The Book of Jon

My working title at the moment is The Book of Jon. My plan is to write 5,000 words per week over the next four months: three weeks of writing, then one week editing the last three weeks' worth of words. Working on weekdays, this works out to 1,000 words per day. Certainly achievable, even if it's a faster pace than I've had in the past three years. Still, I need deadlines, even artificial ones, to work. This pace will start next week, after a meeting with my writing advisor, though I've already started the story.

I want to experiment with dreams. What do we see in dreams? How do you convey the mixture of reality and unreality that comes with dreaming? How much of a dream do you remember, and why, and how does it affect what you do?

I'm pulling from my own dreams, and how I feel about them. Last night, I dreamed I was on the beach looking out at the ocean. A ship was to my right, a large ship, with masts and sails, moored next to a bridge that stretched on forever. Someone I didn't know was with me, and we were sitting with our backs against a drop in the sand. When I stood on top, it was tall, but when I was at the bottom, it only came up to my waist. Three nights ago, I was running naked through a black-and-white forest at night, until something came at me with a knife. I woke up screaming.

“Dreams are the answers to questions that we haven't yet figured out how to ask.” ~ Fox Mulder, The X-Files

A lot of times, I dream about something I've been thinking about a lot. I've been remembering the memories of the Florida beach I used to go to over and over again, and I see it in my dream. I've also read that dreams are the result of unprocessed stimuli working their way through to your conscious mind (hearing your alarm clock or a television show?). What could that do to a dream narrative?

Another question is what is the nature of fate? Are we destined to do things? Is there a role we must play, and is our course corrected if we refuse? I have my own beliefs, but these are not the beliefs of my character, nor are they the rules by which my story's universe will operate. I want ambiguity, but I'm finding it harder and harder to establish. I feel that I will have to choose a set of rules, then obfuscate until the reader can decide what to believe.

Questions to ask my teacher, no doubt. But for now, I'll continue writing. 500 words today. I like them so far.