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Writing from your Unconscious

By Michael Schilf · April 13, 2010

The story building process can be an all-encompassing experience. In the shower, on the freeway, even in your dreams, you’re searching for answers, making connections, imagining scenes, and exploring your characters, their world, and their predicaments.

All of this is a good thing – as long as you’re prepared.

Imagine. You’re in a deep sleep, and you’ve just experienced the perfect main culmination for your screenplay, a pivotal scene that has been abstruse until now. Your eyes pop open from the vivid cinematic clarity, and you smile, knowing you now have your answer. “I should write this down,” you think, but you convince yourself you’ll remember it in the morning. Then the alarm clock rings, and that golden script nugget is gone. Can you relate?

Solution: Always, and I mean ALWAYS, have a pen and pad handy. Dreams are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get.