I will get to the zombies shortly...In the mean time... Dreams can be exciting, scary, enlightening, sad, silly and down right crazy. Most of they time they are just our brains natural way of sifting through our day to day experiences. That doesn't mean they can't be powerful. I have, on many occasions, woken up more exhausted than before I went to bed, due to running around my head all night, or in floods of tears because my dream had been so distressing. Keeping a dream journal can help you identify patterns and help you become more self aware. A dream can, at times, affect our moods and emotions through out the day, so understanding what could be causing your dreams can be reassuring and can help you maintain a good mental and physical health. My advice, however, is that you don't go over the top when it comes to tracking and recording your dreams. A journal can be a very helpful tool, but can cause worry, especially if you realise that you often have nightmares or disturbing dreams. From experience, I would suggest that you only record the dreams you feel have been significant (i.e. a recurring dream or one that was very vivid). Other dreams could be recorded, but maybe just stick to some of the key facts. Ideally you want to record enough detail that shows patterns over time, but not enough to make you feel over whelmed! Ok, so back to the Zombies! If you have read my previous posts, you will know that, when I am a sleep, my mind will take me on many journeys. Unfortunately, many of the journeys are not very pleasant. They can be embarrassing, exhausting and down right terrifying. Some times I'm paralysed, occasionally my teeth fall out and every so often I get gunned down by men who have broken into my house!! You name it, I've dreamt it! My zombie dreams, however, almost became familiar and I even missed them when they finally stopped! I never felt that scared and was never bitten or injured, however, no matter what I did, the zombies kept coming. I would be running and hiding, crawling through tunnels, climbing over fences and barricading doors. All to no avail, the zombies always found a way through. This was not the first reoccurring dream I've had, but it was definitely the most persistent. These dreams lasted several months and at times were every night. Eventually, I realised that maybe my brain was trying to tell me something! This was when I picked up a dream dictionary that I had been given as a gift, and that had been sat on my bookshelf unread for who knows how long. I was amazed by what it told me. My dreams were basically a visual interpretation of all the different stresses and anxieties in my life. At times I felt as if I was on top of these worries and in control (in my dreams there would be times when I would feel safe and secure, when I thought I'd escaped the zombies). However, I was often over whelmed by them (when the zombies got through the defences and started chasing again). This realisation was eyeopening and my zombie dreams quickly became my indication that I'd been putting myself under too much stress. Eventually these zombie outbreaks stopped, and although I still had stress in my life, I was more aware of how important it was to take notice of my dreams. I have created a dream journal that you can download to get you started. You can print or use it to start your own diary in a note book. Let me know what you think. Do you already keep a dream journal? How has it helped you?
It would be great if you also shared your dreams in the comments below. What do you think your dreams are trying to tell you?
Happy dreaming! Jeni Bee
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I love and adore the sun! It makes me happy to bask in it and have all my windows open and still feel warm. I even love that slightly sticky feeling when the temperature really soars! I like how I feel more comfortable in my own skin and care less about what others think when I’ve got more of it on show than usual. Unfortunately, I have been blessed with red hair, green eyes and very pale skin. So pale that when I’m on the beach I glow like a light bulb!! No golden tan for me. Instead it’s factor 50 applied every 1/2 hour to avoid the lobster look. I would much rather be under a sun soaked blue sky than a grey cloud covered one any day. However, I have grown to appreciate those warm, calm cloudy days and have found they often bring me peace too. I have found that sitting quietly by a lake under a slightly dull sky so quiet and calming that I could sit there all day. To just sit and breath and listen to the quiet rustling of the trees is bliss. I really hope you find that peaceful spot on that cloudy day and enjoy the calm that I have! Make sure you take a picture and share it, I’d love to see your cloudy day escapes! Happy days, Jeni Bee I really didn’t know where to start with the characters in my book. I was so scared of ending up with stereotypical, boring characters, that I kept putting it off. Of course this created a writers block of my own making! I honestly wasn’t sure about anything in relation to my characters. Male? Female? Age? Location? Occupation? Ethnicity? Etc. Didn’t have a clue. So, I did what everyone does when they have unanswered questions, I googled it!! This had varying results so, I tried Pinterest too! Across the interweb there are hundreds of tips and resources, but I can’t say that really helped when it came to knowing where to start. It was at this point I stopped being lazy and looking for an easy answer, and actually started looking! I read articles and blogs and had a go using some of the available resources out there. I had various successes and failures, but I have definitely made good progress and am now finding that my characters are developing more naturally. Now that my characters have started to come together, I wanted to share with you what I found worked best for me. So, here are my top 5 tips: 1. Names! Infuriating but necessary! I thought I would find this the most difficult, a name can make or break a character, but in hindsight, putting it off had really affected my character development and also started to give them some substance. To help me pick suitable names, I began by researching the most popular names