AUTHOR’S GAB, READER TALK.
A LETTER TO YOU, THE READER, SO THAT YOU CAN FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT I’M THINKING.
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THIS MONTH: Dreaming of Someone
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“If I forget to set the alarm and sleep on through the dawn, don’t remind me.. I’d rather be dreaming of someone, than living alone.” -Stephen Perteet
Dear Reader,
You will often find me stretching midnight into 3, 4 and 5 a.m., just to finish a conversation with a good friend or saving up my own pocket money to buy and apartment and go to China someday. You will also find me burning the midnight oil for my degree, step by painstaking step towards independence.
It got me thinking: how often do we stay up late, make that extra trip, push through that extra hour for those we care about? And, furthermore, if that instigates the kind of deep-set feelings I think it does, how does this factor into our work as writers?
You have heard me talk about how your own life experiences should influence your thinking as a reader or a writer. So, I don’t believe this is any different: other people do, in fact, impact our writing or other forms of expression a great deal.
I suppose it’s just something I took for granted and never took the time to express. Often, when I’m writing, like Taylor Swift, will gear a specific poem to my thoughts and feelings about a specific individual. And, remarkably, when I “dream of someone” when I write, it becomes a very useful literary tool.
For example, when I wrote “I Miss You”, I was in high school, missing a friend. My feelings were so poignant about this topic that I wrote them down. Later, when I went back and looked at it, I realized how smoothly poetic it was and turned it into a semi-perfect sonnet. So, what started as an expression of my thoughts and feelings about this one individual eventually became something poetic and beautiful.
That is not to say that all my poems are this way, but a few are.
And, that’s not to say this is everyone’s way of handling their experiences, but, often, I find it’s mine. For instance, I have a friend who writes very similarly to me. Closely examined, however, you will find that, even though they may take an individual and write about them, he or she keeps all of her work inside of themselves, rather than fleshing it out, as I do.
I think this speaks to the humanity of writing creatively. It’s all about how you see things, but it’s also about how you feel about things. And, often, our feelings are generated by our interactions with others, rather than inherent within ourselves.
We, as humans, have this instinct to be social, not to be alone. We are constantly “dreaming of someone”, putting ourselves into interactions with other people. Even writing, in and of itself, is an interaction, and ought to be treated as such.
So, next time you pick up the pen or the page, think about the interaction you feel, what you are willing to stay up late for. Or, for that matter, if you are reading, think of what the author is saying he or she might stay up late for. I guarantee it will enhance your experience and get you just a little bit closer to the truth.
Just a thought.~
Sincerely, Your Author,
Jessica Anne McLean
The Rose 