I posted recently about my experience at a dream conference about creativity and dreaming. At that conference I presented a paper about the intersections between dreaming and creative writing. I explained that dream incubation is one way to use dreams in the service of writing (or any kind of problem solving). So, last week I incubated a dream asking for help with a story I’m working on. Read on to learn what happened:

“DREAM DICTATION: Character Sketch”

She’s someone’s mother, the woman in the kitchen baking bread.

Two loaves a day, she says, and hands me a bit of golden crust.

She’s a character in the story I’m writing, one I hadn’t met before.

The protagonist’s mother, just back story, it seems. I’ll have a look around, glean

a few defining details for my prose. I see clay pots, painted, empty,

on the upper shelves. But no potted plants. Is that significant?

Her pantry is a light-filled room, painted cheerful reds

and yellows, and packed with jars and cartons: cornmeal, flour,

all the staples you’d expect to find. She’s happy in her kitchen,

effortlessly handling those cast-iron pans. I should help out, and not just stand

around. But, there’s not much I—having no flair for the domestic arts—can do.

I could help empty the dishwasher, at the very least, I muse.

But no, I’ll go home and write this down, instead.

I leave her house, and quickly lose my way. I turn back to find her place,

again—but can’t. Too late, I realize: I don’t know her address, or her name—

this character, of my creation.

© Tzivia Gover 2013

DR 5-31-13

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