I am a Dreamer

Excerpts from an interview with Tzivia Gover by Johanna Vedral for Schriebe Raume Magazine*

How can we use dreams as a source for our creative process? How is the process of writing down dreams different from writing books about dreams? What surprises authors the most when writing their books? Which transformation processes take place? Tzivia Gover answers Johanna Vedral’s questions.

A message from the heart

What is your heart’s core message for writers who want to explore their dreams as a source for creativity?

We are natural storytellers, as evidenced by our endlessly creative dreaming minds. I want writers to know that they have a rich source of inspiration, guidance, and a font of creativity flowing inside them and they can access it through increased awareness of their dreams.

Tell me how the process of writing from your dreams is different from the process of writing books about dreams. What was most challenging?

When I write from a dream, I might start with a simple dream report. The dream itself might sound a lot like a poem. In that case, I play around with it. I write it in meter or break it into lines of 5 or 10 syllables each. In the process I’ll compress the language even further, I’ll replace words and reconfigure phrases to add music to the poem. As I re-read drafts I’ll sense new meanings, and then I revise again to highlight those.

I’ve been transformed more by the process of writing than I have by publication. Whether I’m journaling or writing a blog post or a book, I am connecting with various parts of my psyche as well as to themes that come from the collective. Writing helps me understand my experience and it helps me create beauty from brokenness. Writing is also a way I connect with others in a deep and meaningful way.

A transformational aspect of publishing is that it offers a way of connecting more widely with people around the world—and those interactions are the most beautiful, meaningful, and transformative aspect of my work.

Publish or process: The journal keeper’s dilemma

My career as a professional writer has had its ups – and more than a few downs. My journals have been my constant companions through it all. It’s in them that I commit to the process of writing even on days when I’ve been ready to abandon the enterprise. And when my momentum flags, there are my dreams, at the edge of the field, cheering me on. Either that or they give me a psychic dose of tough love, calling me back to who I really am.

Both dreams and journals are celebrations of the questions more than the answers. My closet crammed with close to a half century’s collection of journals is an affirmation of my reverence for process. Open the door and open those volumes and it is like peering into the darkness, the muck–which is where the magic is made.

*This post was first published, in a slightly altered form in Schreib Raume, a German magazine of writing and journaling, and is reprinted here with permission. The interview was conducted and edited by Johanna Vedral. Also featured in this edition were interviews with dreamers and authors: Victoria Rabinowe, Lauren Schneider, and Marta Aarli

Featured illustration by the artist Harshita Ilango.

For more information on Dreaming on the Page visit https://dreamingonthepage.teachable.com/