the dream scene

As I wrote yesterday, a family illness has changed my life, at least for awhile, and I am learning a lot from it. Not only abut the disease, but also about the care of invalids, and about writing.

The other night I had a very vivid dream that I actually remembered when I woke and I could explain every detail. I was in a prison with a jailer whom I couldn't see very well, my husband (the invalid), and a woman who was as obscure as the jailer. The jailer was telling me that I had to witness my husband making love to the other woman if I wanted us to get out of jail. I kept protesting that I couldn't do that; it was impossible. "Then you will stay here forever," he answered and I woke.

Easy to explain the dream, isn't it? The other woman is the illness my husband has to embrace before we can go back to our normal living before we can break out of this restricted life. And I have to help him do it every step of the difficult way.

So what did I learn? I learned that I have to be strong for the both of us now, and I will be. As for my writing, I need to keep a dream journal and write down my dreams as soon as I wake before I forget the details. Then, when I write a dream scene for a story, I need to make it as related to the story line as possible. Look how this dream was a clear picture of what we are going through in our lives. That's how real the dream scenes I write should be.

So, some good is coming out of this period of our lives. We will get through it, closer as a couple than we were before, and I just might emerge a better writer.

Writer Interrupted

Life just interrupted my writing plans, but I learned firsthand a most basic writing lesson from it. I have heard for years, "write about what you know." Now I understand that statement.

I have a friend whose husband went through kidney failure and dialysis for years and I felt sympathy for her, but never realized what she really was going through. Now that someone in my family is going through the same thing, I realize what a big deal it is. I've walked the walk-- through the surgery, through the weakness, through the nausea, through the despair, through nine days in the hospital, nine slow days waiting on doctors, suffering through procedures, and longing to be at home.

So how does that relate to my writing? Before this illness, I could write about kidney failure from an outsider's point of view; now I see the entire picture. My feelings and observations are real, not based on someone else's experiences.

Not that I believe that I have to experience everything firsthand if I want to write about it. But I do need to research deeply, talk to people who have been through what I am writing about, feel what they are feeling as much as I can, really listen to them, examine their actions to see how they expressed their feelings, and put myself in their position. Then my writing will have authenticity.

It sounds like a lot of work and time, doesn't it, but it will make my writing come from the heart as all good writing should.