Understanding the link between dreams, poetry and creative writing can be enormously helpful to the writer. Our subconscious minds only communicate in the language of dreams and that comes out to play in our poetry and creative writing.
When we work we can look back at our own writing to understand our own brains better. We can also learn how to communicate ideas to others more clearly.
Our minds are hardwired to seek ideas that speak of struggles in metaphors rather than direct speech, the themes of "light" vs "dark" symbolizing "good" vs "evil" is common. Our subconscious minds also have particular difficulty with language that involves negatives, or worse - double negatives!
Examples:
"The night brought an unrelenting darkness that wrapped their eyes and mouths and buried them beneath a starless sky." - very easy to understand, to our conscious it paints a picture of a dark night, to our subconscious it says "I feel like the 'dark side'/'negative energy' is winning and I'm suffering."
"I won't ever leave you, hurt you or lie to you." - again, our conscious minds have no problem understanding that the speaker means well, but to our less language orientated subconscious minds it sounds more like "I leave hurt lie" - not the same message at all! So with positive statements it is important to use positive phrasing "I will always stay with you, love you and be your friend."
Look for the metaphors in poetry, in your own writing and in your dreams - your brain is speaking to you. Time to listen! You'll be a better writer for it!
When we work we can look back at our own writing to understand our own brains better. We can also learn how to communicate ideas to others more clearly.
Our minds are hardwired to seek ideas that speak of struggles in metaphors rather than direct speech, the themes of "light" vs "dark" symbolizing "good" vs "evil" is common. Our subconscious minds also have particular difficulty with language that involves negatives, or worse - double negatives!
Examples:
"The night brought an unrelenting darkness that wrapped their eyes and mouths and buried them beneath a starless sky." - very easy to understand, to our conscious it paints a picture of a dark night, to our subconscious it says "I feel like the 'dark side'/'negative energy' is winning and I'm suffering."
"I won't ever leave you, hurt you or lie to you." - again, our conscious minds have no problem understanding that the speaker means well, but to our less language orientated subconscious minds it sounds more like "I leave hurt lie" - not the same message at all! So with positive statements it is important to use positive phrasing "I will always stay with you, love you and be your friend."
Look for the metaphors in poetry, in your own writing and in your dreams - your brain is speaking to you. Time to listen! You'll be a better writer for it!
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