Kitty Felde – January 20, 2011
Have you ever dreamed about writing a fabulous play? Usually such dreams involve a Tony or a string of productions or actors like Alec Baldwin and Colin Firth fighting to play roles in your work.
But do we ever dream about the actual WRITING of a play?
I did.
Of course, I can’t remember most of it. But even in my sleeping state, I knew that I’d forget 99% of the wonderful plot devices, character development, sparkling dialogue, etc, etc. So I kept telling myself in my dream to remember one thing. Just one thing. And when I woke up, that one thing is all I remembered. It boiled down to two words: vegetable juggling. Which actually meant something to me and made its way into a scene I was writing.
It’s the only time I’ve ever had this experience. How about you? Have you found a way to tap into your subconscious? Tips, please!
Try writing out the dream (what did you see, where were you sitting as you wrote, was someone else in the room, was it night or day, was it your house, what else were you doing other than reminding yourself to remember ‘one thing’, how did you know you were sleep) – write as much as you remember. Go over it again, each time you may remember more. As you remember the dream, perhaps what you actually wrote (since it is part of the dream) will come back to you or at least the feel and symbolic meaning of what you were writing may surface. Symbols and feelings jog memories the same as smell and sounds/songs. From there, it may come out in the play.
Alec Baldwin in a broccoli suit and Colin Firth as a giant carrot.