from when my character was born. Although I hadn't completely settled on an age for my characters, I could at least pin point their birth to a decade! You could also look up the meanings of names, but I struggled with not picking cliched names when doing it this way. 2. A massive turning point for me was realising that if I settled on a birthday, I could then use their star signs to giving me an idea of their traits, strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of whether you believe in star signs or not, there are many sites, books and articles out there with personalities waiting to be analysed! And if the star sign was important, you could always change your characters birthday to suit your needs. Doing this gave me the various key points about my characters and really got me thinking about who they are. 3. Now to give some depth to my characters I focused on where they live. I researched the area and it started giving me hints about my characters, culture, occupation, hobbies, social standing etc. I then teamed these up with their personality traits and suddenly found I was imaging their day to day lives and struggles. 4. Don't get stuck on individual aspects of your character. A few times during my character development, I found I wasted time struggling over my characters beliefs, opinions etc. Eventually I realised that moving on meant that, more often than not, these gaps filled themselves. And, if they didn't, then they obviously weren't an important enough aspect for it to matter. 5. Don't be afraid to change your characters, or aspects of them. I am not at the stage where my characters are growing and developing and they have even surprised me at times when I have realised how they will react and behave in certain situations! On the other hand, keep all versions of your characters incase you change your mind, or something that you thought wasn't important, becomes a crucial part of your plot. As mentioned before, I have used lots of resources, websites, blogs etc. to help me structure and create my characters and, whatever you find works best for you, I think it is vital that you use a range of sources to avoid 2 dimensional stale characters. However, one site that I found particularly helpful is Life of a story teller. I've found it to be such a great source of information and help and recommend that you have a peek. I will defiantly be using this site more as I continue my writing journey. Happy writing, Jeni Bee Trying to write a book is like trying to carry out a scientific investigation; theres a lot involved. First there's the planning, research, more planning, experimenting with time frames, characters, plots. You've also got to decide on an aim. Where do you want this book to take your readers? How are you going to get them there? And so on and so forth. In essence, it takes a lot of time and effort just to get to the point where you are ready to write your first draft! While planning for my current book I've, at times, struggled to know where to start. So, after doing lots of planning and research, taking notes, scribbling ideas, writing possible paragraphs/chapters, I started thinking about what it is that makes me read a book myself. I realised that, although I try and not judge a book by it's cover, I will often judge a book by its opening line! Especially if I'm in a rush and just looking for something to read on a journey, for example. I will pick up the book, barely even look at the cover or title and turn straight to the first chapter. If the first sentence grabs me I may not even read the blurb. Of course, this is not how I’ve chosen every book I've read, however, it has led to some fascinating discoveries! So, I thought I would look a little closer at some of my favourite first liners. My absolute favourite is from Jeff Noon's Vurt. I adore this book and have continued to read Jeff Noons work. I came across this book while out window shopping. It was in a basket outside a charity shop and was 50p. The cover had a yellow feather on the front but I didn't pay much more attention than that. I opened it to the first page: "A young boy puts a feather in his mouth..." And that was that. I paid my 50p and was thrown into the amazing world of Jeff Noon. (If you haven't come across Noon, I strongly recommend you do!) My collection has since grown, and continues to do so! My other favourite first liners include: Rob Grant Incompetence "The flight was uneventful enough, except the pilot accidentally touched down at a slightly wrong airport and forgot to lower the landing gear, so we left the plane by way of the emergency chute, and I lost my shoes." Margret Atwood The Handmaids Tale "We slept in what had once been the gymnasium." David Wong (AKA Jason Pargin) John Dies at the end "Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt" Kathleen Tessaro Innocence "The first thing you should know about Robbie is she's dead." Jeff Abbot Fear "I killed my best friend" I started to notice that the opening lines of these books tend to leave you with unanswered questions. For me a successful opening line leads you to want to read more. It seems you don't always need to introduce your story, but instead, pull your reader head first into the thick of it! Although this is far from the only way to start a book, and there are many famous and fantastic books that start less full on and ease you in, for me, its the quick hook in and the unanswered questions that get me, well, hooked! So, how good will my first line be? Time will tell. But, funnily enough I am going to leave this until I’ve finished my first draft. I think it will naturally evolve anyway so am going to let it grow and develop as I discover the story itself. While researching first line techniques I stumbled upon this amazing blog article called 6 ways to hook your readers from the very first line. In fact, Susannah Windsor Freeman’s whole website Write it sideways is definitely worth exploring! It is packed with a treasure trove of resources, inspiration and tips to help you through your writing journey. What are your favourite first lines? What gets you hooked? I look forward to hearing your favourites! Happy reading, Jeni Bee |
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