she trust you? 

You must trust her, too, since you have given her a world you built with you heart and true intent.  Or have you given her too little and disappointed her?

Two souls unite when your story becomes her dream. 

Are you safe together?

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15 comments:

Christopher said...

Really well done and gives some food to thought for when I sit down to write.

Rick said...

Thanks Christopher. It's had the same effect on me. Good luck with your writing!

Anonymous said...

What a great post, Rick. I think it really illustrates key points we talked about last time I saw you; giving the reader credit for being able to figure things out without shoving it down their throat. It really is an important part of craft to make the reader trust you.

Lisa said...

I developed personal attachments to some of the authors of books I read. But they are all authors of non-fiction books. For fictions, I would get attach to some of the heroes of the stories.

I write my posts thinking of my audience most of the time, with self-indulgence from time to time.

Rick said...

Hello Christine! Now if the reader in the picture were only wearing one of you Cthulhu balloon hats.

Rick said...

I have to do more of what you're saying, Ocean Girl. I like the way you think.

Melissa said...

This post is well written and evocative. Love it.

the walking man said...

Seeing as I have gotten pretty far away from fiction as of late everything I write I leave to the reader. I trust the audience with the images and words and let them go where they will with them. To me that is one of the natures of poetry.

Rick said...

Thank you, Melissa. Nothing quite like seeing a reader lost in wonder and realizing its your book they're reading.

Rick said...

It doesn't take the reader long to trust you work, walkingman. It's like hanging out with Whitman.

Charles Gramlich said...

A really good way of putting this. The ideas we hear, but stated baldly. Here we find them working their way into our imagination. Maybe we'll carry them with us, like burrs in a way on our jeans.

Rick said...

Having spent a lot of time in the woods, Charles, your way of putting it will stick with me for a long time!

mafarivar said...

Allow me to be an existential psychiatrist for a moment and say all she will ever experience is all any of us do, our own minds, and we let in willfully only what fits our internal constructs and world view; and if it doesn't fit? Well then we change or defend, or both. Your work influences and works it's way through the subconscious realm of our desires and fantasies, for a moment or a series of moments you fuse those fantasies of your own with those of another, it becomes an experience that is without words, but words took you there. I find that just lovely, you?

Jules said...

Some mighty great points here. But someone safe with my imagination... I think not :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Travis Cody said...

The idea for my novel came to me in a dream sequence I actually remembered. It's rare for me to remember things I dream, so I took note and started writing before it faded.

But it never did fade.

The things you name...the senses...I've always thought those details are critical to keep the reader from falling out of the story. When we read for escape and entertainment, the little details we sometimes don't notice are the ones that subtly invade our subconscious. In the hands of an adept, the scenes and settings can stand up off the page. But those details can also be extraneous to the story itself. That's a fine balance to find and then maintain.