The Joy and the Journey of Storytelling
The ethos of Dreamwoven and what to expect
Hi there! I’m Sarah, a writer of young adult sci-fi and fantasy. Welcome to Dreamwoven: Storytelling in Process, my new publication about cultivating joy and nurturing imagination in the process of storytelling.
Post Soundtrack: Shane O’Toole - Journey
For this first post, I’d like to share my vision for the ethos behind Dreamwoven. What I mean by this name is that stories are continually in the process of creation, being dreamed up not only by writers, but by readers as well.
To tell a story, we delve deep into our interior repertoire of memories and knowledge, then allow our imaginations to spark ideas and populate plots with characters—a lot like dreaming. The writing itself is a process of continuously developing ideas, tweaking plotlines, and refining style. Along the way we experience glimmers of inspiration and moments of joy as the words flow effortlessly onto the page, plus the tougher tasks of slogging through edits, killing our darlings, and learning from our mistakes. Both the highs and the lows, the failures and the successes, become the steps of the journey, without which we’d be going nowhere at all.
But our stories aren’t even finished when they’re finished. Written fiction has the unique quality of being fully completed only inside the reader’s mind. Like no other art form, it depends fully on the reader’s imagination, asking them to draw from their own inner reserve of images, experiences, and ideas. Only then is a story “finished:” when the reader co-creates and co-dreams the story with its author. And even after that, the story will continue to live on in their mind, ever being dreamed.
I’ve begun to see all of this as a metaphor for life itself. The stories of our lives aren’t finished either, and only come to full fruition in relationships with others. We look to stories to help us make meaning of our lives because they give us hope. The valleys of adversity, change, pain, or depression might feel like the end of the line while we’re mired in them, but the reality is there’s always another step to take. We witness characters struggling through their Dark Night of the Soul, and then we watch them rise up and overcome. Conventions of storytelling like character archetypes and the Hero’s Journey are simply mirrors of our own experiences—lenses to more clearly perceive the stories our lives are telling.
My hope is that the reflections I share in this publication will be helpful in a holistic way both for writers and for anyone who sees life as a story being told.
Why me, and why now?
I’ve always been dreaming up stories. Ever since I wrote my first stories as a kid, simple stories about cats and girls and horses, I’ve known that I would be writing my entire life. In middle school I wrote stories about kids messing with time machines, space explorers settling on new planets, and mer-people protecting their underwater civilization. In high school I wrote novellas like a future-Earth sci-fi about a teen girl escaping a cataclysmic natural disaster, then after college, a historical fantasy set in 2nd-century Scotland. After a hiatus of several years, my bottled-up writer’s soul erupted with a vengeance, and I’m currently wrapping up edits on my first completed novel, the culmination of an idea I got from a dream at age 14.
Putting together the pieces of a story has always been fun for me. But somewhere along the way, I picked up the idea that writing should be simple. A straight line from point A to point B. A race from start to finish. I looked at prolific authors and thought, Why’s it so easy for them? Why does it take me so long to finish one novel when they’re churning out new novels every year? There must be something wrong with me. What I didn’t realize was that I was looking at the products without considering the process.
Writers don’t always talk about the unseen process behind every finished product, because it’s messy, disjointed, and confusing. We have unrealistic expectations of our own productivity, go on sprints and then burn out, and obsessively edit and revise until things are perfect.
In my case, perfectionism has made me afraid to put my work out there because its flaws are all I can see. When I started asking for critique from beta readers, it was initially painful to hear their honest criticisms. But now, I actually enjoy getting that feedback and tackling those weak points. I don’t know whether that’s because I’ve grown a thicker skin, or because I’ve started to see this as a journey, or both (because maybe those are just two ways of saying the same thing). But I’ve realized that I’ll always be in this process of developing my skills as a writer, so if I wait until I reach some imaginary ideal level of competence to start sharing my writing, it’ll never happen at all. It’s time to start sharing both my work and my process.
So what can you expect to see in this newsletter? Right now, I have ideas exploding from my head, and it might take a little time before I settle into a steady posting rhythm. But here’s what I plan to post in Dreamwoven:
Encouragement on feeding the imagination, finding sparks of inspiration, and nurturing our inherent, childlike sense of joy in the story-crafting process.
Tips and tricks for writers on craft and technique: playing with story structure and character archetypes while dreaming up plots.
Short stories and excerpts of stories I’ve written. (And I’m toying with the idea of publishing an experimental, interactive serial novella…)
Reflections on story and meaning for those who appreciate the deeper truths in stories.
And of course, personal updates on my writing and my progress towards publication.
And finally, every post will include an extra little splash of magic sauce—a musical soundtrack! (I hope you already listened to the track at the top of this post—did it give you goosebumps?!) This is because my joy and delight in music is truly inseparable from my writing. I’m pretty sure my inspiration would dry up without it! So each post will include a track or two. Listen while you read and soak up the ✨ vibes. ✨
I’d love to interact with you in the comments: What’s a book or story you enjoyed that you still think about a lot—a story that’s still being dreamed in your imagination? Also, what topics would you be interested in seeing in this publication?