Good night, author.

Dreams.  Those zany, thrilling, terrorizing phantoms.
What on earth do you do with them?

Psychologists study them, prophets interpret them, most people just laugh at them or suffer from them.
But authors keep track of them.

My dear reader, if you don't already keep a dream-journal, I highly advise that you do.


A dream journal.
What on earth do you do with one?

Two things:
1.) You record some of your main dreams.  By main, I mean that ones where you wake up, and it takes you a while to get back into the real world, the ones that hold some weight, or the ones where you wake up and realize your legs are tied up in your covers, and sweat is all over your neck and lower back, and drool is running down your cheeks.
2.) You draw pictures.  If you don't have the time to write out everything that happened in your dream, make a simple sketch of a scene, write a few words, and you'll remember what happened.  Trust me.

So why would authors do this?
Well...

Real writing is a method to convey emotion.

I know of no better place to get thrown into an emotional-fit than in a dream.

From keeping a dream journal, I've gotten a pretty good picture of what emotions most affect me, and consequently, what emotions I can write about the easiest.  Also, there have been some emotional scenes (mostly the ones including fear) where I can't find the right words.  If I go to my dream journal, find a night where I dreamt of fear, I can recall that feeling and use it in my writing.

So that's what you do with dreams.

Write on!
Megan Koh