DREAMING ON THE PAGE: Tap into your midnight mind to supercharge your writing

Dreams have been an undervalued yet ever-present wellspring of inspiration and creativity for writers through the ages. Author Tzivia Gover, a leading voice in the field of dreamwork, has published a new book, Dreaming on the Page: Tap into your midnight mind to supercharge your writing, which offers readers a unique method for accessing our naturally generous and creative dreaming mind, whether we remember our dreams or not. 

 

“Dreams serve the writer, and when we write them down, we give new life to the dreams that have been living inside of us—eager to guide and inspire us—all along,” Tzivia says. “In my new book, I make these connections explicit and show readers what I have intuitively known for years: that dreams and writing are perfect bedfellows, and that by honoring both, we can live more fully connected and harmonious lives.”

 

Tzivia outlines five reasons why writers should record their dreams:

1. Know thyself. Journaling dreams helps you better understand yourself from the inside out. Which in turn helps you understand your characters better, brings deeper empathy to your work, and makes you an all-around more interesting writer.
2. Write regularly—and better. Building the habit of writing dreams each morning is a great way to build writing into your everyday routine.
3. Never scratch for ideas again. As you record dreams in your journal, you are creating an encyclopedia of plots, landscapes, characters, themes, and ideas you can return to any time. You will never again have to begin a story, essay, or poem from scratch.
4. Build a better relationship. As you interact with the raw and complex narrative structure of the storytelling subconscious mind on a regular basis, you build a relationship with your inner narrator. Over time you develop confidence in your ability to dream into a story at any time of day.
5. Tone your metaphoric muscles. The metaphor-making part of our mind is highly activated when we’re dreaming. Writing dreams is a great way to build our literary muscles, including those that help us create metaphors and similes.

Dreaming on the Page also offers an effective outlet for anyone suffering from stress and anxiety to transform these troubling emotions through creativity using dreams as the catalyst. “I started writing this book before the pandemic, but with each churn of the news cycle, and each crisis we faced collectively during lockdown, I believed more and more that we need effective ways to engage with our stories. Personally, and in community, dreams and writing can help us make meaning from the lives we are living. Dreaming on the Page offers a way to do just that,” says Tzivia.